■ Ski jumping
Ex-champ in trouble again
Former world champion ski jumper Matti Nykanen is under investigation for allegedly assaulting his wife -- just days after being released from jail. Nykanen, 42, was questioned by police on Tuesday for allegedly attacking his wife, Mervi Tapola-Nykanen, over the weekend. He was released pending further investigation, Nokia police chief inspector Antti Heijari said on Wednesday. Last year, Nykanen was sentenced to 26 months in prison for aggravated assault after he stabbed a drinking companion in Nokia, near Tampere. He was released last week, more than a year early, on good behavior. Nykanen won 19 medals at the Olympics and world championships from 1982 to 1990, the most by a ski jumper. After retiring, he took up a career as a singer and performed in bars and nightclubs.
■ Cricket
Overweight player axed
South Australian state batsman Mark Cosgrove has been suspended for a month because he's overweight, just days after returning from a stint in English league cricket. The South Australian Cricket Association said yesterday the 21-year-old Cosgrove is in an "unsatisfactory state of fitness and physical condition." It suspended Cosgrove's playing contract until Oct. 31, after which he will face further fitness tests before being considered for selection. In the meantime, Cosgrove will be given a series of weight and fitness targets.
■ Golf
Wie to take on men in Japan
US teenage prodigy Michelle Wie promises a top-rate battle of the sexes at what will be her first tournament in Japan, a cash-rich event on the Japanese professional men's tour. "I am honored that my first tournament in Japan will be an event which has been challenged by great players," Wie said in a statement issued by the organizers of the ?140 million (US$1.2 million) Casio World Open. The tournament will be held on Nov. 24-27 in Kochi on the western Japanese island of Shikoku. "I will play at my best and show you a high-level fight," said the Hawaii-born schoolgirl, who is widely expected to turn professional around her 16th birthday on Oct. 11. Wie will become only the second female to take on male players in Japan. Sweden's Sophie Gustafson competed in the same tournament two years ago but failed to make the cut.
■ Basketball
Wizards rookie shot
Washington Wizards rookie Andray Blatche will miss training camp while he recovers from gunshot wounds from an attempted carjacking. Blatche walked under his own power as he visited teammates at the MCI Center on Wednesday, three days after the shooting and one day after being released from the hospital. The 19-year-old forward was shot once early Sunday morning while riding in a car near his home in Alexandria, Virginia.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier