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Sports Briefs

■ BASKETBALL
Johnson gets probation
Anthony Johnson of the Indiana Pacers was sentenced to a year of probation in Rochester Hills, Michigan, on Friday after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge for his role in one of the worst brawls in US sports history. He was also ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, directed to attend counseling and fined US$250. Teammates Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal, David Harrison and Stephen Jackson received similar sentences last month for their participation in the Nov. 19 fighting that broke out during a game with the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. A no-contest plea in Michigan is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing.

■ OLYMPICS
Koreas decide to cooperate
Sports officials in South and North Korea hope to field a unified team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, IOC president Jacques Rogge said in Ostend, Belgium on Friday. "Authorities approached me to ask if the IOC wanted to support a unification process," Rogge said in an interview with AP. "At a sporting level, it will not be so difficult but there has to be a political agreement, too." Athletes from the divided peninsula marched together at the opening ceremonies of the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, but continued to compete for separate teams. An agreement for a unified team in Beijing would have to be reached by early 2007 for it to be eligible for qualifying events in the different sports, Rogge said. Rogge will visit Seoul on unrelated business Tuesday on his way to Beijing. After their nations' athletes walked around the Olympic Stadium together at last year's Athens Games, the South and North Korean table tennis teams had joint training sessions. The South had 290 athletes and the North 36.

■ SPEEDSKATING
Ohno bombs out in Seoul
Apolo Anton Ohno's World Cup title bid came to another crashing halt in Seoul yesterday as the world No. 4 earned his second disqualification in as many days at a short track speedskating meet. A dash for the lead halfway through the 500m quarterfinals saw the 2002 Olympic gold medallist called for impeding. The American was eliminated from the 1,500m Friday for shoving South Korean Lee Ho-suk. China dominated on the ice yesterday with gold medal performances in the men's and women's events. Li Haonan surged to gold in the men's 500m with a time of 42.583 seconds, ahead of Eric Bedard of Canada with 42.675 and South Korea's Song Suk-woo in 42.705. In the women's 500m, China clinched the top two spots thanks to Wang Meng with 44.736 and Fu Tian-yu's 44.762. Kalyna Roberge of Canada took bronze with 44.880.

■ OLYMPICS
A game of inches
Three months after being cut from the 2012 Olympics, baseball found out Friday how close the vote was -- very close. Baseball lost its place in the Olympics by three votes, international federation president Aldo Notari told AP from London. The result -- 54-50 against, with 53 votes in favor needed to remain -- was tight enough for the sport to push for a vote of reinstatement in February. "We have a duty to get back in the Olympics," Notari said. The International Olympic Committee voted in July to cut softball and baseball after the 2008 Beijing Games, the first sports removed from the program since polo in 1936. The vote totals were kept secret at the time, but the softball and baseball federations later asked the IOC for the figures.

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