■ Soccer
Qaddafi junior cleared
Saadi Qaddafi, the soccer-playing son of Libyan leader Muammar, was cleared of sports fraud after a judge ruled the case was outside of the court's jurisdiction, his lawyer said on Thursday. Qaddafi stood trial after serving a three-month ban from Italy's top division in November 2003 because he tested positive for a performance-enhancing steroid while playing for Perugia. Lawyer Giovanni Guaglianone said the court acknowledged Qaddafi did not commit any crime in Italy. Perugia rarely fielded Qaddafi and he signed a contract with Serie A side Udinese last year. Qaddafi, who did not attend Thursday's hearing, had denied intentionally doping. He said medicine he took for back pain probably caused the positive result.
■ Cricket
Two fined over dismissal
Bangladesh wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud and Sri Lanka opening batsman Jehan Mubarak were fined by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday over a disputed dismissal.
Mubarak was caught behind by Mashud off pacer Syed Rasel in Wednesday's second one-day international, but television replays showed Mashud took the ball on the bounce. An appeal by Sri Lankan players was ignored by the umpire, and a frustrated Mubarak had to leave the pitch. At a hearing after the game in northern Bogra city, referee Alan Hurst found Mashud, also Bangladesh's vice-captain, "guilty of conduct that brings the game into disrepute," and fined him 20 percent of his match fee. Hurst also fined Mubarak 25 percent of his match fee for "showing dissent at an umpire's decision by action or verbal abuse." Bangladesh won the match by four wickets.
■ Cricket
England struggle on day two
England's bowlers struggled to make headway on the second day of the three-day tour match against an Indian Board President's XI yesterday. Opener Gautam Gambhir hit 82 not out as the home team were 187 for two at lunch in their first innings, with Suresh Raina (14) keeping Gambhir company. England were dismissed for 238 on the opening day, with the batting highlight provided by Kevin Pietersen, who retired due to a lower-back injury after making 47. Paceman Munaf Patel did most of the damage taking five for 59. Resuming at 93-1, the President's XI progressed slowly with Gambhir and Jadhav putting on 64 off 142 deliveries on a pitch that looked to have slowed down. England's lone success yesterday came 30 minutes before lunch when fast bowler Harmison had left-hander Dheeraj Jadhav caught behind by Geraint Jones for 20.
■ Soccer
Goalscoring legend dies
Spain's most prolific striker Telmo Zarra has died at the age of 85, Radio Euskadi reported on Thursday. Zarra was the all-time record scorer in the Primera Liga, notching up 251 goals in 277 games in 15 seasons at Athletic Bilbao during the 1940s and 1950s. He was top scorer in the first division on six occasions, netting a record 38 times in the 1950-51 season when there were only 16 teams in the league and scoring 20 goals in seven games in the 1946-47 campaign. He won four Spanish Cups and one league title with Bilbao. Zarra scored 20 goals in 20 appearances for Spain, including the winner in their famous 1-0 victory over England at the Maracana stadium in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.
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