■ Soccer
Larsson calls it quits
Striker Henrik Larsson says he has played his last match for Sweden. "It is time to quit now. It feels right. I'm done with the national team," Larsson, 34, told TV station Canal Plus on Monday. The former Celtic and FC Barcelona striker hinted this month he would quit the national team as he returned to Sweden to finish his career at Helsingborg. Larsson, who earned his first cap in 1993, scored 36 goals in 93 matches for Sweden. If he sticks by his decision to quit -- he has changed his mind before -- his last international match would be Sweden's 2-0 loss to Germany in the second round of the World Cup where Larsson sent a penalty kick over the bar in that match.
■ Soccer
Thuram understands Zizou
France defender Lilian Thuram disagreed with Zinedine Zidane's head-butt in the World Cup final and said the Italy player who provoked him was hurting soccer. Thuram said in an interview published yesterday by the weekly Les Inrockuptibles that he understood Zidane's reaction to Marco Materazzi for insulting his family but that the timing was wrong. "Materazzi insulted his family. I understand that Zidane reacted, but not on the field," Thuram said.
■ Soccer
Clemente set for Serbia
Former Spain coach Javier Clemente will reportedly take over Serbia's national team following its poor World Cup performance. Clemente, who led Spain for six years through 1998, will become Serbia's first foreign coach, independent Belgrade radio station B92 said on Monday. Serbia's soccer federation refused to confirm or deny the report, but said that a formal announcement will be made later this week. Serbia and Montenegro was knocked out of the World Cup after losing its three first-round matches to the Netherlands, Argentina and Ivory Coast. Serbia will play its first match as a separate nation in a friendly against the Czech Republic in Prague on Aug. 16.
■ Baseball
Oh OK after op
Japan's baseball legend, Sadaharu Oh, has successfully undergone a stomach operation, his team said. Japanese home-run king, Oh, 66, said earlier this month he was temporarily leaving the Pacific League's Fukuoka Softbank Hawks to undergo an operation to have a stomach tumor removed. The operation on Monday "ended successfully," and Oh will devote his time for follow-up treatment for the time being, the team said in a statement later in the day. Oh was hospitalized last week in Tokyo after tests had found a tumor in his stomach. He did not say whether the tumor was cancerous but said he did not know when he will be able to return to the team. Oh, who played for the Yomiuri Giants, holds Japanese baseball's all-time record of 868 home runs and set the single-season record of 55 homers in 1964, which was tied by Tuffy Rhodes (2001) and Alex Cabrera (2002).
■ Soccer
Villa players want meeting
Aston Villa's players requested a meeting with chairman Doug Ellis on Monday to discuss an alleged statement released over the weekend concerning cost-cutting at the club. Manager David O'Leary would not comment on what the issues were, but Ellis is "furious" about the situation according to the club. Club spokesman Phil Mepham said it will hold "an internal inquiry" into "the circumstances surrounding the recent publication of a so-called player statement which was allegedly supported by the entire first-team squad." Mepham said several players had no knowledge of the statement.
■ Rugby league
Crowe takes charge
Actor Russell Crowe is taking a hands-on approach with his last-place Australian rugby league team. Crowe, who became a part-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs early last month, led the National Rugby League side in a bike ride and 10-pin bowling session yesterday. He later gave the team, which has won only one of 18 matches this season, a pep talk. South Sydney captain Peter Cusack said the Rabbitohs expected a tougher morning practice from Crowe, but that rainy weather caused a change of plans. It was the first session Crowe has led since officially taking over the club with businessman Peter Holmes a Court on June 8.
■ Athletics
Felix wins again in 200m
World champion and Olympic silver medalist Allyson Felix won her fifth straight 200m race in the Madrid meeting on Monday. The 20-year-old American crossed the line in a pedestrian 22.73 seconds, just five-hundredths of a second faster than her only other 200 in Doha in May. Felix also has the fastest time in the 100m this year. Cydonie Mothersill of the Cayman Islands was second in the 200m in 22.81, and Muna Lee of Jamaica third in 23.16.
■ Horse Racing
Arlington track examined
An independent consultant hired to examine the track surface at Arlington Park could find no explanation for a cluster of fatal breakdowns of horses there, the Illinois Racing Board said on Monday. In the first half of the four-month season, 16 horses suffered leg injuries during races that required them to be euthanized. A 17th horse was put down on Saturday after fracturing its rear right tibia. Last season, there were 12 such breakdowns. Due to the number of deaths, and the fact that no common cause has been determined, the racing board last week hired Charles E. Coon & Sons -- a company that designs, constructs and maintains tracks -- to examine the track in suburban Arlington Heights.
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