■ Soccer
Die-hard fans get lucky
A German soccer club plans to open a cemetery next to its stadium so that die-hard fans can rest in peace alongside their favorite team. Hamburg SV, a Bundesliga side from the northern port city, aims to open the graveyard some 15m from the stadium's main entrance, said deputy chairman Christian Reichert. "For a large number of people, it's important to be close to the club after their lives are over," he said. "The cemetery will have the look of a small, open stadium." Fans get 25 years in the turf and can choose from a range of burials: ashes in an urn from 2,500 euros (US$3,150), a single grave at 8,000 euros and a two-person plot at 12,500 euros. Plans for the 70,000 euro graveyard, due to be completed in September, include a war memorial from the team's former stadium, as well as commemorative stones honoring former Hamburg players, who include ex-England star Kevin Keegan.
■ Rugby
Bill Young to retire
Australia's second most capped Test prop forward, Bill Young, yesterday announced his retirement from rugby. Young, 32, who made 46 international appearances after making his Test debut against France in Paris in 2000, has been troubled by a chronic neck injury this year. He sought a third and final doctor's opinion this week after experiencing numbness in his left hand and arm. "I've got problems that need fixing in my neck and if I don't then I could end up with some permanent disability in my left hand," he said earlier this week. Young is just the sixth player in tournament history to play 100 Super rugby games for the ACT Brumbies. "If you had told me 10 years ago that I would play 46 Tests for the Wallabies and over 100 Super 14 games for the Brumbies, I would have been delirious," Young said at a press conference yesterday.
■ Kickboxing
Fundamentalists may lift ban
Malaysia's only fundamentalist-ruled state may conditionally lift a ban on Thai kickboxing to promote healthy sporting activities for youths there, a news report said yesterday. The Kelantan State Youth Committee Chairman Abdul Fatah Mahmood said if the ban were to be lifted, the sport would have to be played under a set of regulations -- T-shirt and long trousers to be worn by boxers instead of shorts, an age limit on contestants and compulsory presence of doctors during fights, the Star reported. The fundamentalist Parti Islam Se-Malaysia barred the sport there after it won control of Kelantan in 1990. The ban was ostensibly because the sport was considered brutal and violent, but residents say Buddhist rituals at the start of a fight could have been a reason, as they were considered un-Islamic. Abdul Fatah was quoted as saying that the muay thai martial arts fighting style was known to have caused deaths in the ring while fighters sometimes took steroids.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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