■ Basketball
Knicks sign Jeffries
The New York Knicks made it official on Tuesday, announcing the signing of Jared Jeffries a day after the Washington Wizards declined to match the Knicks' offer to the versatile forward. New York used their mid-level exception on Jeffries, making the first year of the deal worth US$5.2 million and the total package worth about US$30 million. Wizards president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld had seven days to match the offer for the restricted free agent. "Jared's representative made it crystal clear that he preferred being in New York," Grunfeld said Monday. Knicks president and coach Isiah Thomas long has coveted Jeffries. Like Thomas, Jeffries starred at Indiana University.
■ Soccer
Toni staying at Fiorentina
Luca Toni is staying at Serie A club Fiorentina, the Italy striker said on Tuesday. Toni, who scored 31 goals for the club last season making him Europe's top scorer, had been a target for Inter Milan after Fiorentina were punished for their part in a match-fixing scandal. The club were originally relegated to Serie B before an appeal handed them back their place in the top flight, albeit with a 19-point penalty and stripped of their place in the Champions League. "I want to play and score some goals," said Toni. "Any player would have been tempted by the prospect of the Champions League and a big contract," said Toni. "But my colleagues convinced me they wanted me to stay with them."
■ Athletics
Graham to reverse ban
Justin Gatlin's coach will pursue "all legal avenues" to reverse a US Olympic Committee (USOC) ban barring him from its training centers and training sites, his lawyer said on Tuesday. Joe Zeszotarski called on the USOC to lift the ban on Trevor Graham. In a six-page statement, Zeszotarski said Graham has passed a lie-detector test in which he denied ever providing performance-enhancing drugs to athletes. Gatlin, who trains with Graham, faces a lifetime ban after failing a drug test in April following a track meet in Lawrence, Kansas. "Trevor has stepped forward and provided affirmative evidence -- this polygraph result -- that he is telling the truth," Zeszotarski wrote in the statement.
■ Swimming
Synchro men banned
A men's synchronized swim team was barred from a meet at Stanford University, reinforcing an International Olympics Committee decision designating the sport as women-only. The San Francisco Tsunami Swim Club's team was set to perform an exhibition at the world masters championships but FINA scuttled the plans. The synchro team, in its fourth season, has competed at national competitions, the Gay Games and the International Gay & Lesbian Aquatics Championships. San Francisco Tsunami describes itself on its Web site as a gay and lesbian aquatics team that is open to all. More than 7,000 swimmers and divers from 70 countries are scheduled to compete in the meet at Stanford this week.
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