■ Baseball
Suzuki extends streak
Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki pinch hit in the eighth inning of Friday's 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels and stayed in to play right field, appearing in his 361st consecutive game dating to 2004. Suzuki wasn't in the starting lineup and Mariners manager Mike Hargrove said before the game that the hardworking right fielder could use some rest. Before Friday night's game, the Mariners' leadoff hitter was batting .324 and had a major league-high 168 hits this season. His string of 360 games, which includes 209 starts, is a club record, surpassing Edgar Martinez's string of 293 in 1994-96.
■ Basketball
Mourning re-signs with Heat
Seven-time All-Star Alonzo Mourning re-signed with the NBA champion Miami Heat on Friday. "I'm very excited about re-signing with the Heat," Mourning said. "I love this organization, the fans and the whole South Florida community, and I'm happy to have the opportunity to join my teammates and defend our championship this season." Mourning, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who has made it back from a kidney transplant, is the Heat's all-time leader in games played (491), blocked shots (1,405), free throws made (2,328) and free throws attempted (3,512). He also ranks second in 11 categories, including points (8,649) and rebounds (4,364).
■ NFL
Seau joins Patriots
The New England Patriots signed free agent linebacker Junior Seau on Friday, just four days after the 12-time Pro Bowler announced his retirement. Seau, 37, held an emotional farewell-to-the-NFL news conference on Monday in San Diego. The 1.87m, 112kg linebacker had been injured for most of the past two seasons with Miami and was released by the club in March after missing 17 games in two seasons. Seau appeared to have misgivings on Monday about retiring but said he was ready to leave the game. "I'm healthy, I can play, and there are teams out there that had interest, but they just didn't need [me]," he said. Seau was one of the NFL's top linebackers and helped the San Diego Chargers to their only Super Bowl appearance in 1995.
■ Cycling
Camenzind case reopened
A Swiss court has ordered an investigative magistrate to reopen the doping case of former road cycling world champion Oscar Camenzind, according to the Swiss news magazine Facts. The magistrate, Martin Eichenberg, confirmed the report which appeared in Facts on Thursday. The weekly said the cantonal, or state, court of Schwyz ordered Eichenberg to reopen the case more than six months after a lower court had told him to suspend it. Camenzind tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug EPO before the 2004 Athens Olympics and withdrew from the event. He was dropped by his team, Phonak, and retired shortly afterward.
■ Italy
Totti to play on
Francesco Totti said on Friday that he wants to keep playing international soccer despite hinting at retirement after Italy lifted the World Cup last month. "I am available to play for the national team again," Totti was reported by the ANSA news agency as telling new coach Roberto Donadoni. "I thought long and hard after the World Cup and I am ready to come back, but first I want to recover completely from the injury I suffered in February." The 30-year-old Roma star said after the World Cup final win over France that it was "50-50" whether or not he would carry on after his performances in Germany were hampered by an ankle injury.
■ Hong Kong
Star has second thoughts
Midfield star Cheung Sai-ho could delay his retirement to play in an Asian Cup qualifier next month, with the team eyeing a place in next year's finals, a report said yesterday. Cheung said there was a "big chance" he would play in Hong Kong's home match against Uzbekistan on Sept. 6, the South China Morning Post reported. The 31-year-old had earlier said he was to retire after Hong Kong's away match against Uzbekistan last week because he was fed up with the lack of support and respect for the team, the paper said. But the team captain had second thoughts after the thrilling match in Tashkent, in which Hong Kong recovered from two goals down to earn a draw, the paper added. "If I do stay with the Hong Kong team for another game, I am doing it out of respect for my coach, Lai Sun-cheung," Cheung was quoted as saying.
■ Spain
Real move for Diarra
Real Madrid are set to sign Lyon's highly rated Malian international midfielder Mahamadou Diarra after successful talks, the French champions said on Friday. Diarra is set to move to the Spanish giants this week for what some press reports say will be a fee of 28 million euros (US$36 million). The 25-year-old is expected to sign for Real in the coming days, if he agrees personal terms. Diarra lashed out at Lyon in the French press this week saying the club were blocking his potential "dream move" and declaring that he would not play for Lyon again. His outburst seems to have payed dividends. The clubs held talks on Friday after which Lyon agreed to allow Diarra to depart for the Spanish capital.
■ Italy
Juve appeal fails
Juventus has failed in its bid to convince Italian soccer federation bosses that their demotion to Serie B, Italy's second tier soccer league, should be overturned. Juventus, one of several clubs sanctioned for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal which rocked the country shortly before Italy's World Cup triumph, met with bosses from the Italian football federation (FIGC) in Rome. However, this latest appeal has led to nothing, and a statement by the Turin club said they would now hold an internal meeting tomorrow to study which future direction to take.
■ England
Chelsea signs `Cannibal'
English champions Chelsea bolstered their defense on the eve of the Premiership season on Friday when they bought Dutch international Khalid Boulahrouz from Hamburg. Boulahrouz, who can play center back or left back, was known as "Khalid the Cannibal" by Hamburg fans in honor of his aggressive tackling style. The 25-year-old, for whom coach Jose Mourinho has paid an undisclosed fee, was due in London this weekend to undergo a medical and discuss personal terms.
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