■ Hockey
Cop shoots India defender
Indian field hockey defender Sandeep Singh was hospitalized with a gunshot wound near his hip yesterday after a security official's revolver went off accidentally on a moving train, police said. Singh, a penalty corner expert and squad member for next month's World Cup in Germany, was taken to hospital after the incident. "He was injured in the back when the revolver of the security official accidentally went off," a police spokesman said. The official was checking over-head baggage in the train when his revolver became entangled with a seat and went off and hit the player, he added.
■ Tennis
Martina nets another title
Martina Navratilova won her 176th WTA doubles title on Monday when she and Nadia Petrova downed Cara Black and Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-1, 6-2 at the Rogers Cup. Navratilova, who turns 50 on Oct. 18, is to retire for a second time after the US Open in New York. It was a fifth doubles win for Navratilova at the Canadian event, each with a different partner. She also won in 1981, 1982, 1985 and 2004, when her partner in Toronto was Groenefeld. Navratilova and Petrova, playing together for the first time, split US$59,000. Navratilova has more than US$21 million in career earnings.
■ Rugby Union
Gregan sets playing target
Australia rugby captain George Gregan hinted yesterday he would finally be ready to hang up his boots if he leads the Wallabies at the World Cup in France next year. "To get through to next year's World Cup, that'll pretty much do me," Gregan told Channel Seven when asked about his remaining goals. Gregan was speaking after a Monday night function honoring his achievements in becoming the most capped player in Test history and Australia's most capped captain. After the function, the 33-year-old Gregan said he still had the desire to lead Australia in his fourth World Cup campaign. "I'm still loving being coached and I'm still being challenged and I do want to be there come next year," he told reporters.
■ Basketball
Randolph in police report
Police said on Monday that Portland Trail Blazers forward Zach Randolph was "involved" in a sexual assault report taken last week but is not a suspect. Sergeant Brian Schmautz, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau, said detectives are interviewing potential witnesses to the incident. "The Police Bureau will now confirm that on Aug. 14, an officer took a report of a sexual assault and that the report involved Zach Randolph," Schmautz said in an e-mailed release. "However, the Police Bureau is not identifying Zach Randolph as a suspect in the criminal investigation." Randolph led the Blazers in scoring and rebounding last season, with 18 points and eight rebounds per game, as the team finished with the worst record in the NBA at 21-61.
■ Italy
Boumsong may sign for Juve
Fallen giants Juventus, who were demoted from Serie A to Italy's second division for match-fixing, are close to signing French defender Jean-Alain Boumsong from English Premiership outfit Newcastle United, according to Italian news agency ANSA on Monday. ANSA said Boumsong's agent is in Turin trying to finalize the deal for the 26-year-old France international. Boumsong, who cost Newcastle ?8.5 million (US$16 million) when they bought him from Scottish side Rangers in January last year, has been unable to command a regular place in the team.
■ Spain
Baptista wants to stay
Brazilian midfielder Julio Baptista said on Monday he had no intention of leaving Spanish giants Real Madrid despite suggestions that coach Fabio Capello wants to get rid of him. Spanish media reports had suggested that Capello wanted to use the under-performing Baptista -- known as the "beast" -- as a makeweight in a deal to bring AC Milan's Brazilian playmaker Kaka to the "meringues" as he tries to put an end to bitter rivals Barcelona's recent dominance in the league and Europe. However the message from Baptista, scorer of just eight goals in 32 matches last term after his 24 million euro (US$30.9 million) transfer from a hugely successful stint at Sevilla where he'd scored 38 goals in two seasons, was he was not going anywhere.
■ England
Smith makes comeback
England striker Alan Smith declared himself happy on Monday with his comeback for the Manchester United reserves six months after suffering an horrific broken leg when playing for the first team. The 25-year-old former Leeds United star played for just over an hour in United's 7-2 thrashing of Preston, failing to score but he was still more than satisfied. "I have worked hard for that all through the summer," said Smith, who saw any hopes of making England's World Cup squad disappear when he broke his leg and dislocated his ankle against Liverpool in the FA Cup tie in February.
■ England
Forest suffer further indignity
Once proud English soccer giants Nottingham Forest slumped even further on Monday as the two-time European Cup winners were beaten 1-0 by Accrington Stanley in the first round of the League Cup. Accrington's star striker Paul Mullin was their goal hero as the 32-year-old -- five times their leading scorer in the non leagues before they recovered their league status after 44 years this season -- saw his 61st minute effort deflected into the net.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed