■ Soccer
World XI gala canceled
A World XI Players Awards gala scheduled for Athens next week has been called off with organizers pointing the finger of blame at two British companies. The event, backed by FIFPro, the international players' ruling body, was due to honor the 11 best soccer players in the world as voted by the 43,000 professional players from 40 national federations. But Monday's show was scrapped on Thursday when the two British firms involved in organizing the gala were unable to guarantee that all the award winners would turn up. Greek sports minister Stavros Douvis told Supersport radio: "The two companies, even though they had asked a lot of money which was not refused by both FIFPro and us, began telling us that they couldn't bring some of the 11 players invited."
■ Soccer
Men held over stabbing
Chinese police have detained three men in connection with the near-fatal stabbing of Dalian Shide midfielder Quan Lei, local media reported yesterday. Quan, 21, was rushed to hospital last month after being stabbed at least 10 times in the northeastern city of Dalian by several men as he got out of his car on the way to a birthday party for his father. The newspaper did not say if the three had been charged. The Beijing News, citing a police statement from a press conference on Thursday, said the Super League player had been attacked because he had become "too intimate" with the girlfriend of a businessman. Quan's return to professional football depended on the nerves and tendons in his legs fully healing, the paper said citing staff at the Dalian hospital that treated him.
■ Horse Racing
NYRA files for bankruptcy
The New York Racing Association (NYRA), the private entity that has held the state horse racing franchise since 1955, filed for protection from creditors in bankruptcy court on Thursday. NYRA's hold on the state franchise to run racing is scheduled to end Dec. 31, next year. "Chapter 11 bankruptcy does not mean going out of business," said NYRA president Charles Hayward, who has headed a new management team after years of critical audits and investigations into spending and mismanagement. Hayward said filing for bankruptcy court protection was a "last option." On Monday, the state's racing board released the US$19 million to NYRA, but NYRA officials said on Thursday that it comes with too many restrictions.
■ New Zealand
Rugby league chief quits
New Zealand Rugby League chairman Selwyn Bennett resigned yesterday, accepting responsibility but refusing to admit fault over the selection of Australian Nathan Fien for the Kiwis' Tri-Nations squad. The executive committee of the Rugby League International Federation on Thursday stripped New Zealand of two competition points and banned Fien from the remainder of the Tri-Nations tournament when it found the Australian-born hooker was not eligible for the Kiwis as the New Zealand league had claimed. Bennett had put forward Fien's claim of eligibility, saying he qualified through a New Zealand-born grandmother. But checks by the international federation found his great-grandmother rather than his grandmother was New Zealand-born. Bennett said he accepted responsibility for Fien's selection and was resigning to avoid further criticism of New Zealand Rugby League officials.
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