■ Athletics
Kenyan relay record ratified
The 4x800m (3,200m) relay world record set by the Kenyan men's team in August was ratified on Friday by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Joseph Mutua, William Yiampoy, Ismael Kombich and Wilfred Bungei finished in 7 minutes, 2.43 seconds on Aug. 25 at a track meet in Brussels, Belgium. The previous record of 7:03.89 was set by Peter Elliott, Garry Cook, Steve Cram and Sebastian Coe of the UK in 1982.
■ Athletics
US gold medalist dies
Annette Kelly, a two-time US Olympic gold medalist in the 400m relay, died on Wednesday. She was 93. Her daughter, Kathleen Kelly, said Annette Kelly suffered a stroke about two months ago and was battling an infection at the time of her death. Kelly won gold medals in the 400m relay at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles and the 1936 Games in Berlin. Kelly also placed sixth in the high jump in 1932 and fifth in the 100m in 1936. She told her family she and her teammates knew the politics involved in competing in 1930s Germany. "But they were athletes and they were excited about competing and when the US decided to go, they went to represent their country and that was that," Kathleen Kelly said.
■ Baseball
Sheffield signs with Tigers
The New York Yankees traded outfielder Gary Sheffield to the American League champion Detroit Tigers on Friday, receiving three pitching prospects in return. Sheffield will be reunited with manager Jim Leyland and general manager Dave Dombrowski in Detroit. The three were all members of the 1997 World Series champion Florida Marlins. The Yankees received right-handers Humberto Sanchez, Kevin Whelan and Anthony Claggett in exchange for Sheffield, who battled through injuries this year. It was the first significant deal of the major league baseball offseason, with the Tigers and Yankees reaching a tentative agreement on Tuesday.
■ NFL
Walsh battles cancer
Bill Walsh, the Hall of Fame coach who built a NFL dynasty with the San Francisco 49ers and revolutionized the sport with his West Coast offense, has told friends and colleagues at Stanford University he has cancer. School officials confirmed on Friday that Walsh, who served as the school's interim athletic director until July, is fighting leukemia. "I'm positive, but not evangelistic," the 74-year-old Walsh told the Sports Xchange Web site. "I'm pragmatically doing everything my physicians recommend, and I'm working my way through it." Walsh said the cancer first was diagnosed in 2004, but he feels better since a series of blood transfusions in the past month.
■ Skiing
Nyberg tears knee ligaments
Five-time Olympian Fredrik Nyberg's career could be over after he injured his knee on Friday in a crash during training in Austria. The 37-year-old Swede tore ligaments in his knee and will sit out the season, national team coach Matias Eriksson told Swedish news agency TT. Nyberg, who has won seven World Cup races and competed in every Olympics since 1992, had previously said this would be his last season. "He has said the World Championships in Are would be his last competition -- he's done now," Eriksson said. Nyberg was practicing the Super-G at the Reiter Alm resort when he crashed.
■ Rugby Union
Cecillon jailed for 20 years
Former French rugby union forward Marc Cecillon was found guilty on Friday of murdering his wife and sentenced to 20 years in prison. About 60 witnesses saw Cecillon pull out a gun at a party and shoot Chantal Cecillon in August 2004. Cecillon, 47, had no visible reaction during the reading of the verdict. It was not immediately clear whether he planned to appeal.
■ Rugby Union
Jenkins backs Islanders
Wales coach Gareth Jenkins has backed calls for the Pacific Islanders to be integrated into the Tri-Nations tournament. "It is the way forward for them, there is no doubt at all about that," said Jenkins, whose Welsh side took on the Islanders yesterday. "There is so much talent in those three islands it is incredible, but it has to be harnessed and managed and think this is the right profile for it." The Islanders squad is made up of players from Samoa, Fiji and Tonga. They are also due to play Scotland and Ireland this month on what is only their second tour since an inaugural series against the southern Hemisphere powers in 2004.
■ Boxing
Molitar takes IBF crown
Canadian fighter Steve Molitor knocked out Michael Hunter in the fifth round on Friday night to win the vacant IBF super-bantamweight title. The unbeaten Molitor, who hadn't fought for more than a year, was outboxed in the first few rounds but took charge in the fourth, flooring Hunter with a straight left. In the fifth, Molitor put Hunter down again with a series of left hooks, and referee Phil Edwards counted the English fighter out after 1:32 of the round. Molitor extended his record to 23-0, with nine KOs. Hunter fell to 26-1-1. "This means the world to me. I've been waiting for this for 17 years," Molitor said. "It took me a while to get into the fight tonight. I had a bit of ring rust. He surprised me the way he came out boxing." Hunter, fighting in front of his hometown fans at the Borough Hall, paid Molitor full credit. "He caught me with a decent shot on the top of the head," he said.
■ Formula One
Brits reject F1 sharing deal
British racing officials have rejected a proposal by Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone to alternate their grand prix with France. Stuart Rolt, chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club, said having a race every other year in Britain would not be financially viable for the Silverstone circuit north of London. "We were unable to see how a grand prix every second year works financially," Rolt told the Times. The British Racing Drivers Club runs Silverstone. Silverstone has a contract with F1 to hold the race for the next three years. British officials have been under pressure from Ecclestone to spend to modernize the privately run Silverstone circuit. In the last few years Ecclestone has moved races out of Europe to Turkey, China, Malaysia and Bahrain, which have built modern, state-financed race tracks. South Korea, India, South Africa and Russia are in line for new races beginning in 2010.
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