■ Cycling
Manzano offered a bribe
Former Spanish cyclist Jesus Manzano, who triggered a police probe two years ago by claiming widespread doping in the sport, has told police he was offered a bribe to withdraw his allegations, a leading newspaper said on Saturday. Spanish daily El Pais said the former Kelme racer, who has admitted using blood doping treatments, lodged a formal complaint about the alleged bribe to police investigators on Nov. 14. In the complaint, Manzano said he went to the Madrid office of his lawyer, Santiago Lucas, in September to discuss the doping allegations he first made in 2004. According to the El Pais report, Manzano said he was told by Lucas that Carlos Bueren -- a lawyer reportedly acting for former Liberty Seguros team director Manuel Saiz -- had offered him money to withdraw his allegations.
■ Rugby Union
Georgia qualifies for Cup
Georgia qualified for next year's Rugby World Cup when it drew with Portugal 11-11 in Lisbon on Saturday, winning their two-leg playoff 28-14 on aggregate and claiming Europe's last automatic qualifying berth. Georgia won the first leg 17-3 at home on Nov. 11 and it's defense was too good at University of Lisbon Stadium on Saturday for Portugal to overcome the 14-point deficit. The Lelos qualified for their second World Cup in Pool D with host France, Ireland, Argentina and Namibia. The Georgians made their Cup debut in 2003 in Australia and didn't win a pool match. Portugal and Morocco, trying to reach their first Cup, will play off in January for the right to meet Uruguay. The winner of that repechage will qualify. In the repechage for the only other available 2007 Cup berth, South Korea faces Tonga.
■ Baseball
Soriano plans warmup
Alfonso Soriano wants to warm up for his Chicago Cubs debut by playing for his hometown team in the Dominican winter league. "I'm going to ask permission to play for the Eastern Stars when I get back to Chicago for the press conference where they're going to introduce me next week," the slugger told the press on Friday after arriving in the Caribbean country. Soriano's new eight-year, US$136 million contract with the Cubs is the fifth-richest in the history of Major League Baseball.
■ Baseball
Zuleta now a free agent
Panamanian infielder Julio Zuleta has failed in his bid to re-sign with the Softbank Hawks of Japan's Pacific League and will become a free agent on Thursday. Zuleta, who batted .281 with 29 homers and 91 RBIs this season for the Hawks, was seeking a multiyear deal with Softbank but talks broke down. "Since the end of the 2006 season, it has been my primary goal to reach an agreement with the Hawks on a multiyear contract," Zuleta said in a statement released yesterday. "Unfortunately, we were unable to do so."
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