■ Asian Games
Hammer champ out
Athens hammer throw gold medalist Koji Murofushi, one of the biggest stars of the Japanese team, has withdrawn from the Asian Games due to a leg injury, Japanese team officials said yesterday. Murofushi, who took the Athens Olympics gold after Hungary's Adrian Annus was stripped of the medal for failing to attend a drug test, was going for his third-consecutive gold at the Asian Games. Team officials said the 32-year-old Murofushi had pulled a muscle in his right calf. Murofushi is a seasoned veteran on the world stage, winning all eight of the events he's contested this year, after taking last year off and missing the world championships in Helsinki.
■ Soccer
Chievo make cup quarters
Chievo Verona drew 1-1 with Reggina on Thursday to advance to the Italian Cup quarter-finals on away goals. Simone Tiribocchi was unmarked when he scored from inside the box in the 10th minute to put Chievo up 1-0. Reggina defender Antonio Giosa equalized with a header in the 86th at Verona's Bentegodi stadium. The teams drew 2-2 in the first leg. Chievo will next play either Sampdoria or Palermo, which were playing later.
■ Soccer
Gordon rejects World Cup
Former English Premiership defender Dean Gordon has turned down a chance to play in the FIFA Club World Cup this month by quitting Auckland City for A-League easybeats the New Zealand Knights. The 33-year-old who played for Crystal Palace and Middlesborough had been named in Auckland City's squad for the Club World Cup in Japan between Dec. 10-17. But when offered the chance to leave an amateur side to join the professional but ailing Knights, he jumped immediately. "The Japan tournament was massive but it was just two games. It was a tough decision but I'm a professional footballer and getting a new contract was more important," he said.
■ Soccer
Terry facing longer ban
John Terry faces an extra one-match ban after being charged with improper conduct by the Football Association (FA) over his comments about a red card he received during his side's 2-1 defeat at Tottenham earlier this month. Terry was ordered off for the first time in his club career after receiving two yellow cards from Graham Poll. The Chelsea captain claimed afterwards that the referee had given him different explanations of the second yellow at the time of the incident and after the match. The referee's denial of that claim triggered the misconduct charge which could lead to a one-match ban, a fine or a warning as to his future behavior. The defender, who has already served his automatic one-match ban for the red card, has until Dec. 15 to answer the charge. Explaining the charge, the FA said: "The charge has been brought on the basis that John Terry's comments question Graham Poll's integrity and therefore constitute improper conduct."
■ Soccer
Argentina wins blind final
Captain Silvio Velo scored the only goal with eight minutes left for Argentina to beat Brazil in the final of the Blind World Cup on Thursday. Velo's fifth goal in the tournament made him the top scorer. Paraguay defeated Spain 2-1 for third place. Blind soccer teams consist of five players, four of whom must be legally blind and only the goalkeeper isn't blind. A ball containing ball bearings allows the players to hear it.
■ Darts
Green tests positive for pot
Not yet a star on the professional darts circuit, Robbie Green has made his mark by becoming the first pro player to test positive for doping. The UK Open quarterfinalist tested positive for marijuana at that same tournament in Bolton in June and has been suspended for eight weeks and two days by the Darts Regulation Authority. Under the guidance of UK Sport, the nation's governing body for sports, darts introduced drug testing this year and Green, who has his nickname "Kong" tattooed on the back of his neck, was the eighth player to be tested.
■ Basketball
Shavlik breaks ankle
Philadelphia 76ers forward Shavlik Randolph broke his left ankle in practice on Thursday and will require surgery, the National Basketball Association team said. "It is unfortunate Shav got hurt today," 76ers president Billy King said. "He will be missed as he is an integral part of this team, but I am confident that the rest of the guys will step up in his absence." Randolph, 23, is averaging 4.5 points and 4.2 rebounds in 13 games this season. Randolph fared well replacing injured forward Chris Webber in the lineup, averaging 6.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in six starts. An undrafted free agent last season, Randolph has averaged 2.7 points and 2.7 rebounds in 70 career games with Philadelphia.
■ Hockey
Kids hit by broken plexiglass
Two children attending an NHL game on Thursday in Ottawa, Canada, between the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers were sent to a hospital for precautionary reasons after plexiglass shattered in front of them when Chris Phillips checked Florida's Stephen Weiss into the boards. The two children, a brother and sister, and their parents were showered with broken glass soon after the game started. A team official confirmed that the two children, who were sitting in front-row seats, had been sent to a hospital by ambulance along with their parents. Play was delayed for eight minutes to clean up and replace the broken pane.
■ Nordic skiing
Lack of snow cancels races
World Cup cross-country ski races in Aosta and Cogne, Italy, have been canceled due to a lack of snow, the International Ski Federation said on Thursday. The races were scheduled for Dec. 8 and 10. An announcement about a possible replacement was scheduled to be made yesterday, the federation said. Warm temperatures prevented organizers from creating enough artificial snow to cover the courses. Local organizers said they hoped to hold the races sometime later in the season. Several races have been affected by scarce snowfall across the Alps. The Alpine skiing calendar's season opener in Soelden, Austria, was wiped out in October and men's and women's stops in Val d'Isere, France, and St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Dec. 9-10 have also been canceled.
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