■ Soccer
Serafini stops Juventus
Matteo Serafini scored a hat trick on Saturday to give Brescia a 3-1 win over Serie B leader Juventus. It was Juventus' second loss this season after falling to Mantova in January. In Serie A, Sampdoria was held to a 1-1 draw by Cagliari. Juventus, which was penalized nine points for its role in the Italian match-fixing scandal, still leads the second division with 49 points, one more than Napoli. Napoli drew 1-1 at Rimini on Saturday. Serafini beat Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon in the fourth, 26th and 45th minutes. The first score came from a lob. The second was a bicycle kick. An error by Juventus defender Jonathan Zebina led to the third goal. Juventus captain Alessandro Del Piero scored in the ninth minute from a free kick.
■ Rally
Loeb doubles lead in Mexico
Frenchman Sebastien Loeb more than doubled his lead in the Rally Mexico on Saturday, moving one minute ahead of the field. Loeb and his Citroen took the lead in Friday's fourth special stage and finished the day with a 27-second advantage. He won four of Saturday's eight special stages and extended the cushion. Marcus Gronholm fell another 16.6 seconds behind Loeb, but jumped four places to move into second place. Dani Sordo of Spain was third, more than 90 seconds behind.
■ Soccer
Dida extends contract
AC Milan goalkeeper Nelson Dida ended speculation about his future on Saturday by signing a contract extension with the Italian Serie A club. The 33-year-old, whose original deal was scheduled to run out at the end of the season, has put pen to paper on a new deal that will keep him at AC Milan until June 30, 2010. Dida, a Brazil international, joined AC Milan from Corinthians in 2000. He established himself as a first-team regular in the 2002/03 season and has kept the keeper's jersey ever since.
■ Norway
Cuche takes downhill title
Swiss skier Didier Cuche yesterday became the men's World Cup champion in the downhill discipline by winning his first race of the season in Kvitfjell. Although this result was his first win of the season, the 32-year-old Swiss had previously notched up enough points with a bunch of podium finishes including four second-placed performances since December to claim the first downhill title of his skiing career which spans over almost a decade. With one race left in the downhill category this season, Cuche jumped out of reach of Liechtenstein's Marco Buechel with the victory.
■ Cricket
Scots want England fixture
A regular `home international' between Scotland and England would go a long way in giving cricket a boost north of the border, Scottish captain Craig Wright said on Saturday. Scotland begin their World Cup campaign against champions Australia on Wednesday before facing top-ranked South Africa and the Netherlands in Group A. "A Scotland versus England match would be a massive event and help build the profile of cricket in Scotland," Wright told a news conference ahead of yesterday's opening ceremony. "I suppose anything between Scotland and England, even a game of tiddlywinks, is a big event but with our status in the one day game now I am sure that would be a great occasion." Scotland currently play against English county sides in one-day competition and two of their squad, Dougie Brown and Gavin Hamilton, have actually played for England.
■ Boxing
Fighter remains in coma
Mexican boxer Victor Burgos has shown signs of improvement but remains in a medically-induced coma in a Los Angeles hospital, his wife told local media on Saturday. According to Claudia Montiel, who has been with Burgos since he underwent surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain after a fight last Saturday, Burgos "has movement in his hands and feet" and can hear despite still being unconscious. Burgos, 31, was hospitalized after he was stopped in the 12th round by Australian Vic Darchinyan in their IBF flyweight world title bout at the Home Depot Center.
■ Athletics
Hashimoto wins in Nagoya
Yasuko Hashimoto won a close battle with fellow Japanese defending champion Harumi Hiroyama to win the Nagoya international women's marathon yesterday. The 31-year-old from Chiba spurted in the last 700m to leave Hiroyama behind, crossing the finishing line in two hours 28 minutes 49 seconds. Hiroyama failed to close the gap of some 20m to finish second in 2:28:55, followed by 2002 Rotterdam marathon winner Takami Ominami of Japan third in 2:29:24.
■ Speed Skating
World records tumble
Sven Kramer broke the 10,000m world record that had stood for just a month, while Jenny Wolf broke one that had stood since 2001 at the World Single Distances Speedskating Championships in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday. Kramer clocked 12min 41.69sec, improving the mark of 12:49.88 that he set on Feb. 11 in Heerenveen in the Netherlands. Kramer led a Dutch sweep of the podium places. Carl Verheijen was second and Birgt Rykkje third. Germany's Wolf broke the women's 500m world record with a time of 37.04sec. Wolf posted the record-breaking mark in the second of two 500m races on the day, and her championship combined time of 74.42sec was also a world record.
■ Football
Sea Devils sign Chambers
Disgraced British sprinter Dwain Chambers looks set to turn his back on athletics after signing on Saturday to play for NFL Europa side Hamburg Sea Devils. The 28-year-old former European 100m champion was stripped of the gold he won in Munich in 2002 after he was implicated in the 2003 BALCO doping scandal having tested positive for the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone. Chambers is set for his NFL Europa debut as a wide receiver when the Sea Devils host the Cologne Centurians next month.
■ Basketball
Artest set to return to action
The Sacramento Kings said on Saturday they will allow Ron Artest to return to the team, five days after his arrest on suspicion of domestic violence. The Kings called a news conference to discuss the return of the controversial forward after missing two games. Artest was excused from all team activities on Tuesday, a day after being arrested at his home in a Sacramento, California suburb. A woman called police and said she had been assaulted, and a police report said Artest had slapped the woman's face and grabbed her repeatedly, causing visible injuries on her hand and leg. Artest was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and using force or violence to prevent the woman from reporting a crime. He was released from custody after posting a US$50,000 bond.
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