■ Baseball
Fehr prefers March Classic
US major league players union head Donald Fehr thinks March is the best time for the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Following the first tournament in March last year, the union and MLB said they would wait before setting the schedule for the second edition. "The problem is that when you attempt to coordinate the schedules, you back into March," Fehr said on Thursday. "On balance you look it and go, `Well, whatever its benefits would be in terms of some calendar association, it really doesn't work.' ... It's impossible, I think, to do it any other time next time than in March."
■ Football
`Tank' sentenced to jail
Chicago Bears defensive lineman Tank Johnson was sentenced Thursday to four months in jail for violating probation in a 2005 gun case. Johnson immediately was taken into custody. He could have been sentenced to up to a year behind bars. Johnson, who pleaded guilty to violating his probation, also must pay a US$2,500 fine. Johnson was arrested on misdemeanor weapons charges on Dec. 14 after police raided his home in the Lake County, Illinois, town of Gurnee, about 65km northwest of Chicago, and found six unregistered firearms. At the time, he was on probation for another case.
■ Soccer
Defensor downs Pasto
Uruguay's Defensor Sporting scored two late goals to come from behind and defeat Colombia's Deportivo Pasto 2-1 in Group 8 of the Copa Libertadores. Pasto, playing before 4,000 fans at its stadium in southern Colombia, kept possession of the ball for much of the first half, creating three scoring chances and finally tallying on Carlos Rodas' goal in the 26th minute. Carlos Morales scored on a header for Defensor at 80 minutes. Diego de Souza added the second goal during supplemental time. Peruvian referee Victor Hugo Rivera expelled four players, two from each squad.
■ Soccer
River Plate, Liga draw
Argentina's River Plate withstood the altitude effect of Ecuador's capital and drew 1-1 at Liga de Quito on Thursday night to leave both teams locked in second place in Group 6 of the Copa Libertadores. Both teams improved to four points, two behind Group 6 leader Caracas, which has played one less game. Chile's Colo Colo is in last place with zero points. Two teams from each of the eight first-round groups advance. Enrique Vera gave Liga the lead in the 14th minute but Ernesto Farias equalized in the 53rd. Both sides finished with 10 men. River's Ruben Sambueza was ejected with a red card five minutes before halftime for a harsh foul on Pedro Larrea.
■ Baseball
Former commissioner dies
Bowie Kuhn, who lorded over the major leagues as commissioner during 15 tumultuous years that saw players gain free agency and start the rise of salaries, died on Thursday. He was 80. Kuhn died at St. Luke's Hospital in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, following a short illness, his spokesman Bob Wirz said. When Kuhn took over as commissioner from William Eckert on Feb. 4, 1969, Major League Baseball just had completed its final season as a tradition-bound 20-team sport with no playoffs, a reserve clause that obligated players to teams in perpetuity and an average salary of about US$19,000.
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