■ NASCAR
Montoya fined for gesture
Ex-Formula One driver Juan Pablo Montoya was slapped with a US$10,000 fine on Wednesday for making an obscene gesture during a NASCAR Busch Series practice session in Phoenix, Arizona. The Colombian was handed the fine and placed on probation until Dec. 31 for raising his finger to a cameraman last week. The racing series said Montoya's action -- which was captured live on US television -- was "detrimental to stock car racing." Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, told ESPN television that he accepted the punishment but added the gesture was made in fun and not with malice toward anyone. Montoya, a former Indianapolis 500 winner, told ESPN television that he accepted the punishment but added the gesture was made in fun and not with malice toward anyone. "I really feel bad that the incident happened," Montoya said. "It was only meant as a joke to one of my friends. I completely understand NASCAR's point of view and their decision."
■ SWIMMING
Hackett regains hunger
Seeing Beijing and its Olympic stadiums has helped Australian star Grant Hackett regain his hunger to once again dominate world swimming. But first the 26-year-old needs to shake off the effects of a leg infection. Olympic champion Hackett was placed on a drip on Wednesday and given a strong course of antibiotics to help ease swelling in his right leg, the Melbourne Herald Sun reported yesterday. The 26-year-old, who is on a fact-finding mission to Beijing ahead of next year's Games, said; "I just can't believe cuts on my legs from reef coral on my honeymoon can turn into this. I'm just so relieved they got to it early because it could have been a lot worse." Hackett was hopelessly out of sorts at last month's world championships in Melbourne but being in Beijing helped whet his appetite again.
■ BOXING
Morrison bout in doubt
Former heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Morrison needs to give more medical information to Texas state officials before they rule on his boxing license application for a bout today. The 38-year-old former WBO champ returned to boxing this year after retiring 11 years ago when tests revealed he had contracted the AIDS virus. He is to face Dale Ortiz in a four-round bout at the Grand Plaza Hotel in Houston. Patrick Shaughnessy, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, could not say whether the additional medical information concerned Morrison's AIDS status. He said state officials expected to receive the information yesterday and a decision on the application most likely would come the same day.
■ RUGBY UNION
Meads made life member
All Blacks great Colin Meads was made a life member of the New Zealand Rugby Union at its annual meeting in Wellington yesterday. Meads, 70, played a record 133 matches for New Zealand, including 55 tests, between 1957 and 1971. He captained the All Blacks 11 times, including four times in test matches. Meads later coached the King Country provincial team, for which he played most of his 361 first class games, and was an All Blacks selector and manager. He served on the New Zealand Rugby Union council from 1992 to 1996. Meads was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 1997 and in 1999 was voted New Zealand Player of the Century.
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