■ SOCCER
Big Sam set for the Toon
Former Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce appears poised to take over at Newcastle United, according to newspaper reports early yesterday. Allardyce, who ended an eight-year spell at Bolton when he quit the Premier League club last month, held talks with Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd on Friday. Shepherd likened the 52-year-old former central defender to Joe Harvey, who was at the helm when Newcastle last won a trophy in the 1969 Fairs Cup, the forerunner to the UEFA Cup. "The club needs a lift and Sam is the nearest I've seen to a replica of Joe Harvey," Shepherd was quoted as saying.
■ BOXING
WBA title fight drawn
Puerto Rico's Jose Cotto and Thailand's Prawat Singwangcha fought to a 12-round draw on Friday in a bout for the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight title. Judges Samuel Conde and Guy Justra scored the bout 114-114, while Tom Miller saw it 117-111 for Singwangcha. Cotto, the older brother of WBA welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, started strong and landed the cleaner punches early, with Singwangcha dominating the later rounds. The decision put Cotto's record at 28-1-1, with 20 knockouts, while Singwangcha now has a record of 30-2-1, with 18 wins inside the distance.
■ SOCCER
Police to question Barton
Police are to question Manchester City and England midfielder Joey Barton over reports that he attacked a team mate, newspapers said on Friday. The Manchester Evening News quoted a spokesman for Greater Manchester police as saying: "We are due to speak to a 25-year-old man in connection with a report of assault from a 30-year-old man. Arrangements are being made for the 25-year-old man to go to a police station for questioning. Inquiries are ongoing."
■ CRICKET
Opener Imran Farhat fined
The Pakistan Cricket Board has launched its zero tolerance policy on indiscipline by fining Imran Farhat and placing him on probation for six months after the opener expressed his dissent at the national selectors. The board acted after 24-year-old Farhat telephoned chief selector Salahuddin Ahmed to complain about his omission from this month's one-day series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi. Salahuddin, a former test player, filed a written complaint to the board in which he explained that Farhat's father-in-law had also voiced his displeasure with the selectors' decision in person.
■ GOLF
Oosthuizen leads in Spain
Louis Oosthuizen held a one-stroke lead after the second round of the Andalucia Open on Friday, while Lee Westwood carded a course record 8-under 64. Oosthuizen had a 20-foot birdie putt at the 18th to finish his round with 5-under 67 and a total of 10-under 134. The South African held a one-stroke lead over France's Francois Delamontagne (66), first-round leader Matthew Zions of Australia (70) and Italian Open winner Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain (68). Steve Jones, the 1996 US Open winner, is at 8-under 136, along with Westwood. Jones saw a bogey at No. 18 spoil his round of 67, which included an eagle 2 at the 15th. Jones, who finished 60th at last week's Italian Open, played with Westwood.
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