■ ICE HOCKEY
NHL approves rule changes
Four rule changes, three dealing with penalties and another with faceoffs, were approved by the National Hockey League (NHL) board of governors in New York on Wednesday starting with the 2007-2008 season. NHL leaders allowed referees to award any player on a breakaway a penalty shot as long as he was beyond his own team's blueline, rather than beyond the center line under the old rule. NHL referees were given discretion to award major penalties and game misconducts on injuries resulting from interference. Previously, interference calls could only bring minor penalties. Gross
misconduct was stricken from the rules, with any such extraordinary violation of decorum now falling under game misconducts, which when accumulated can lead to suspensions and fines. All faceoffs will now be conducted at one of the nine dots painted upon the rink. There were instances, such as when a puck went into the stands, when a faceoff restarted play on unmarked ice parallel to the nearest dot where the puck left the ice.
■ BASEBALL
Seattle sign Chinese players
The Seattle Mariners signed two Chinese players on Wednesday, two days after the New York Yankees said they were the first major league team to sign players from China with the approval of that country's baseball association.
Infielder-outfielder Yu Bingjia and catcher Wei Wang (王偉), members of the Beijing Tigers in the China Baseball League and of China's national baseball team, signed minor league contracts. They will report to Seattle's summer league team in Australia when not fulfilling national team commitments this summer.
"We are very excited to enter into this new phase of our relationship with Chinese baseball," said Ted Heid, director of Pacific Rim operations for the Mariners, who have signed Japanese League stars Ichiro Suzuki and Kenji Johjima in the last six years.
■ BASKETBALL
Portland hire Larry Miller
Larry Miller, whose 10 years as an executive at shoemaker Nike included running the footwear division, was named the team president of the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday. Miller, most recently Nike's basketball division vice president and general manager, takes over the team with the top pick in next week's NBA Draft, expected to be used on US college star Greg Oden. "Larry is a pre-eminent figure in the basketball industry and one of the most widely respected sports professionals in the country," Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen said.
■ RUGBY UNION
Sowerby joins Toulouse
Stade Francais' South African backrow forward Shaun Sowerby has joined rival top French rugby union side Toulouse, the Pyrenean club reported on Wednesday. The 29-year-old, who has not played competitively since breaking his left ankle last October, has joined on a two year deal with an option of a one year extension. "We had the chance to sign him and we didn't let that opportunity go begging," Toulouse director Jean-Michel Rancoule said.
■ RUGBY UNION
Waratahs seek solution
The New South Wales Waratahs have responded to their poor Super 14 rugby season by seeking an attack-oriented coach and an independent selector to work with head coach Ewen McKenzie. The Waratahs endured one of their worst southern hemisphere provincial series, winning three games to finish only above Australian rivals Queensland Reds in this year's tournament. The New South Wales Rugby Board undertook a review of the season and endorsed four recommendations from the inquest. The Waratahs will advertise for an attack coach to work with McKenzie, add an independent member to the selection panel, form a rugby advisory panel and put its "High Performance Unit" under a complete review.
■ SOCCER
Pele's arms stolen
Vandals sawed the arms off a statue of Pele in Salvador, Brazil, and police are scouring scrap metal yards and art workshops looking for them. A bronze replica of the World Cup trophy, which had been held above the statue's head, was also missing, officials said on Wednesday. "The destruction of a landmark like this is a condemnable act," said Raimundo Nonato, the head of the Bahia state sports affairs department. "It is a tragedy and we are indignant." Police discovered the statue's arms were missing on Saturday and believe they were taken on Friday night, the Bahia state public safety department said.
■ BASKETBALL
Panathinaikos clinch title
European champion Panathinaikos beat rival Olympiakos 89-76 on Wednesday to win its fifth straight Greek league basketball title. Lithuania forward Ramunas Siskauskas led Panathinaikos with 16 points. The Athens club, which has won nine titles in the last 10 years, won the best-of-five playoff series 3-2. "This is a great result and it was a great game," Panathinaikos captain Frangiskos Alvertis said. "All credit to Olympiakos. They played very well in all of the five games." Last month, Panathinaikos won its fourth European championship, beating defending champion CSKA Moscow in Athens. Police arrested five fans before Wednesday's match, and detained 71 other supporters who were later released.
■ SOCCER
Bogus bags of air banned
A Chinese firm which once tried to sell land on the moon has been banned from a more down-to-earth venture of selling bags of "World Cup air" to fans hoping to recreate the soccer tournament's atmosphere. Beijing Lunar Village Aeronautics Science and Technology lost a suit against the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, which refused its application to sell "special air from a special place," Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. A court last year ruled against the company's plan to sell green plastic bags full of air from stadiums that hosted matches in last year's soccer World Cup.
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