■ MOTORCYCLING
Italians probe Rossi's tax
Seven-time motorcycling world champion Valentino Rossi is being investigated for alleged tax evasion, authorities said. Italy's tax agency said on Wednesday it was investigating the 28-year-old Rossi for possible undeclared earnings of 60 million euros (US$82.8 million) from 2000 to 2004. Rossi, who has been a British resident since 2000, allegedly did not declare revenues from sponsorship or his team to either British or Italian authorities during that period, the agency said in a statement. Rossi said he respected the tax agency's work and that his advisers were "examining the question." He stressed that he had lived in London since 2000 but traveled seven months out of the year for work and also visited Italy to see family, friends and to vacation, the Apcom news agency reported. Italy's deputy economy minister, Vincenzo Visco, said he had made inquiries to determine if such a "fictitious" residency in Britain allowed Rossi to avoid paying taxes, the ANSA news agency reported. Such a loophole would "go beyond the norms of competition between states" of the EU, he said.
■ SOCCER
Malaysian bookie jailed
A Malaysian soccer bookmaker was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 1 million ringgit (US$286,000) for accepting bets on European matches, reports said yesterday. Ong Seh Sen was accused of running an illegal gambling operation on matches played in the English, Spanish and Italian soccer leagues, and became the first Malaysian bookie convicted under an anti-money laundering law, the New Straits Times said. The 37-year-old allegedly used a security equipment company as a front for Internet and telephone betting schemes, the report said.
■ ATHLETICS
Jamaica squad selected
Asafa Powell, the world 100m record holder, and Veronica Campbell, the 200m Olympic champion, will lead the Jamaican team at the athletics World Championships beginning later this month in Japan. Both are Jamaica's best hopes for gold in Osaka. Powell has this season's best time of 9.90 seconds, and Campbell ran 10.89 seconds in the 100m and 22.39 seconds in the 200m to win the Jamaican National Championship titles in June.
■ BOXING
Marquez wins in the second
Former IBF junior middleweight champion Raul Marquez won his fifth consecutive bout, stopping Jay Pina in the second round on Wednesday night in Hollywood, Florida. Marquez overwhelmed Pina with a flurry of unanswered combinations near the ropes in the second round of the super middleweight bout. Pina was defenseless and unable to counter any of Marquez's shots when referee Frank Santore stopped the bout 1 minute, 2 seconds into the round.
■ SOCCER
Nowak to coach US team
Former Polish international Peter Nowak will coach the US under-23 national team that will attempt to qualify for next year's Olympics. The 43-year-old Nowak, an assistant manager with the senior US team since December, takes over from Bob Bradley, currently the head coach of the full team. "Qualifying for the Olympic Games is one of the major goals of our national team programs, and we believe Peter is the right man to lead our efforts," US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati said.
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