■ TENNIS
Britain's Henman to retire
Britain's Tim Henman announced his retirement from tennis on Thursday. The 32-year-old, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals four times, said his last tournament will be Great Britain's Davis Cup tie against Croatia at the All England Club from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23. Henman, who turns 33 on Sept. 6, has been plagued by a back injury this year and has won just three tour matches. As a result, the former world No. 4 has seen his ranking slump to No. 92 in the world.
■ SOCCER
Kasey Keller joins Fulham
Goalkeeper Kasey Keller of the US joined Premier League side Fulham on Thursday. The length of Keller's contract and financial details were not disclosed by Fulham. The 37-year-old goalkeeper left Borussia Moenchengladbach last season after two-and-a-half years when the club was relegated to Germany's second division. "Kasey is a proven professional with impeccable international credentials," Fulham manager Lawrie Sanchez said. "It's vital that we have cover in all areas throughout the squad and I think he will be a valuable asset to us over the course of the season."
■ OLYMPICS
IOC head praises car plan
International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge yesterday praised Beijing's move to haul more than a million cars off the roads in an ambitious anti-pollution test ahead of next year's Games. Rogge had expressed serious concerns over the city's notorious smog and warned that some endurance events may have to rescheduled. "Definitely the IOC supports the move decided by BOCOG [Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games] and by the Chinese authorities," Rogge said. "This is not for the Games only, it's to reduce traffic and improve atmospheric conditions."
■ SOCCER
Expats ready to kick off
The fourth season of the Tavern Premier League will hopefully finally start tomorrow following delays due to bad weather and Typhoon Sepat. For the first time the expat teams are joined in the competition by a local Taiwanese side, Taipei Football Club. Tomorrow's fixture are Celts FC against Da'an Mixers at 9:30am; reigning champions Carnegies Taipei play. Shane FC at 11:15am; JFC meet the Taipei Eagles at 1pm; and Taipei Football Club play their first match against Taipei Black Stars FC at 2:30pm. All the games take place at the Yingfeng Sports Park, next to Dajia Riverside Park, off Bingjiang Street in Taipei (迎風河濱運動場靠近濱江街, 台北).
■ SOCCER
Chelsea sign up Belleti
Chelsea signed right back Juliano Belletti from FC Barcelona on Thursday for an undisclosed fee. The 31-year-old defender, best known for scoring the winning goal for Barcelona against Arsenal in last year's Champions League final, completed the move after agreeing to contract terms with the Blues and passing a medical test. Chelsea's signing of Belletti suggests the club has finally accepted defeat in its attempt to sign another Brazilian right back, Daniel Alves, from Sevilla. Chelsea was linked with Alves for several months and the player said he wanted to move, but the clubs could not reach agreement over a transfer. "It has all been a great surprise," Belletti 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