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■ SOCCER
Uzbekistan thrash Taiwan
Maxim Shatskikh scored five goals to help Uzbekistan hammer a hapless Taiwan 9-0 in their opening 2010 World Cup qualifier in Tashkent yesterday. The Uzbek captain bagged his hat-trick inside 35 minutes and added a fourth in the 67th minute after Timur Kapadze (26) Viktor Karpenko (44) and Ulugbek Bakayev (55) had put the hosts six goals up. Shavkat Salomov increased the lead for the former Asian Cup champions on 69 minutes before Dynamo Kyiv striker Shatskikh netted his fifth 13 minutes from time. The former Soviet republic, 62nd in the FIFA rankings, have never qualified for the World Cup finals.

■ CAMEL RACING
Humped runners lift gloom
Fans starved of horse racing because of an outbreak of equine influenza received some relief when camels took to the track in Sydney. The strictly no-betting race meet took place on Friday night at Harold Park Paceway, which is among tracks where racing has been suspended during the disease outbreak. John Dumesny, the chief executive of Harold Park, said the camel meet gave a moral boost to track workers who have been hit hard by the disease outbreak. "They've had no work for six weeks, and it's given them a lift and the gloom has sort of gone," he said. Several thousand people attended Friday night's races, with the same six camels running in seven races. Jockeys were selected from volunteers from the crowd, and cheered on as the beasts loped around the track -- and were rewarded with a bucketful of grain after each race.

■ SOCCER
Germans draw minus striker
Playing without the Iranian-born striker who refused to compete in Israel, Germany were held to a 2-2 draw by the Israelis in an under-21 European Championship qualifier on Friday. Ashkan Dejagah, who was born in Iran but moved to Germany as a child, cited "political reasons" and his Iranian descent for pulling out of the match in Tel Aviv. The decision sparked a public outcry in Germany this week, with Jewish leaders calling for his exclusion from the national team. Media reports said Dejagah had been suspended indefinitely but the German soccer federation said that wasn't the case. "Our president [Theo Zwanziger] never said that he would be suspended," federation press officer Jens Grittner said. Zwanziger will soon meet with Dejagah to clarify the situation, he said.

■ BOXING
Violent fighter in trouble
Japanese boxer Daiki Kameda could face a ban for violent behavior during his defeat by Daisuke Naito in a world title fight. Naito retained his WBC flyweight belt on Thursday with a unanimous decision over the 18-year-old Kameda, who was docked three points after his patience snapped in the 12th round. Kameda was docked a point for punching Naito while both men wrestled on the canvas. He was then penalized a further two points for picking up Naito and slamming him down, triggering howls of derision from a Tokyo crowd squarely behind Naito. Daiki could now face suspension, along with his father and coach Shiro. Shiro Kameda, who was already walking a tightrope with the JBC over past misdemeanors, could now have his license suspended for abusing the match referee. To make matters worse for the controversial boxing family, television microphones picked up Daiki's brother,who was in his corner, telling his younger brother to elbow Naito in the eye.


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