■ RUGBY UNION
Wilkinson nurses hangover
England's teetotal fly-half Jonny Wilkinson revealed he broke the habit of a lifetime after the World Cup final defeat to South Africa on Saturday and ended up nursing a hangover. "I suspect that it is widely known that I am teetotal. Well I broke the habit of pretty much a lifetime after the game on Saturday night and had a bit of a blow-out. It was the first time in years and simply seemed the right time and the right thing to do," he wrote in his column in the Times. He also said his injured right ankle troubled him throughout the tournament and he had to have treatment on it almost every day and at half-time during the final. "I haven't been able to kick on the right foot at all," he wrote.
■ Cricket
Ponting praises Johnson
Left-arm seamer Mitchell Johnson has advanced his claims for a place in Australia's Test team, captain Ricky Ponting said yesterday. Johnson was Australia's leading bowler in the recent one-day series in India and is likely to join Brett Lee and Stuart Clark in a three-pronged pace attack for the first test against Sri Lanka in Brisbane starting on Nov. 8. "Mitchell Johnson has come along in leaps and bounds," Ponting told reporters after arriving home in Sydney from India. "When we've got young fast bowlers like him it just takes them a few breakout performances to really feel part of the team. He's had a good solid run at it and we've all seen over the last few weeks just how much potential he has got. He's done everything right as far as putting his name up in front of the selectors."
■ SOCCER
Galaxy miss playoff place
David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy were knocked out of playoff contention on Sunday when the Galaxy fell 1-0 to the Chicago Fire on the final day of Major League Soccer's regular season. The Galaxy, who had mounted a six-game unbeaten streak to keep their playoff hopes alive, needed a victory in order to advance to the eight-team championship playoffs of the 13-team league. Starting the game on the bench, Beckham came on in the 58th minute, but could not add any spark to his team. The Fire only needed a draw but managed to go one better with a 90th-minute goal to claim the last playoff spot, leaving Beckham to lament the club's early season struggles before his July arrival. "We've had a good run, but obviously early season form is what has affected us more than anything," Beckham said after the game.
■ Baseball
Torre claim slammed
Departing New York Yankees manager Joe Torre's claim that the club's contract offer to him was an insult prompted an angry response from Hank Steinbrenner on Sunday. "Where was Joe's career in '95 when my dad hired him? My dad was crucified for hiring him," Steinbrenner told the New York Post. "Let's not forget what my dad did in giving him that opportunity -- and the great team he was handed," added Steinbrenner, who with his brother Hal has lately begun taking more responsibility for the franchise. Torre guided the Yankees to four World Series titles and never missed taking them to the playoffs in his 12-year tenure as manager. But he walked away from the club after receiving a one-year offer worth US$5 million with performance-based incentives. Torre, whose US$7.5 salary this year was more than double that of his nearest rival, said he found the incentive bonuses "an insult."
Agencies";
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