■ FORMULA ONE
Singapore to host night race
Singapore will host its first Formula One race next season -- and it will be the sport's first at night. The World Motor Sport Council on Wednesday released the F1 schedule for next year, and Singapore was listed as the 15th event on the 18-race calendar. It will be held on a street circuit on Sept. 28. The season will begin in Melbourne, Australia, on March 13. The calendar also includes 10 races in Europe, along with others in Malaysia, Bahrain, Canada, Japan, China and Brazil.
■ FOOTBALL
NFL bolsters medical fund
The NFL added US$10 million to its medical fund for retired players on Wednesday, designating the money for joint replacement surgery, cardiovascular screening and assisted living. The sum will be added to a US$7 million fund agreed upon in July by the league and its players' union. It will be supplemented by money from player fines, contribution from the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and other retired players groups. This is the latest step in a dispute concerning retired players and their pensions. Last year, a group of prominent retirees targeted Gene Upshaw, the NFLPA's executive director, for paying too much attention to current players and not enough to former players. In May, the NFL, the NFLPA, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL alumni association formed what was dubbed "The Alliance" to help retired players. Two months later, commissioner Roger Goodell, Upshaw and 11 retired players met in Washington and announced a US$7 million fund for medical needs.
■ FORMULA ONE
Spyker to change its name
The Spyker team will be renamed Force India in the next Formula One season. The World Motor Sport council allowed the name change at a meeting on Wednesday. The team, based in Silverstone, England, was bought by Indian businessman Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneur Michiel Mol earlier this month. Mallya and Mol are the third owners in two years for the former Jordan team. The Midland group took over in 2005, before selling to Spyker in September last year. Adrian Sutil was the most successful driver for Spyker this season with one point for the team to finish last in the constructors' championship. The other Spyker drivers -- Sakon Yamamoto, Christian Albers and Markus Winkelhock -- finished in the final three places in the standings. Albers was fired in July because of commercial difficulties. He was first replaced by Albers, then Yamamoto.
■ BASKETBALL
Heat swap Walker for Davis
The Miami Heat shipped discontented Antoine Walker to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Ricky Davis on Wednesday as part of a five-player swap between the NBA teams. The Heat also received veteran center Mark Blount, and the Timberwolves acquired forwards Michael Doleac and Wayne Simien along with a conditional first-round draft pick. Walker, 31, joins his fifth team since the beginning of the 2003-2004 season. Although he helped the Heat to the NBA championship last year, Walker never seemed quite at home in Miami, battling injury and weight problems. He clashed with coach Pat Riley and served a brief team-imposed suspension last season over his body-fat measurements, which were outside team limits.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB