■ CRICKET
Cyclone benefit planned
New Zealand will host a Twenty20 match against Bangladesh next month to raise funds for cyclone survivors in the South Asian country, the Bangladesh Cricket Board said yesterday. The game will be played in Hamilton on Dec. 23 during Bangladesh's tour of New Zealand on which they are also due to play three one day internationals and two Tests. Cyclone Sidr struck Bangladesh last week, killing around 3,500 people and leaving thousands missing or homeless.
■ SOCCER
Karlsruher close on leaders
Karlsruher SC strengthened their hold on fourth place in the Bundesliga by rallying to beat Hertha Berlin 2-1 on Friday. Berlin forward Marko Pantelic scored against the run of play in the 35th minute with a long-range shot in a match played in rain. But Tamas Hajnal scored in the 56th minute and Sebastian Freis 10 minutes later as Karlsruher closed within two points of the leaders."I'm happy with how the team came back after the letdown," Karlsruher coach Edmund Becker said. "We turned the match around and deserved the win."
■ RUGBY UNION
Pat Walsh dies aged 71
Former All Black Pat Walsh, who played 13 Tests for New Zealand in four positions, has died at the age of 71, the New Zealand Rugby Union said yesterday. Walsh was the second-youngest player to represent New Zealand when he first wore the All Blacks jersey against Australia in 1955 at the age of 19 years, 106 days. He played at inside center in that match and went on, in an eight-year international career, to play at flyhalf, fullback and winger. Walsh played at fullback and center against South Africa in New Zealand in 1956, a series won by the All Blacks and still regarded as a seminal moment in New Zealand sport.
■ SOCCER
President meets Scolari
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday met with 2002 World Cup winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari to discuss the setting up of a commission aimed at stemming the exodus of soccer players to foreign clubs. Portugal coach Scolari has been personally invited by Lula to contribute to the commission which will hold its first meeting next year. "The commission will meet for the first time at the beginning of next year to discuss ideas suggested by the president and clubs to stem the flight of the stars," Scolari said. "More and more young players are leaving Brazil. Some are losing a little of their Brazilian identity because they live here so little. Measures need to be taken."
■ ATHLETICS
Noguchi to use `magic shoes'
Japan's Mizuki Noguchi will wear a pair of "magic shoes" made of rice husks in her bid to win a second straight Olympic marathon gold in Beijing next year. The 29-year-old hopes her cryogenic pumps will help reduce the temperature of her feet if, as expected, she makes Japan's Olympic team. The grip on the new shoes contains a mixture of rice husks which the designers say will improve air-flow in Beijing's stifling summer heat next year. "They are so light and really easy to run in," Noguchi, who won gold at the 2004 Athens Games, told Japan's Nikkan Sports on Friday. "They're like magic shoes." Noguchi moved closer to defending her Olympic title, and a possible rematch with Britain's Paula Radcliffe, by winning last Sunday's Tokyo International Marathon.
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