■ FORMULA ONE
Schumacher drops hints
Former Toyota driver Ralf Schumacher dropped heavy hints yesterday that he would leap at the chance to fill the McLaren seat vacated by Fernando Alonso, calling it the most desirable in Formula One. "It's no secret that the seat at McLaren-Mercedes is by far the most coveted there is," Schumacher told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "Every driver out there in the market would love to sit in their super car." The 32-year-old Schumacher said there had been no contact with McLaren "so far," but that he felt he was good enough to challenge and even beat McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. The German won six grands prix at Williams before moving to Toyota, where he was a disappointment. He was replaced for next season by compatriot Timo Glock.
■ GOLF
Teshima wins Casio Open
Japan's Taichi Teshima birdied the last two holes to beat overnight leader Chris Campbell of Australia for a one-stroke victory at the Casio Open men's tournament in Kochi, Japan, yesterday. Starting the day three strokes behind Campbell, Teshima carded eight birdies against one bogey for a 65 to finish with a four-round total of 13-under-par 275. South Korea's I.J. Chang was third on 277, followed by Japan's Yusaku Miyazato on 279 and Tomohiro Kondo on 280, while American rookie Brandt Snedeker was tied in sixth place with three Japanese golfers on 281. "I've been playing overseas this year and this is my fifth tournament in Japan. I played terrible in the previous tournaments, but this victory brushed aside those bad memories," Teshima, 39, said.
■ CRICKET
Atapattu takes parting shot
Marvan Atapattu made his final goodbye to Sri Lankan cricket yesterday with another scathing attack on the selectors he had earlier described as "Muppets headed by a joker." The 37-year-old, who retired from international cricket earlier this month during the Australian tour, flew out of Colombo to play in the rebel Indian Cricket Twenty20 League, which begins on Friday. Atapattu told local media yesterday the selection process had to be overhauled. "The entire process of selection is highly subjective," the former Test captain said. Atapattu, who had a running feud with chief selector Asantha de Mel over the past year, was quoted saying. "An objective selection process needs to be adopted. Personal feelings and vested interests should be set aside and cool judgements made."
■ Soccer
Rafa asks for understanding
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said the club's American owners need a better understanding of the European soccer transfer market. Benitez is reportedly feuding with George Gillett Jr and Tom Hicks, who bought Liverpool in March, over how much he can spend on new signings in January's transfer window. "They don't understand what the transfer window means in Europe," Benitez said on Saturday. ``They need to understand how difficult it is to sign players. I was trying to explain, now we try to keep focus and win games. If they understand what the market means they will understand we are trying to do the best for the club.'' Gillett and Hicks released a statement Thursday asking Benitez to concentrate on the players he has rather than look to the month-long transfer window in January.
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