■BASEBALL
Philippines to meet big guns
After winning their first two matches against Pakistan and Hong Kong, the Philippines yesterday drew their third and final Group B preliminary game of the Asian Baseball Championship with Thailand in Taichung 0-0 after 12 innings to win the group and qualify for the competition proper, which features Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. The winner of the championship gains automatic entry to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
■ Baseball
Selig puts trust in 'love'
Baseball fans' love of their sport reduces concerns about the impact of the Mitchell Report on drug use or the fate of Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said on Wednesday. "We've had this steroid cloud, as it's been referred to, for the last four years and every year we break all-time attendance records and we'll do it again next year," Selig told the Reuters Media Summit, adding that the image of the game was important to him. "The game has this amazing hold on people," Selig said. "Even [despite] the negative things." Baseball revenues increased last season from US$5.2 billion to US$6.08 billion, boosted by record 2007 attendances of more than 78 million.
■ Baseball
Yabuta signs with Royals
Japanese reliever Yasuhiko Yabuta agreed to a two-year contract with the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday and will compete for a spot as the primary setup man. The 34-year-old right-hander spent 12 seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's Pacific League, a team managed by Trey Hillman before he was hired by the Royals after the season. Yabuta has a 44-59 career record with nine saves and a 4.03 ERA in 343 appearances, including 86 starts. Yabuta was 4-6 with four saves and a 2.73 ERA in 58 relief outings this year. He walked 10 in 62 2-3 innings and struck out 45.
■ Figure Skating
Delobel, Schoenfelder lead
European champions Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder of France took the lead in the ice dance event yesterday as the NHK Trophy began to determine the final berths in the Grand Prix final. Delobel and Schoenfelder, who won the French leg of the International Skating Union's Grand Prix series two weeks ago, skated a smooth Argentine Tango to open up lead of more than four points after the compulsory dance. They scored 38.96 points while Canada's Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir were second with 34.67. In third were Russia's Jana Kohkhlova and Sergei Novitski with 34.23. They beat Delobel and Schoenfelder in the free dance in Paris. Later yesterday the pairs were to skate their short program. The ice dance continues today with the original dance.
■ Athletics
Winners get paid at last
Just weeks before the 2007 Las Vegas Marathon, organizers said they paid out top prizes to last year's winners. On Nov. 21, reigning men's champion Joseph Kahugu received his US$15,000 first-place prize, plus his US$50,000 bonus for winning the event's male-female challenge. Fellow Kenyan Jemima Jelagat received her US$15,000 first-place money as the women's winner in last December's race. Shawn Hellebuyck, the agent for Jelagat, said the process dragged out much longer than she could have imagined. "Forty-five days is a good guesstimate, and if there's drug-testing at the event, then perhaps two months," Hellebuyck said. "And there was no drug testing last year.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five