■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.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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