■ OLYMPIC
Angry wife hijacks TV event
The wife of a top sports anchor on Chinese state television has created a buzz in the blogosphere by crashing an Olympic media event -- to publicly accuse her husband of adultery. A video clip of Zhang Bin's wife Hu Ziwei commandeering a microphone at a China Central Television (CCTV) presentation of its coverage plans was easily one of the most viewed items on Chinese video site Tudou.com yesterday. Friday's event in Beijing was meant to rebrand CCTV's sports channel as "The Olympic Channel" for the August Olympic Games hosted by the Chinese capital, but it quickly turned embarrassing for the state broadcaster. "Today is a special day for The Olympic Channel and a special day for Mr Zhang Bin, and for me too," said Hu, herself a presenter on another network. "Because just two hours ago, I found out that besides me, Mr Zhang Bin has been maintaining an improper relationship with another woman." Zhang could only stand by stone-faced as Hu went into details, fending off attempts to remove her from the podium.
■ CRICKET
Black Caps recall Bell
Opening batsmen Matthew Bell has been recalled after five years to the New Zealand cricket team for the Test series against Bangladesh starting on Friday. Bell played the most recent of his 13 Tests against Australia in the 2001-2002 season before being discarded as New Zealand repeatedly reshaped their opening partnerships. He has made one century and two half-centuries in Tests, averaging 22 in 23 innings. Bell scored 722 runs at an average of 103 and with a top score of 265 in domestic first-class matches this season. Australian-born opener Mathew Sinclair has also been offered the chance to expand on his 27-Test career with his inclusion in New Zealand's 12-man squad, captained by Daniel Vettori.
■ SOCCER
Gillot set to join Sochaux
Francis Gillot looks set to become the new coach of French first division strugglers FC Sochaux after the club announced on Sunday they were in advanced negotiations with the former Lens boss. If given the green light Gillot will replace caretaker manager Jean-Luc Ruty, who was placed in charge after the club sacked head coach Frederic Hantz last month. "Nothing has been decided yet. We are still in negotiations," said the club's administrative director, Pierre Wantiez. "If everything goes well, it should be announced tomorrow [Monday] but there won't be an announcement tonight [Sunday]."
■ RUGBY UNION
Williams gets Ulster job
Former Scotland coach Matt Williams has been appointed head coach of Ulster on a two-and-a-half year contract, the Irish Province announced on Sunday. The 46-year-old Australian, who previously coached Ulster's Irish rivals Leinster, with whom he won the Celtic League, and New South Wales has replaced Mark McCall who resigned after a string of poor results. Williams will meet the squad on a short trip to Belfast later this week but will take over permanently at the end of this month. Caretaker coach Steve Williams will remain in charge for Ulster's next three games. Williams endured a torrid time in the Scotland hotseat. In two years, he won just three out of 17 games and was sacked along with his backroom staff in April 2005.
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