■ ENGLAND
Lehmann staying put
Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann will not be signing for Borussia Dortmund due to "personal reasons," the German Bundesliga club announced on Friday. Germany goalkeeper Lehmann is out of favor at Arsenal and looked to be heading back to his former club, who had offered him a contract until the end of the season. But it now appears Lehmann has changed his mind. The 38-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season and the Gunners are believed to be ready to offer him a free transfer.
■ ENGLAND
Reds sign Slovakian
Slovakian defender Martin Skrtel has joined Liverpool from Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg. The 23-year-old has agreed to a four-and-a-half-year deal and will provide cover at center-back with Daniel Agger still working his way back from injury and the 34-year-old Sami Hyypia coming to the end of his Anfield career. Skrtel, who has 15 international caps, is believed to have cost the Reds a fee in the region of £6.5million -- (US$12.7 million) a club record for a defender. "I think he is a player maybe not many people know about but he played against Everton for Zenit St Petersburg and he is a center-half who knows the English style," coach Rafa Benitez said.
■ NORWAY
Solskjaer to be knighted
Former Manchester United star Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be knighted by King Harald V in March for being a role model to children. Solskjaer will be presented with a medal designating him a Knight Class 1 of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav in his hometown of Kristiansund on March 29, the royal palace said on Friday. "What is being honored are his attitudes, his way of being. He is a role model for children and young people," said Egil Vindorum, head of the Oslo place chancellery.
■ ENGLAND
Blackwell to leave Luton
Luton Town manager Kevin Blackwell announced on Friday he would be leaving the financially stricken club next month. The news that Blackwell, his assistant Sam Ellis and head coach John Carver would all be departing came less than a week after Luton sprung a major surprise by holding Liverpool to a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup. But the money-spinning replay that result set-up couldn't disguise the cash problems at the League One club. "We came to Luton Town Football Club last spring with a clear mission," read a statement from the trio. "Very quickly we found that Luton Town Football Club did not do what it said on the tin."
■ SCOTLAND
Motherwell honor O'Donnell
Motherwell are to re-name the main stand at their Fir Park home ground the Phil O'Donnell Stand as a tribute to their club captain who died last month. The club announced the move on Friday after talks with O'Donnell's family and Motherwell fans. O'Donnell died aged 35 from heart failure after collapsing during a match on Dec. 29. Motherwell owner John Boyle said: "Since Phil's death there has been a heartfelt desire by everyone associated with Motherwell and throughout the football world to create a lasting memorial to Phil at Fir Park ... The club and our supporters believe the renaming of the main stand as the Phil O'Donnell Stand is entirely fitting in view of the outstanding contribution Phil made to the club over many years."
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