■ BOXING
Ali awaits B sample result
Top US amateur boxer Sadam Ali is awaiting the B sample result from a positive doping test for cathine, a banned stimulant found in some cold medicines. Ali, a lightweight who won the 2006 US Golden Gloves, tested positive at an exhibition in China in November. The 19-year-old from New York has gone on a voluntary suspension while awaiting the results. Jim Millman, the CEO of USA Boxing, said Ali and five other US boxers suffered from flu-like symptoms while in China. Possible penalties, which would be handed down by the International Amateur Boxing Association, could range from a warning to a two-year suspension. To have a chance at making the Olympics, Ali must be eligible for an Olympic qualifier scheduled for March 10 to March 18 in Trinidad and Tobago.
■ SOCCER
Fans make racist threats
The Serbian Orthodox Church in the southern Croatian town of Split said on Wednesday it received a letter purporting to be from fans of Croatian First Division side Hajduk Split threatening ethnic Serbs and Jews with "extermination." The letter signed with "Hajduk Jugend," a direct allusion to the "Hitler Jugend" (Hitler Youth) glorified Croatia's World War II Nazi-allied regime and listed threats such as "Serbs should be hanged high," and "Juden Raus," the statement from the church said. The church, which posted the letter on its Web site, added that Croatian police were investigating threats. Media were already reporting last year that fans of Hajduk Split sold and wore T-shirts bearing Nazi symbols and reading "Hajduk Jugend."
■ SOCCER
`Geordie messiah' returns
Newcastle United dramatically turned the clock back more than a decade on Wednesday by naming Kevin Keegan as manager. Keegan, 56, who played for the Geordies in the 1980s and managed them for five years in the 1990s, was chosen as the club's fifth boss in three and a half years. He succeeds Sam Allardyce who left last week after eight months in the job. "Geordie messiah to be unveiled as new manager," read a headline on the club's official Web site ahead of Wednesday night's 4-1 win over Championship (second division) side Stoke City in an FA Cup third-round replay. Keegan, who has signed a three-and-a-half-year contract according to British media reports, attended the Stoke match and was given a rapturous welcome by Newcastle's fans when they saw him enter the directors' box soon after kickoff.
■ Soccer
Podolski linked with City
Bayern Munich's unsettled Germany international Lukas Podolski could be on his way to English Premier League club Manchester City, according to Sport Bild. Podolski signed a four-year deal with Bayern in July 2006 in the wake of being voted the best young player at the World Cup, but has since failed to cement a regular starting place in the Bundesliga side. According to the magazine, Podolski and his agent have already held talks with City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, and Bayern chiefs have already held talks with a representative of the English club. City are reportedly willing to pay the Bundesliga giants £16 million (US$32 million), although Bayern do not want Podolski to leave before the end of the season.
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