■ SOCCER
Robson quits the Blades
Bryan Robson quit as manager of Championship strugglers Sheffield United on Thursday after rejecting an offer to become the Blades' director of football, a club statement said. The former England captain has been replaced by Kevin Blackwell, most recently in charge of cash-strapped Luton Town and before that Leeds United. Blackwell was also the Blades's assistant manager from 2000 to 2004. He will now be assisted by Sam Ellis. Both Robson and coach Brian Kidd left Bramall Lane on Thursday. The Blades, relegated from the Premier League last year, had won just one league match out of their last seven. They are now seven points off the relegation zone and fans protested against Robson after last Saturday's goalless draw with Scunthorpe.
■ CRICKET
Statue of Bird unveiled
Legendary cricket umpire Dickie Bird said he "never dreamed" of being immortalized in bronze as he unveiled a statue of himself in his home town of Barnsley, northern England. The 74-year-old took the wraps off a scale model of a six foot statue which features him in his trademark flat cap and with upraised finger giving a batsman out, that will stand in Barnsley from October. Replicas of the work will also be on display in Melbourne and Mumbai. "I have umpired at four World Cup finals and I was awarded an MBE [Member of the Order of the British Empirel] in 1986, but this moment is right up there with those," Bird said. "Growing up in Barnsley, I never dreamed there would be a statue of me in the middle of the town." He was not keen on the first model produced by sculptor Graham Ibbeson because it appeared too stern, but said he was happy with the artist's "second innings," remodeled to show Bird with a smiling face.
■ SOCCER
Fans threaten to boycott poll
Soccer and politics are proving to be a heady mix in Cyprus and could even swing the vote in presidential elections tomorrow. Polls show the contest is a dead heat between three key candidates, setting the stage for a re-run on Feb. 24 in a political contest which has often been decided by just a few hundred votes. But fans of Cyprus first division team Apollon Limassol have gone on the warpath over soccer officiating in a way the island's political elite cannot ignore. As many as 2,000 Apollon Limassol supporters have turned in their voter registration papers to their fan club and threatened to boycott the elections unless key soccer and refereeing officials are replaced. "That's about 0.8 to 0.9 percent of the electorate I think," said Panicos Zounieris, a spokesman for an Apollon supporters' club. "Fans won't vote unless we see justice done to our team. We will vote for Apollon instead."
■ SOCCER
Romario cleared of doping
Brazilian World Cup winner Romario was cleared of a doping offense and had a three-month suspension quashed on Thursday. The 42-year-old, who quit as player-coach of Vasco da Gama last week, had been banned for 120 days, but a five-man tribunal cleared the former striker who had tested positive for finasteride, a substance used to treat hair loss. Romario, who won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994, had failed the dope test on Oct. 28 after playing for Vasco against Palmeiras and was suspended on Dec. 18. Romario had said that if his suspension was not reduced, then he would call an end to his playing career on March 30, the date on which his contract ends.
■ GOLF
Rain wrecks day's play
Heavy overnight rain and wet grounds forced play at the New Zealand PGA Championship to be abandoned yesterday at the Clearwater Golf Club. Australasian and Nationwide tour officials said they will attempt to play the second round today and finish with 36 holes tomorrow. Canadian David Hearn and Americans Darron Stiles and Matt Bettencourt shot 6-under 66s on Thursday to share the lead after the first round. Americans D.A. Points, Rick Price and Dave Schultz opened with 67s, while Michael Campbell, the 2005 US Open winner, shot a 70.
■ BASLKETBAL
Bulls charge to victory
Kirk Hinrich scored 24 points to lead the Chicago Bulls over Miami 99-92 and send the Heat to their 24th loss in 25 games despite solid outings by Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion on Thursday. Wade scored 30 after pouring in 29 in Tuesday's overtime loss to Denver. Marion had 23 in his third game with Miami since the deal that sent Shaquille O'Neal to Phoenix. But it wasn't enough to prevent the Heat from dropping their ninth straight. Joe Smith had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Chicago and Andres Nocioni scored 18. Sefolosho added 17 points and 12 rebounds. The Bulls also got 10 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks from Thomas, who started in place of Ben Wallace, who missed the game because of a death in his family.
■ FOOTBALL
Kids gain from Patriots' loss
Shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children. Hundreds of shirts and caps, which had been manufactured in advance to celebrate the Patriots' expected victory over the New York Giants, were handed over to children in the city of Diriamba. "The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization. World Vision has links with the NFL and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted "winners" shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl. Winners' shirts and other garments are produced in advance so players and fans can put them on to celebrate immediately after the final whistle of the game.
■ TENNIS
Blake breezes past Chilean
US top seed James Blake used his precision serve and timely break point chances to breeze past Chile's Paul Capdeville 6-1, 6-4 in a second round match at the Delray Beach Championships on Thursday. Blake won 85 percent (11 of 13) of his first-serve points with a 68 percent serve percentage, denying the Chilean any break opportunities in a quick opening set. The world's No. 12 player worked harder in the second set, saving seven of eight break chances against Capdeville. Blake capitalized on both break chances of his own and served out the final game for the match. Blake was due to face Igor Kunitsyn in the quarter-finals yesterday. Third-seed Sam Querry moved on with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, and was due to face compatriot Vince Spadea, who defeated Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
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