■ BASEBALL
Dodgers' trip delayed
The Los Angeles Dodgers' trip to China next week will be delayed by a day. Originally scheduled to make the long flight to Beijing on Monday, the team will depart from Orlando the following day because the original charter company contracted by Major League Baseball didn't receive approval to land in China before its deadline. Now, the Dodgers will bus to Orlando on Monday and spend the night before departing on another charter. Team spokesman Josh Rawitch said the team will arrive about 20 hours later than originally scheduled. "The only thing it really does is eliminate the off-day there," manager Joe Torre said. "It just makes sightseeing a little tighter. We'll work out here [on Monday] before heading to Orlando."
■ ATHLETICS
Sprinter Roger Gill dies
Roger Gill, a sprinter who competed for Guyana at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, was killed in a Brooklyn car crash. He was 35. The car in which Gill was riding hit an unoccupied box truck early on Sunday. He died at a hospital, police said. Warren Davies, the 35-year-old driver, died at the scene and investigators believe he might have been speeding. Gill ran the anchor leg in the 4x400m relay in Atlanta. Guyana finished sixth out of seven teams in their first-round heat and did not advance.
■ RUGBY UNION
Nathan Sharpe re-signs
Australia lock Nathan Sharpe has signed a three-year extension deal with the Wallabies in the hope of finishing his career with a World Cup victory. The 30-year-old Sharpe played at the last two World Cups without success, reaching the final in 2003 then the quarter-finals last year, but hopes to have one final crack at it in 2011. "I really want to be there again in 2011. It's something I would love to be a part of," he said in a statement yesterday. "If I do get the opportunity, it would be a great way to finish up. I think I'd quite literally hang the boots in the locker room at the end of it all. I look on the next World Cup as my last throw of the dice, and this contract as the last one of my career."
■ RUGBY UNION
Nel and Engels suspended
Bulls center JP Nel and prop Jaco Engels will miss Friday's South African Super 14 derby at home to the Lions after being suspended for foul play. Engels was suspended for three matches for punching Sharks captain Johann Muller during the Bulls' 29-15 home loss in Pretoria last Saturday, a South African Rugby Union spokesman said on Monday. Nel was given a one-match ban for a dangerous (spear) tackle on Sharks fullback Frans Steyn in the same match. The suspensions multiply the problems facing the defending champions after losing coach Heyneke Meyer and captain Victor Matfield.
■ FOOTBALL
Ben Roethlisberger re-signs
Star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger signed an eight-year extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday that is worth US$102 million and makes him one of the NFL's top-paid players. "He's a Steeler and he'll always be a Steeler," team chairman Dan Rooney said. The agreement comes after Roethlisberger re-established himself as one of the NFL's best quarterbacks last season, and nearly two years after his life and career were threatened by a motorcycle crash. The serious accident happened a few months after he led the Steelers to victory in the 2006 Super Bowl.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Teng Kai-wei impressed against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday despite an 8-1 loss in the opener of the team’s nine-game road trip. Teng, the only Taiwanese pitcher active in MLB, struck out five while allowing two hits and one walk over four innings at Chase Field to finish with a no decision, as the teams were tied 1-1 when he finished his outing. He surrendered the lone run of his outing in the bottom of the first, which began with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts. Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo advanced to third on
New Zealand yesterday basked in “amazing” athletics glory after winning two gold medals in as many days at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Geordie Beamish on Monday claimed New Zealand’s first track gold in history with a shock victory in the 3,000m steeplechase, while high jumper Hamish Kerr followed with gold on Tuesday to make it an unprecedented double success for a country much better known for rugby than its prowess in track and field. Before this week, the country had won only six golds in total at the championships. Yesterday morning New Zealand were in the giddy position of fourth on
After Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday pitched five hitless innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Rafael Marchon hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer off Blake Treinen with two outs in the ninth inning for a 9-6 win. Brandon Marsh had a two-run homer and Max Kepler added a solo shot in a six-run sixth for Philadelphia. Ohtani’s 50th homer leading off the eighth helped the Dodgers tie the game 6-6. The Phillies erased a 4-0 deficit against Justin Wrobleski in another stunning collapse by the Dodgers bullpen. Philadelphia rallied for four runs in the seventh and eighth innings and another in the
PHOTO FINISH: The finish was closer than at the 2001 championships in Canada, when Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera edged Kenyan Simon Biwott by a single second Alphonce Felix Simbu yesterday snatched gold in the first photo finish at a major championship marathon, edging out German Amanal Petros in a dramatic race to the line to give Tanzania its maiden world title. The photo finish showed the 42.195km race was decided by three hundredths of a second as Simbu surged past the diving Petros at the line, closer than the 0.05-second gap between the gold and silver medalists in the men’s 100m final on Sunday. Simbu and Petros were given the same time of 2 hours, 9 minutes and 48 seconds, the German taking the silver despite
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