Wed, Mar 05, 2008 page19

• Sports Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■ 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.
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