■ SKATING
French pair take gold
Years of hard work finally paid off for French ice dancing veterans Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder on Friday when they claimed their first gold in Gothenburg, Sweden, at the world figure skating championships. The six-time French national champions, who have skated together for 18 years, had never made it to the podium at worlds before. They led the dance sections earlier in the week and sealed victory with a routine to the soundtrack from The Piano, which included sign language. Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir took silver with Russians Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitski taking bronze after the free dance final.
■ CYCLING
Anti-doping official sued
Cycling's governing body is suing former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Dick Pound. The International Cycling Union (UCI) and its former president Hein Verbruggen have lodged a complaint in a Swiss court over what they call Pound's "continual injurious and biased comments." The dispute centers on comments by Pound criticizing the role of UCI and Verbruggen in fighting doping in cycling. Pound stepped down this year after heading WADA for eight years. He has regularly clashed with Verbruggen and the UCI over the doping scandals that have rocked the sport. In explaining its course of action, the UCI said that "Pound has publicly questioned the extent of the UCI's efforts in the fight against doping." Pound did not immediately respond on Friday to a message. The Canadian is currently running for the presidency of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, which has settled a number of high-profile doping cases in cycling.
■ RUGBY UNION
White keen on England job
Jake White, the coach who led South Africa to World Cup glory last year, has reiterated his desire to replace Brian Ashton as England head coach if the job were to become available. White, speaking to the Guardian newspaper, also made it clear that the England job was the only one that interested him in world rugby and that he would rule out any chance to step into the vacancy left by Eddie O'Sullivan with Ireland. "I've made no secret of the fact that the job has always appealed to me," White said. "But England have their own review process under way and must decide what's right for them." The English Rugby Football Union are due to decide on the future of Brian Ashton next week and there is speculation that he will either step down voluntarily or be asked to leave.
■ SOCCER
Ancelotti dismisses rumors
AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has dismissed speculation he is set to take over as Italy coach from Roberto Donadoni after Euro 2008. "It pleases me to hear my name linked to the Azzurri bench, but I believe it is impossible," Ancelotti told a news conference on Friday. "I could only train the national team after 2010 [when my contract with Milan expires]. Donadoni deserves to stay, he is doing well and I hope he faces the European Championship with the utmost calm and takes the national team to the 2010 World Cup." Thursday's Italian Soccer Federation statement that Donadoni's future would not be decided until after Euro 2008 in June had fuelled media speculation linking Ancelotti to the job.
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