■ FOOTBALL
Dolphins sign McKinney
The Miami Dolphins continued to strengthen their offensive line by signing 10-year league veteran Steve McKinney as a free agent on Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed by the team on their official Web site. “It’s a good fit for me,” McKinney, 32, was quoted as saying by the Miami Herald. “I like the organization. I like the coaches. I like the guys they brought in and I feel like it’s a place where I’m going to have a real chance to play.” Last month, Miami signed Michigan offensive tackle Jake Long, the number one selection in the NFL draft, to a five-year, US$57 million contract.
■ TENNIS
Edberg to play Sampras
Sweden’s former men’s world No. 1 Stefan Edberg, who has not played competitive tennis since he retired 12 years ago, could be set to face old rival Pete Sampras after agreeing to play two events on the Tour of Champions. The 42-year-old six-time Grand Slam winner will play in the Trophee Jean-Luc Lagardere in Paris in September and at London’s Royal Albert Hall in London in December. Sampras, who like Edberg has committed himself to playing two of the tour events this year, is delighted at the prospect of playing the Swede again after a hiatus of 13 years. “It’s great to hear that Stefan is going to be playing because he’s a great guy and a great player,” Sampras said.
■ GOLF
Woods plans two-day clinic
Tiger Woods is not sure if he will play before the US Open, but the world golf No. 1, who is recovering from left knee surgery, is already making plans next month for after the event. Woods will play at the Buick Open from June 26-29 and conduct a clinic two days before the opening round at the home ballpark for Major League Baseball’s Detroit Tigers, tournament officials announced on Monday. While the team is not named for the 13-time major champion, the Tigers’ stadium provides a perfect backdrop for his first ballpark clinic, with tiger heads along the walls and giant concrete tigers at entry points.
■ ICE HOCKEY
Classic battle set for 2010
Russia’s dethroning of Canada to become hockey World Champions has not only revived a classic rivalry but helped set the stage for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. After a 5-4 overtime loss to Russia in the championship game, Canada can be thankful there is no home-team curse when it comes to the Winter Games. The last time a country won the worlds on home ice was the former Soviet Union’s victory in 1986 in Moscow. And the Big Red Machine was back on Sunday in Quebec City showing the world that they can play as a team and not just as a group of individual stars.
■ ICE SKATING
Yamaguchi skates perfectly
Kristi Yamaguchi could not have done any better at the Dancing With the Stars finals on Monday. The figure-skating champ earned a perfect score of 60 for her two dances on Monday, putting her far ahead of fellow finalists Cristian de la Fuente, who scored 52, and Jason Taylor, who finished with 51, in the television dance competition. Each performed a freestyle routine, and the three finalists shared the floor for a group dance dubbed “the cha-cha face-off.” Yamaguchi came out on top both times. “It’s ladies’ night. You won that hands down,” judge Carrie Ann Inaba told the Olympian after the group dance. Her perfect score easily bested de la Fuente’s 26 points and Taylor’s 24.
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