■ SOCCER
Venezuela shock Brazil
Venezuela claimed their first ever victory over Brazil on Friday when they shocked the South American soccer power 2-0 in a friendly international match in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Giancarlo Maldonado, who plays for Atlante of Mexico, opened the scoring in the sixth minute, and Ronald Vargas made it 2-0 for Venezuela in the 44th. Venezuela had never beaten Brazil in 17 previous encounters at international level. This duel, played before a crowd of 54,045 fans at Gilette Stadium, was part of both teams’ preparation for upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
■ BOXING
Mayweather to retire
Floyd Mayweather Jr announced his retirement on Friday. “I have decided to permanently retire from boxing,” Mayweather said in a statement. “This decision was not an easy one for me to make as boxing is all I have done since I was a child. However, these past few years have been extremely difficult for me to find the desire and joy to continue in the sport.” Mayweather’s sudden announcement — not the first time he has voiced an intention to retire — appears to scotch an expected rematch with Oscar De La Hoya in September. Mayweather, 31, won a split decision over De La Hoya in May last year in a bout that earned the highest pay-per-view television revenues in history. In his last appearance in the ring, Mayweather knocked out Briton Ricky Hatton in December.
■ BASEBALL
Bonds trial set for March
Barry Bonds is headed to trial next March on federal charges of lying to a grand jury about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The trial date was set on Friday in San Francisco after Major League Baseball’s home run king pleaded not guilty when he was re-arraigned on 15 felony counts of lying under oath and obstruction of justice. Lead Bonds attorney Allen Ruby pleaded not guilty to the charges on the slugger’s behalf, while Bonds stood silently in front of the judge. Ninety minutes later, Ruby agreed to a March 2 trial date before a second judge.
■ MOTOGP
Lorenzo hospitalized
Jorge Lorenzo injured his right hand and had temporary memory loss after a fall during the second free practice session for the Catalunya Grand Prix in Barcelona on Friday and was taken by helicopter to the hospital. Lorenzo, who is third in this season’s MotoGP standings behind Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedroza, lost control of his Yamaha 14 minutes into the session and appeared to briefly lose consciousness following the fall. He also had severe ankle pain, the Circuit de Catalunya said on its Web site. Lorenzo, who fractured bones in his ankles a month ago in Shanghai, was flown to the Dexeus hospital in Barcelona, the circuit said in a statement.
■ ATHLETICS
‘I will be back,’ Gatlin says
Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin said on Friday his running career was not over, even though he has lost his appeal against a four-year doping ban. “I will definitely be back on the track,” Gatlin, 26, said in a telephone interview from his home in Pensacola, Florida. “I have plans for the next two years but I will be back running.” A Court of Arbitration for Sport panel upheld Gatlin’s doping ban for a 2006 positive test earlier on Friday. The decision means he will not be eligible to compete until July 2010 unless he finds other legal recourse. The 2005 world champion said he wanted his legal team to continue to seek ways for him to return to the track before 2010.
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