■ OLYMPICS
China gymnasts ‘old enough’
China has denied reports that two of its female gymnasts are too young to compete in next month’s Beijing Olympics, state media reported yesterday. “Our Olympic squads were recently named and we registered their ages according to their ID cards and other legal documents presented by their regional gymnastics associations. [The documents] show they are all over the minimum age for the Olympics,” Zhang Peiwen, manager of China’s national gymnastics team, told the China Daily. Chinese media and the New York Times have raised questions about whether He Kexin (何可欣) and Jiang Yuyuan (江鈺源), two athletes named in the squad, have yet turned 16, which became the minimum age for Olympic competitors in 1997. Online records listing Chinese gymnasts along with reports in Chinese news media indicated that He and Jiang could be as young as 14, the New York Times report said.
■ RUGBY UNION
MacDonald to miss rematch
All Blacks fullback Leon MacDonald was yesterday ruled out of next weekend’s Tri-Nations rugby rematch against Australia, adding pressure to New Zealand’s attempt to even the ledger. Team doctor Deb Robinson said MacDonald had ongoing concussion symptoms after suffering a blow to the head during the 30-28 loss to South Africa on July 12. Although called back into the side for next weekend’s match, MacDonald continued to be fatigued in training and at team meetings, signs he was still feeling the effects of the blow, Robinson said. There was no immediate word on a replacement, but the selectors may revert to last week’s fullback Mils Muliaina who had been moved to the wing to make way for MacDonald.
■ OLYMPICS
Asahara offers bathtub tips
Veteran Japanese sprinter Nobuharu Asahara is so eager to help his younger team mates cope with the pressure of the Olympics he has been offering advice while soaking in the bath. The 36-year-old, set to run in his fourth Olympics, is fast running out of places to hide from questions from fellow athletes. “The Olympics are nearly here so I’ve been bombarding him with questions,” the country’s top sprinter Shingo Suetsugu told local media. “We have even been talking in the [communal] bath. It’s a real help. He’s always ready to help and never shows his nerves. It has a calming effect on the athletes.” Asahara secured his Beijing spot by finishing runner-up in the 100m at the Japanese national championships last month behind Naoki Tsukahara. “The age gap doesn’t bother me,” Asahara said. “I try to be friendly with everyone. I have had experience of being unable to peak or recover [between races] so hopefully I can help them.”
■ BOXING
Billy Graham to retire
British boxer Ricky Hatton will be without his trainer for November’s IBF light welterweight title fight against Paulie Malignaggi after he announced his retirement. Billy Graham, Hatton’s trainer of 11 years, said he would retire following a fight tomorrow. His previous fight with Hatton was Hatton’s lopsided points victory over Juan Lazcano in an IBO light welterweight title fight in May. “Ricky and Billy had a meeting yesterday in which Billy admitted he was not going any further,” Hatton’s father, Ray, said. “It was quite emotional because they have been together for so long.”
■ BASKETBALL
Serb leaves NBA for Europe
New Jersey Nets forward Nanad Krstic has signed a two-year deal to play for Triumph Moscow, his agent told ESPN on Tuesday, making the Serbian the sixth non-US player to bolt the NBA for Europe this year. The deal with the Russian club, worth about US$9 million, came after agent Marc Cornstein searched in vain to find a deal with NBA clubs, Cornstein told ESPN. “At the end of the day, Triumph offered him the most love,” Cornstein said. “This was too good of a deal to pass up for him.” Others to leave the US elite league for Europe since the season ended include Slovenia’s Bostjan Nachbar and Primoz Brezec, Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro and Jorge Garbajosa and Argentina’s Carlos Delfino. The top US player to spurn the NBA for more money in Europe was Josh Childress, who dumped the Atlanta Hawks and inked a three-year deal with Greece’s Olympiakos for US$20 million.
■ BASEBALL
Little League turns to video
Little League Baseball will use instant replay at this year’s World Series to review questionable home runs and other close plays at the outfield fence. The limited replay system would be in place on an experimental basis when this year’s tournament begins Aug. 15 and be reevaluated following the series, Little League president Stephen Keener said on Tuesday. Replay would be used “to overturn an obvious wrong,” said Dennis Lewin, chairman of Little League’s Board of Directors. The rule limits replay to instances in which a batted ball “leaves the field of play at or near the outfield fence, or should have been ruled out of the field of play” at or near the fence. A Little League “game operations replay official” would need “clear and convincing” evidence to overturn an umpire’s ruling on the field, according to the rule. Replays would likely be rarely used, Keener said, and if used would likely cause a delay of 30 to 45 seconds. “I think that’s easily a fair trade off,” Keener said on Tuesday. “I think everyone would agree that getting it right is most important.”
■ BASEBALL
Suzuki reaches 3,000 hits
Ichiro Suzuki reached 3,000 combined hits in US Major League Baseball and the Japanese leagues with a first-inning single on Tuesday night against the Texas Rangers. The Seattle Mariners leadoff man hit a soft liner to left-center on the game’s first pitch from Luis Mendoza. Standing on first base, Suzuki received an ovation from the Texas crowd and tipped his helmet when his achievement was posted on the scoreboard. The 34-year-old Suzuki has 1,722 hits in 1,224 games during his eight seasons with the Mariners. He had 1,278 hits over 951 games in nine seasons with the Orix Blue Wave of Japan’s Pacific League. Only one player in Japanese league history reached 3,000 hits: Isao Harimoto with 3,085. A total of 27 players have compiled at least 3,000 hits in US MLB history. “That’s a tremendous achievement for the short time he’s been over here,” Mariners manager Jim Riggleman said before the game.
■ BASEBALL
Minor leaguers suspended
Three St. Louis Cardinals minor leaguers were suspended for 50 games each after testing positive for steroids. The Major League Baseball commissioner’s office said on Tuesday the suspensions of pitchers Braulin Beltre and Yedilson Pena and outfielder Andres Beras take effect immediately. All are on the Cardinals’ Dominican Summer League team. Beltre and Beras tested positive for boldenone and Pena for stanozolol.
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