■ FOOTBALL
NFL to reinstate Favre
Disgruntled quarterback Brett Favre was be reinstated by the National Football League (NFL) yesterday, the league said. The three-time NFL MVP announced his retirement in March, but has had a change of heart and now wants to play again. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week he hopes the Packers and the 38-year-old Favre can come to an agreement on where and when he will play again. Despite leading them to a Super Bowl championship, the Packers have not welcomed Favre back with open arms, creating a circus-like standoff. Once he is reinstated, Green Bay will have 24 hours to put Favre on their 80-man roster, trade him or release him. The attention-craving Favre has also reportedly been mulling a multimillion dollar marketing offer from the Packers — a scenario in which the team would pay him as much as US$25 million to stay retired.
■ RUGBY UNION
Sonny Bill in Toulon
New Zealand back-rower Sonny Bill Williams, a star rugby league player in Australia, will be in Toulon on Monday or Tuesday to finalize his contract, the French club said. The president of the Toulon club, Mourad Boudjellal, said everything was on course for him to sign for the club and make his debut in a friendly on Friday. Boudjellal told reporters: “Williams will be in Toulon on Monday or Tuesday. We have discussed things with his agents and we are going to try and complete the move. If everything goes well, he will have his medical on Tuesday and could make his debut in a friendly match on Friday” against Carqueirannes-Hyeres. The 22-year-old, a star player for Australian rugby league side Canterbury, has decided to move to the 15-a-side game and team up with Toulon coach and compatriot Tana Umaga.
■ SWIMMING
Thorpe to sue French paper
Five-time Olympic swimming champion Ian Thorpe has decided to pursue legal proceedings against a French newspaper and journalist he alleges defamed him by publishing claims he used performance-enhancing drugs. A story written by Damien Ressiot and published by the daily sports newspaper L’Equipe in March last year reported that Thorpe gave a urine sample in 2006 that showed abnormal levels of testosterone. The report also said the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) knew of the results but chose not to proceed because of a lack of evidence. In June, Thorpe completed an “issue of intention” in the New South Wales Supreme Court to keep the case active. On Monday, the court in Sydney set a date of Sept. 22 for lawyers on both sides to meet. Thorpe’s lawyer, Tony O’Reilly, said Thorpe wanted to repair the damage done to his reputation by the claims. In August last year, ASADA cleared Thorpe, who retired in December 2006, and said there was no evidence to support the allegation he used performance-enhancing drugs. FINA, swimming’s world governing body, made similar findings.
■ CRICKET
Steyn to miss fourth Test
South African Dale Steyn has been ruled out of this week’s fourth Test against England at the Oval, but should be back for the one-day series, the BBC reported on Sunday. The 24-year-old paceman suffered a fracture to the base of his left thumb and is due to be in a plaster for another week, so he will miss the Oval fixture which starts on Thursday. Steyn missed South Africa’s series-clinching third Test against England at Edgbaston with the injury.
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