■RUGBY
Bulldogs concede defeat
Australian Rugby League authorities yesterday conceded defeat in their bid to prevent the defection of the game’s best player to French Rugby Union club Toulon. Sonny Bill Williams, the Sydney Bulldogs star and New Zealand international, fled Australia for France three weeks ago despite having four years remaining on his contract and seven games left in the season. The 23-year-old glamor boy didn’t give notice to his club, tell his teammates or inform the National Rugby League that administers the game. Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg told national broadcaster ABC that the club had agreed to accept around A$750,000 (US$563,000) from Toulon to cancel Williams’ contract. The Bulldogs had sought A$2 million, citing the damage that the runaway center had caused. “It’s affected our recruitment, it’s affected our players currently, it’s affected our sponsorship and it will affect our attendances,” Greenberg said.
■SOCCER
Spurs close in on Arshavin
Russian striker Andrei Arshavin is close to signing for Tottenham after his club Zenit St Petersburg agreed to lower their original £20 million (US$37.2 million) asking price. Arshavin, encouraged by a conversation with head coach Juande Ramos, is willing to join Spurs after initially declaring Barcelona as his preferred destination. Spurs are in the market for strikers following the departure of Robbie Keane to Liverpool and Dimitar Berbatov wanting to leave White Hart Lane for Manchester United. Arshavin would be seen as a like-for-like replacement for Keane. “There are only small differences left,” Zenit sporting director Konstantin Sarsaniya told Sovetsky Sport, who suggested a deal could be concluded over the weekend. “Zenit have decided to reduce the asking price for Andrei, but exactly how much I cannot say because the negotiations were led by Zenit president Alexander Dyukov.” Berbatov has told Spurs officials he wants to leave for United, but a fee being agreed between the clubs has not been announced.
■RUGBY WORLD CUP
Russia, Jamaica enter bids
Unheralded Russia and Jamaica submitted surprise bids to host the World Cup on Friday. Ten nations expressed a formal intention to stage the 2015 or 2019 World Cups before the 4pm GMT deadline, the International Rugby Board (IRB) said on its Web site. Australia, England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales will bid against Japan, who lost out to New Zealand for the right to host the 2011 tournament, for the 2015 competition. Jamaica, 85th in the world rankings, have never taken part in a World Cup but compete against Australia, Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, Wales, Japan and Russia for the right to stage the 2019 event. The 10 nations have until May 8 to submit their detailed bids with the winners being announced at an IRB council meeting on July 28.
■ICE HOCKEY
Lightning to strike Slovakia
The Tampa Bay Lightning will square off against HC Slovan of the Slovak Extraliga in an exhibition game on Sept. 30, the National Hockey League (NHL) club said on Friday. The contest, which will take place at Samsung Arena, will be the first NHL exhibition game to take place in Slovakia. The Lightning will be in Europe preparing for their first regular-season game against the New York Rangers in Prague, Czech Republic, at the O2 Arena on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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