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Sport Briefs

■SOCCER

Reserves beckon Berbatov

Tottenham will dump striker Dimitar Berbatov in the reserves if Manchester United do not come up with the £30 million (US$55.3 million) they want for the 27-year-old Bulgarian striker, who has handed in a transfer request to try to force a move. With the transfer window to close on Monday, United will have to look sharp if they are to make a move for the sharpshooter, whose unsettled stance led coach Juande Ramos to leave him on the bench for Saturday’s defeat to Sunderland. Ramos deemed him psychologically unfit to play and a threat to dressing-room harmony — and media reports in London on Monday said he faced being banished from the first team altogether.



■OLYMPICS

Castro pans sports ‘mafia’

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public since falling ill two years ago, on Monday defended disgraced former Olympic taekwondo champion Angel Valodia Matos. Matos and his coach were both expelled from all international competitions on Saturday, after the athlete kicked the referee in the head when he was disqualified in a match at the Beijing Games. Matos hit out at Swedish referee Chakir Chelbat as soon as he was sent off for taking too much injury time in the middle of an over-80kg bronze medal bout. But Castro called for the athlete to be reinstated and denounced what he termed “the mafia” in the sport. “Nothing can make me remain silent against the mafia. They have managed to play with the rules of the Olympic committee,” the 82-year-old Castro said. “Appalled by a decision which seemed to him totally unjust, he protested and kicked the referee. His own coach had been the subject of attempted corruption ... he was outraged, he couldn’t hold back,” Castro said.



■OLYMPICS

Gold winners get US$51,000

China’s gold medal winners at the Beijing Olympics will be taking home cash along with their medals, state media reported yesterday. Each gold medalist will get 350,000 yuan (US$51,000), Xinhua news agency said, citing China’s General Administration of Sports. Gold medal winners received 200,000 yuan after the 2004 Games, the report said. The report did not say if silver and bronze medalists were also to be rewarded.



■BOXING

Ex-champ stabbed to death

Former boxing world champion Edip Sekowitsch, 50, died of multiple stab wounds outside a pub he owned in Vienna on Monday morning, Austrian media reported. Police said they are questioning an injured man who was apprehended near the crime scene, but it is still unclear whether he is a suspect. The victim, born as Edip Secovic in Serbia, was light-middleweight world champion of the World Athletic Association is 1988. One year later, he became the European Boxing Union European champion in his weight class. Sekowitsch, known in Austria as “the Serbian bull,” owned the Champ’s Pub in Vienna.



■BASKETBALL

Sun Yue signs with Lakers

Chinese guard Sun Yue (孫悅) has signed a multi-year contract with the Los Angeles Lakers, the National Basketball Association club said on Monday. The 23-year-old Sun played for the Chinese team at the just completed Beijing Olympics. In six games, Sun averaged 6.8 points and 2.5 assists. The 23-year-old, 2.06m Sun was originally selected by the Lakers in the second round (40th overall) of last year’s NBA draft.


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