■FOOTBALL
Police find shot Jaguar
Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier is in critical but stable condition after being shot in the early hours of Tuesday, the NFL team said. When contacted for information relating to the Collier incident, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office provided an incident report that did not name the victim but detailed a shooting at 2.50am on Tuesday. It referred to a handgun shooting and a report from a law-enforcement officer who attended the scene and said the victim had been found slumped over in the passenger seat of a red SUV in the parking lot in front of an apartment building. The shooting was the third of an NFL player since January last year — Denver Broncos’ Darrent Williams was shot dead after a New Years Eve party and Sean Taylor, a safety with the Washington Redskins, died after being shot during a break-in at his home near Miami in November.
■BASEBALL
Matsui off disabled list
The Houston Astros activated Japanese second baseman Kaz Matsui from the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday. Matsui was activated a few days early. He had been on the DL since Aug. 13 with an irritated disc in his lower back, and still needs a few more days before he’s ready to play, manager Cecil Cooper said. Matsui, who has missed about a third of the season with various injuries, is expected to play this weekend at Colorado. Matsui was hitting .285 with 19 steals in 337 at-bats before injury.
■Cycling
Beltran ‘B’ sample positive
The second sample provided by Spanish rider Manuel Beltran, who tested positive for erythropoietin (EPO) during the Tour de France, has also tested positive for the blood booster, a source close to the dossier said on Tuesday. The test on the second sample, known as the “B” sample, was carried out by French anti-doping agency AFLD which also tested the first sample in July, the source, who does not want to be identified, told reporters. The anti-doping agency is expected officially to announce the results of the testing on the “B” sample shortly. Beltran, who rides for the Liquigas team, tested positive for EPO at the first stage of the Tour de France and was excluded from the race after the seventh stage on July 11.
■GOLF
Woods expects second kid
World No. 1 Tiger Woods and his wife Elin are expecting their second child to be born in late winter, which could delay the US golf superstar’s return to action from a knee injury. Woods announced on Tuesday that he and his wife and daughter Sam, who was born in June last year, were expecting a new addition to the family. “I have some wonderful news to report. Sam is going to be a big sister,” Woods said on his Web site. “Elin and I are proud to announce that we are expecting our second child in late winter.”
■GOLF
English policy ‘drastic’
No. 1 women’s golfer Lorena Ochoa says a new US LPGA Tour policy requiring players to be effective in English starting next year is a “little drastic.” Ochoa, from Mexico, says golfers are better judged by their performance. She was asked at a charity event in her hometown of Guadalajara on Tuesday if she thought the new policy discriminated against international players. “That is a very strong word. I wouldn’t want to use it,” said Ochoa, who speaks English. “But I do think it is a little drastic.” There are 121 international players from 26 countries on the US LPGA Tour, including 45 players from South Korea.
■SOCCER
Ballack out of qualifiers
Germany captain Michael Ballack has pulled out of forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Liechtenstein and Finland, the German soccer federation said on Tuesday. Ballack’s bruised and inflamed left foot means he will have to miss Saturday’s clash against Liechtenstein and the game in Finland four days later, the federation said. The German federation had earlier said Ballack would be out of the first match but that there had been no decision on the Helsinki fixture. German coach Joachim Loew said Ballack’s injury was not as serious as his left ankle problem which put him out of the sport for eight months last year. The 32-year-old was injured on Aug. 17 playing for Chelsea in their 4-0 thrashing of Portsmouth on the first day of the Premiership season.
■SWIMMING
Phelps to open swim center
Michael Phelps will put his US$1 million Speedo bonus to start a foundation promoting water safety and youth swimming. Joe Gromek, president and CEO of Warnaco, Speedo’s US parent company, presented a check to Phelps on NBC’s Today show on Tuesday. The company, which has sponsored Phelps since he was 16, promised him a US$1 million bonus if he tied or broke Mark Spitz’s record for most gold medals at a single Olympics. The swimmer eclipsed the mark by winning eight golds at the Beijing Games — seven of them with world-record times. Company spokeswoman Audra Silverman said Speedo International and the Warnaco Foundation would donate an additional US$200,000 to the Michael Phelps Foundation.
■CRICKET
Chappell to coach youths
Former Test captain Greg Chappell has been appointed as the new head coach of Cricket Australia’s Centre of Excellence. Chappell will oversee the development of Australia’s next generation of players after being hired to replace Tim Nielsen, who has taken over as coach of the Australian national side. Chappell, who also served a two-year stint as India coach, signed a three-year deal to take what is considered to be one of the most important cricket jobs in Australia. The 60-year-old Chappell was one of Australia’s most successful batsmen during his playing career in the 1970s and early 1980s. He played 87 tests, scoring 7,110 runs at an average of 53.86 and captaining his country 48 times. “Greg brings to the role a great deal of experience as player, captain and coach,” Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said. “His recent coaching experiences in India add to the key lessons and insights he will offer Australia’s emerging talent.”
■CRICKET
Hick announces retirement
Ex-England batsman Graeme Hick will quit playing cricket after this season, ending a 24-year professional career in which he struck 136 first-class centuries. Worcestershire, the English county team which Hick joined in 1984, announced the 42-year-old’s retirement yesterday in a statement on its Web site. Hick has been one of cricket’s most prolific batsmen, but the Zimbabwe-born player struggled to replicate his domestic form for England after becoming eligible to play for the national team in 1991. He scored more than 64,000 runs in all forms of the game and averaged 52.23 from 526 first-class matches. In 65 Tests, spread over 11 years, his average was only 31.32. Hick was in 1987 named as one of five Cricketers of the Year by Wisden, the sport’s main reference source, and the following year made his highest score — 405 not out in a match against Somerset.
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