■ BASKETBALL
Arenas frustrated with injury
Washington Wizards star guard Gilbert Arenas admitted on Saturday he was frustrated that yet another knee operation will sideline him for the start of the NBA season. “The frustrating part is when you show signs of coming back, but you can’t do too much or it sets you back further,” said Arenas, who had arthroscopic surgery on his knee 10 days ago.” It was his third procedure in 17 months, and means the three-time All-Star will miss the first month of the season. “So I’m [thinking] ‘When is this ever going to end,’” Arenas said. “When can I just go out there and play?” Arenas, who signed a six-year, US$111 million contract in the offseason, was fined US$15,000 by the NBA on Friday after he declined to speak at the Wizards’ designated pre-season media day. He said he just didn’t think his injury should be the main topic of conversation.
■ BASKETBALL
Golden State sign Williams
The Golden State Warriors NBA team has signed center Justin Williams, the Californian outfit said on Saturday. No contract details were given however for the 24-year-old former Sacramento and Houston player. Williams has played 49 matches the last two seasons, averaging 3.4 points and 3.3 rebounds with the Kings and the Rockets. Last season was a difficult one for Williams, who was let go after 22 matches by Sacramento and then signed a 10-day contract with the Rockets, only making one appearance. The Warriors are based in Oakland across the bay from San Francisco. The NBA season starts on October 28.
■ FORMULA ONE
Singaporeans lack interest
Singapore punters have been slow to catch Formula One fever, a newspaper reported yesterday ahead of the sport’s first-ever night race. Legalized betting on football, horse racing and lotteries is widespread in Singapore but the city-state’s first F1 Grand Prix on Sunday seemed a hard sell, The Straits Times reported after checking three betting outlets. “It’s the first time and the process seems quite complicated,” Joseph Koh, a 54-year-old factory worker, was quoted as saying. Another punter, Adrian Koh, 36, who works as a systems engineer, said he did not know how F1 betting works. “I’d rather watch EPL,” he said, referring to English Premier League football.
■ HORSE RACING
Curlin wins earnings record
Curlin became the first North American thoroughbred to surpass the US$10 million mark in earnings on Saturday with a come-from-behind victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The reigning US Horse of the Year captured his 11th victory in 15 career starts with his triumph in the US$750,000 race at a sloppy Belmont Park. The winner took home US$450,000 to take his career earnings to US$10.24 million. The four-year-old son of Smart Strike passed Cigar, who earned US$9.99 million in 33 career starts. “It’s amazing,” Curlin jockey Robby Albarado said. “I’m sure it is not going to hit me for a while. I’m sure this record will be broken one day, but it will take a helluva horse.”
■ CPBL
Typhoon postpones games
A match between the Sinon Bulls and the Uni-President Lions scheduled for yesterday was postponed until Oct. 6. A match between the Chinatrust Whales and the Brother Elephants was postponed until Oct. 12. The Sinon Bulls and the La New Bears are scheduled to play at 6:35pm this evening.
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