■ SOCCER
Moyes signs new deal
Manager David Moyes ended speculation about his Everton future on Tuesday after he signed a new five-year contract, according to the club’s Web site. Moyes, 45, had been in protracted talks over a new contract and was in the final year of an existing deal. “There have been many different things for different reasons but we are here now,” the Scot said. “The big thing for me is that I am at Everton, as far as I am concerned, for another five years and the job is to make us better than we have been. I am really excited and really pleased. I am pleased for everybody — for myself and my family who were desperate to get it signed and secured and it is always what I wanted to do. I have enjoyed my time here so far and I am looking forward to the next part as well. There is definitely a consistency at the club, players know what they are doing and staff know what they are doing. It’s a great football club and I am privileged to be the manager.”
■ CRICKET
Hussey top again after ton
Michael Hussey has regained his spot at the top of the ICC batting rankings after scoring 146 last week in the drawn opening Test against India. Hussey rose from third on Tuesday to move above Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara and Shivnarine Chanderpaul of the West Indies. Among the bowlers, Zaheer Khan, who took 5-96 in Australia’s first innings at Bangalore, moved up seven places to 11th. The top three remain Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, Australia’s Stuart Clark and Dale Steyn of South Africa.
■ SOCCER
Kaka joins sidewalk of fame
Kaka was immortalized at the Maracana stadium’s sidewalk of fame on Tuesday. The Brazil midfielder left his footprints in a section dedicated to the memory of the country’s top players. “Maracana has a great history,” Kaka said. “As a soccer player, to be part of this memorial, to be part of Maracana, it is a great pride.” The Maracana was once the world’s largest soccer stadium and accommodated more than 180,000 fans, but reforms have shrunk its capacity to about 70,000.
■ SOCCER
Tristan signs for Hammers
Former Spain international striker Diego Tristan signed for West Ham on Tuesday, the English club said. The 32-year-old former Deportivo La Coruna player, who has won 15 caps for his country, had been out-of-contract after leaving Italian side Livorno where he scored just one goal in 20 appearances.
■ SOCCER
FA warns Newcastle boss
Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear, whose recent swearing at a press conference put him in the spotlight, has been warned by the Football Association (FA) that a future outburst could bring disciplinary action. On Oct. 2, Kinnear swore dozens of times at a press conference, believing newspaper journalists had ridiculed him and tried to undermine his position. The FA said in a statement on Tuesday: “Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear has been reminded of his responsibilities by The FA in relation to comments made at a press briefing on Oct. 2. The FA has received an apology from Kinnear for any offence that his comments may have caused. The FA has borne into consideration the specific context in which the comments were made and the fact that the comments were made in a closed forum. While he will not face any formal disciplinary action on this occasion, he has been advised that in the event of similar public comments, disciplinary proceedings may be brought against him.”
■ CYCLING
Tour of Stuttgart canceled
Next year’s Tour of Stuttgart was canceled on Tuesday by the six-day event’s organizers, who claim recent failed doping tests have tarnished the sport’s image. “We have held intense discussions over the last few days and decided at the conclusion not to organize the 26th edition of the competition given the current situation in cycling,” organizer Andreas Kroll told German agency SID on Tuesday. The race was due to be held in the south German city from Jan. 15 to Jan. 20 next year.
■ FOOTBALL
Steelers question fines
The Pittsburgh Steelers are asking the NFL to clarify why Hines Ward, one of the league’s best blocking wide receivers, was fined US$15,000 for the past two games for unnecessary roughness despite not being penalized. Ward was fined US$10,000 following the Steelers’ 26-21 win against Jacksonville on Oct. 5, a week after drawing a US$5,000 fine for a play in which he stepped over Baltimore cornerback Corey Ivy on Sept. 29. Ward did not draw a penalty on either play. Also following the Jacksonville game, Steelers linebacker James Harrison was fined US$20,000 for criticizing the officials about a roughing-the-passer penalty, Ryan Clark was fined US$7,500 for unnecessary roughness — a late hit — and Nate Washington US$7,500 for taunting. Among the four players, the one-game fines totaled US$45,000. “It’s starting to cost too much money to come to work for these guys,” coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday. He plans to call the NFL office about the Ward fines, and team chairman Dan Rooney wrote a letter questioning why Ward was fined. “Make no mistake, [Ward] plays the wide receiver position different than most people play it,” Tomlin said. “He’s probably viewed a little different because of it.”
■ FOOTBALL
Schedule changes unlikely
The NFL is not expected to increase the number of regular-season games for the 2009 season. A report looking at adding regular-season games and cutting the number of preseason games was reviewed at the NFL owners meeting in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Tuesday. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said no action was taken by the owners, and that he doesn’t expect any change in the schedule will take place next season. The matter was to be addressed again during the second day of the meeting yesterday. “There’ll be no vote. There’s no recommendation at this point in time. It’s something that we think deserves consideration because it would grow the pie. It would help create new revenue. Help create opportunities, potentially to expand the rosters and create new jobs,” Goodell said. Should the NFL cut the preseason down to two or three games, concerns have been raised about quarterback development. One future possibility could be the establishment of a developmental league.
■ RUGBY UNION
Rees named new HK coach
David Rees, the assistant coach of Welsh regional side Gwent Dragons, has been appointed as the head coach of the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s national team. The 44-year-old Rees, who has been at the Dragons for five years, will join the team after the Bledisloe Cup clash between New Zealand and Australia in Hong Kong on Nov. 1. “Hong Kong and Asian rugby has entered a very exciting development phase over the past 12 months with the inception of the Asian Five Nations championships and an ever growing playing base within the Hong Kong community,” Rees said in a statement.
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