■ FORMULA ONE
Toy-racer honors Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is about to become bigger than ever in Britain thanks to an artist who paints by using remote-controlled toy cars. Ian Cook has been skidding and steering the tiny cars around an 8m x 12m spread this week to create a giant portrait of Hamilton. The picture will go on display in London from Wednesday until after the title-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix on Nov. 2. Cook’s technique reflects one of Hamilton’s boyhood passions, with the Briton a champion radio-controlled car racer. “This concept started last Christmas when I received a radio-controlled car from my then-girlfriend and she said ‘Don’t take it down to your studio and don’t get paint on it,’” the artist said. “I thought ‘Ah, that’s a good idea.’” He has around 40 cars at his disposal, with the wheel arches modified to cope with the paint and each with different speeds and characteristics. The paint is applied to the tires with the cars powered up. Sometimes full size car tires are rolled across the backdrop for added texture.
■ BASEBALL
Japan coach says no
Japan’s Olympic coach Senichi Hoshino has refused to stay on to lead the defending champions at next year’s World Baseball Classic. “Even if I am asked I will turn it down,” Hoshino told Japanese media yesterday. “I have informed [Japan’s baseball] commissioner of my decision.” Hoshino suffered intense criticism after Japan failed to secure a medal at this year’s Beijing Olympics. “I’ve already been engulfed in flames once — why should I have to drag someone’s chestnuts out of the fire again?” he told his personal Web site. “I don’t want to put my family through that again.”
■ SOCCER
Drogba a diver: Mourinho
Former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has labeled the club’s striker Didier Drogba “a diver.” Mourinho, now in charge at Inter Milan, left the Premier League side just over a year ago having repeatedly defended Drogba against charges of diving. But the Portuguese told feelfootball.com: “I am no longer Chelsea coach, and I do not have to defend them any more, but I think it is correct if I say Drogba is a diver. Drogba, Ronaldo, Torres and van Persie are the divers. Who dives more? ... But English football is the one that criticizes the divers the most.”
■ SOCCER
Pompey stars go to school
Foreign players at Portsmouth are taking English lessons at a language school so they have a clearer understanding of manager Harry Redknapp’s instructions. The aim is also to make sure that players at the Premier League club are better able to communicate among themselves during the heated atmosphere and noise of a match day. Such common English soccer expressions as “man on” are among those being taught with a table soccer game used to help illustrate the terminology. A spokesman for language school said improved English would also help off the field as well. “The lessons were inspired by the fact that the English level by the players and their wives was not adequate for living and working in Portsmouth. That was the springboard for the lessons and as well as that it is crucial for the players to understand instructions on the pitch.”
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