■ SAILING
Alinghi, Oracle to race in NZ
Alinghi and Oracle, whose legal standoff has delayed the next edition of sailing’s America’s Cup, will clash on the water in February after agreeing to compete in a regatta hosted by former Cup-holder Team New Zealand. Swiss syndicate Alinghi, who wrested the Cup from New Zealand in 2003, and San Francisco-based Oracle confirmed their entries on Thursday for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, a 12-team match-racing regatta to be held off Auckland from Jan. 30 to Feb. 14. A total of 23 teams expressed interest in competing in the Pacific series, which will be raced in America’s Cup-class yachts provided by Oracle and Team New Zealand. The 12 competing teams were named in Paris on Thursday. Teams in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series (in entry order): Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa (Italy), Oracle (US), K-Challenge (France), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), Team Origin (Britain), China Team, Team Shosholoza (South Africa), Italia, Team Germany, Greek Challenge, Alinghi. Waiting list: Italia, Team French Spirit.
■ BASEBALL
Japan honors Lasorda
US baseball great Tommy Lasorda will receive the Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions to Japanese baseball. Lasorda will be honored on Dec. 2 by Japanese Consul-General Junichi Ihara in Los Angeles. “I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award,” Lasorda said on Thursday. “I have the highest respect for the Japanese people and have loved working with them in every aspect to help build a bridge between our two countries through baseball.” Lasorda and the Los Angeles Dodgers have a long history with Japanese baseball. In 1965, on behalf of the Dodgers, Lasorda traveled to Japan as a guest coach of the Tokyo Giants.
■ ATHLETICS
Four more Russians cited
Four more Russian athletes have been sanctioned for doping, bringing to 16 the number of Russians caught for drug violations in recent months. Race walker Anatoly Kukushkin, distance runner Anton Jarov, steeplechase runner Roman Usov and runner Julia Smirnova are the latest athletes punished by the Russian athletics federation, the International Association of Athletics Federations said on its Web site on Thursday. Kukushkin tested positive for the stimulant carphedon at the national championships on June 8, and was banned for two years. Also getting a two-year suspension was Smirnova, who tested positive for strychnine on March 29. Usov, who was pulled out of the Beijing Olympics after Russian media reports of a failed doping control, was banned for two years for testing positive for carphedon in July. Jarov, a 5,000m runner, tested positive for cannabis at the youth championships in June and received a public warning. The IAAF also confirmed the previously announced two-year bans for five Russian race walkers who tested positive for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO: Sergei Morozov, Viktor Burayev, Vladimir Kanaikin, Igor Yerokhin and Alexei Voevodin.
■ BOXING
WBC re-elects Sulaiman
World Boxing Council (WBC) president Jose Sulaiman has been unanimously re-elected to another four-year term in office at the WBC’s annual world convention in Chengdu, China. “I accept this election and I appreciate your trust in me,” he told the convention. “I have eternal gratitude and I ask you to please keep working together to make our mission in the WBC get stronger and stronger in the world.” He has headed the WBC since 1975.
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