■ AWARDS
Olympians win UK honors
British Olympic gold medal winners Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington were on Wednesday named sportsman and sportswoman of the year at the 60th Sports Journalists’ Association (SJA) British sports awards. Hoy, who won three cycling gold medals in Beijing while Adlington twice triumphed in the Water Cube’s swimming pool, topped a poll of the more than 600 members of the British-based SJA. Great Britain’s cycling team, which won 14 golds in Beijing and 11 at the track world championships in Manchester in March, was named team of the year. Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton was runner-up to Hoy in the men’s poll with triple Olympic yachting gold medalist Ben Ainslie third. In the voting for the Sportswoman of the Year, Olympic and world road-race champion Nicole Cooke was runner-up to Adlington. Cooke came in ahead of Olympic 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu, who won Britain’s only athletics gold in Beijing.
■ CYCLING
Contador wins Golden Bike
Giro and Vuelta champion Alberto Contador won the Golden Bike award for the best rider of the year for the second consecutive season on Wednesday. The Spaniard beat time-trial Olympic champion Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland and compatriot and Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre in a vote by international cycling writers.
■ MOTOGP
Pedrosa pips Rossi at Jerez
Honda’s Dani Pedrosa set the pace ahead of world champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) during the first day of the last MotoGP winter testing session of the year in Jerez de la Frontera, southern Spain, on Wednesday. World championship runner-up Casey Stoner of Australia was also present at the circuit as a spectator after undergoing an operation on his left wrist in Modena, Italy. on Oct. 30. Stoner could begin light physical training within the next two weeks, according to a press release from his Ducati team.
■ MOTOR RACING
Red Bull buys up Toro Rosso
Red Bull gained full ownership of Toro Rosso on Tuesday after buying up Berger Motorsport’s stake in the Formula One team. Red Bull, led by Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, acquired the 50-percent stake controlled by Gerhard Berger in a deal still pending approval by regulatory authorities. Toro Rosso, long seen as a development team, outperformed Red Bull last year. Sebastien Vettel won the German Grand Prix to become the youngest F1 champion, although the 21-year-old German driver swapped teams to ride for Red Bull next season.
■ BASEBALL
BALCO restrictions lifted
Thousands of pages of grand jury testimony related to the long-running steroids investigation of baseball star Barry Bonds and other athletes were unsealed by a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday. US District Court Judge Susan Illston signed an order that allows prosecutors to share grand jury transcripts, medical lab reports and search warrant affidavits with Bonds’ lawyers. It came in response to a request from the US Attorney’s office last week that the protective order on the documents be lifted to avoid possibly delaying Bonds’ perjury trial, scheduled to begin on March 2. The documents will however not be made public,said Jack Gillund, a spokesman for US Attorney Joseph Russoniello. He said testimony from the secret grand jury proceedings will remain closely guarded.
RSS