■BASEBALL
Furcal deal infuriates Braves
Shortstop Rafael Furcal finalized a three-year contract worth at least US$30 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, prompting fury from the jilted Atlanta Braves. Furcal, who missed most of last season with back problems, agreed to terms to return to the Dodgers, prompting the Atlanta Braves to claim he reneged on a deal with them. Furcal hit .357 with five homers and 16 RBIs last season, but was limited to 36 games. He had back surgery in July and was sidelined until the season’s final week, but started each of the Dodgers’ eight postseason games. Braves president John Schuerholz has vowed to never again do business with Furcal’s agents, whom Schuerholz accused in a newspaper interview of conducting “despicable” dealings with the team.
■BASEBALL
Aussie signs with D-backs
Australian pitcher Travis Blackley agreed to a one-year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday. The 26-year-old left-hander would be paid US$405,000 if he is in the major leagues — US$5,000 over the minimum — and US$105,000 if he is in the minors. Blackley was 5-10 with a 5.41 ERA in 28 games last season for the Philadelphia Phillies’ Triple-A Lehigh Valley farm team. He signed as a free agent with the Seattle Mariners in 2000.
■BASEBALL
Sabathia to receive bonus
CC Sabathia will receive US$9.5 million from the New York Yankees before he throws his first official pitch in pinstripes. His US$161 million, seven-year contract includes a US$9 million signing bonus, details obtained by reporters on Friday showed. By the time the Yankees start the season at Baltimore on April 6, he already will have received US$6 million of that bonus plus US$3.5 million of next year’s salary. The signing bonus is payable in three equal installments by Dec. 31 and by March 1 and July 31 next year. He will get a US$14 million salary next year and $23 million in each of the final six seasons of the deal, the largest contract ever for a Major League Baseball pitcher both in total dollars and average salary.
■BASKETBALL
Bryant sticks with low-tops
The high-flying Kobe Bryant will ply his trade in low-cut shoes. Bryant unveiled his latest Nike signature shoe on Friday — a low-cut sneaker the league’s reigning MVP donned in a game for the first time when his Los Angeles Lakers visited the Miami Heat. At 329g, Nike says it’s the lightest basketball shoe it has created, and Bryant is convinced the switch makes the most sense for his game. “It feels great, feels great,” Bryant said. “I’m excited about it.” Many NBA players use braces on their ankles to prevent sprains, and virtually the entire league plays in mid-cut or high-top shoes. But Bryant is sticking with plain old athletic tape for ankle support.
■SAILING
Navy close to Yann Elies
The Australian Navy was expected to reach injured French sailor Yann Elies late yesterday. Elies broke his leg while working on the deck of his yacht Generali in the Vendee Globe race. The frigate HMAS Arunta left Fremantle on Australia’s west coast on Friday, and was encountering better-than-expected weather on the 1,300km journey to Elias. Fellow competitor Marc Guillemot told France’s RTL radio that he sailed past Elies’ stern and hurled water and medicine aboard his yacht. Guillemot, skippering Safran, said conditions were rough at the time, with 8m waves.
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