■DRAG RACING
Street caused crash: report
The final state report into a car show crash last year that killed six spectators and wounded 22 others blamed the design of the street where the event was staged. The report by the Tennessee Highway Patrol found the street was peaked slightly to aid drainage and it began to curve so it “differed vastly from the flat, straight surface of a drag strip in which the car was designed to be operated on.” The car’s driver, Troy Critchley, an Australian living in Texas, pleaded guilty in August to 28 charges of reckless assault. He was sentenced to 18 months probation. The 3,000 horse power dragster reached 148kph in 3.56 seconds before swerving into spectators standing six deep on the side of the street, the report found. The burnout was part of an annual car show and parade put on by Cars for Kids Southern Style Inc, a local charity that raises money for children’s hospitals.
■ALPINE SKIING
Lanning to miss race
American skier T.J. Lanning crashed at high speed in a World Cup downhill training session on Friday and was ruled out of racing this weekend. Lanning had cuts on his face and a possible bruise to his knee after losing control and slamming into the safety netting lining the Stelvio course. “He’s getting checked out. We’re still in the evaluation process,” US Ski Team head coach Sasha Rearick said. “He was able to ski down.” Lanning was not taken to a hospital, but team doctors advised him against racing. Rearick said the crash occurred at “very high speed.” The race is scheduled for today.
■BASEBALL
Giants sign ‘Big Unit’
Five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson signed a one-year contract with the San Francisco Giants on Friday. The 45-year-old Johnson signed a deal worth US$8 million, US media reported. He is five wins shy of becoming the 24th pitcher in MLB history to reach 300 in his career. A 10-time all-star, Johnson is second on the career strikeout list with 4,789. His 295 career victories currently rank sixth among lefthanders. A 21-year major league veteran, Johnson owns a 295-160 record with a 3.26 ERA in 596 games — 586 starts — with Montreal, Seattle, Houston, Arizona and the New York Yankees.
■TENNIS
Amritaj may be barred
A government order unveiled on Friday that prevents non-natives from representing India could deny Prakash Amritraj a place on India’s Davis Cup squad. The sports ministry release said: “Players who are Indian citizens only can avail themselves of government assistance to represent the country in the national teams representing the country.” It effectively rules out Amritraj, 25, a US citizen who was born in Encino, California, from starting a sixth year on India’s Davis Cup team or in the Olympics or the Asian Games. Three women tennis players, Sunitha Rao, Shikha Uberoi and her sister Neha, will also be barred because they are all US citizens.
■ATHLETICS
Bolt’s choreographer killed
The dancer and choreographer who created the dance used by Jamaica sprinter Usain Bolt to celebrate his victories at the Beijing Olympics was shot to death at a Kingston nightclub on Friday, police said. David Alexander Smith, known in entertainment circles as “Ice,” was shot in the head and chest during an argument with two men. They then took his keys and fled in his car, police said. Smith created the “Gully Creeper” that Bolt danced each time he won a race at the Olympics last August.
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