■SOCCER
Gerrard charged with assault
Steven Gerrard, the captain of English Premier League leaders Liverpool, was charged yesterday with assault and affray over an alleged bar brawl, police said. The soccer star, 28, was charged with two others who were also arrested at 2:30am on Monday after an incident at a bar in Southport, England. The venue’s disc jockey, a 34-year-old local man, required hospital treatment after suffering facial injuries. Gerrard was released on bail from Southport police station early yesterday. The disturbance occurred hours after Liverpool won 5-1 at Newcastle United on Sunday. “The three men will be appearing at North Sefton Magistrates’ Court on Jan. 23,” police said in a statement. Gerrard was arrested at the Lounge Inn, which was closed on Monday, but shards of broken glass were visible on the floor.
■SOCCER
Four die in celebrations
At least four people were killed during a raucous night of partying in the streets of Vietnam after the national soccer team won its first international title, a newspaper reported yesterday. Three men died in traffic accidents in Ho Chi Minh City and another was hit and killed by drag racers in the neighboring province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau after Vietnam beat Thailand on aggregate to win the Southeast Asian championship on Sunday, Thanh Nien Daily reported. In Hanoi, hundreds of thousands of people jammed the city to celebrate the win. Hanoi hospitals treated 63 cases of people injured in traffic accidents, including three skull fractures.
■SOCCER
Three-second red card
Amateur soccer player David Pratt is being credited with earning the fastest-ever red card after being sent off just three seconds into a game. The Chippenham, England, striker made headlines on Monday after getting the red card for lunging at Bashley’s Chris Knowles in the seventh-tier Southern Premier Division over the weekend. “I play with passion and commitment and I saw the ball and just went for the tackle,” Pratt said. Media called Pratt’s accomplishment a world record, although not all amateur leagues keep records of such feats. The record for quickest dismissal in a professional match is believed to be held by Italian club Bologna’s Giuseppe Lorenzo, who was sent off after 10 seconds in 1990 for hitting a Parma player.
■BASKETBALL
Clippers’ Davis suspended
Ricky Davis, a swingman for the Los Angeles Clippers, was suspended for five games by the NBA on Monday for violating the league’s anti-drug program. The 29-year-old veteran was originally announced as missing his first game yesterday when the Clippers were to visit Sacramento. Because Davis has not played since Nov. 22 with a left knee injury, his suspension will not begin until he is healthy and returned to the active lineup for the Clippers.
■HOCKEY
Dead Russian took drugs
Alexei Cherepanov, the New York Rangers draft pick who died during a Russian league hockey match in October, was taking banned drugs, the public prosecutor’s office said. It said that analysis of his blood and urine showed no presence of alcohol or narcotics, but indicated that the 19-year-old had been taking banned medications for several months. It added that he was suffering from a chronic heart disease. The Avangard Omsk player collapsed while returning to the bench toward the end of a match against Vitiaz Chekhov on Oct. 14.
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