■ SOUTH POLE RACE
Historic teams set off
Six ski teams set off on an international race to the South Pole on Sunday, nearly a century after Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen beat Britain’s Robert Scott to reach it, organizers said. The teams, which include an Olympic rower and a blind Irishman, will travel 430 nautical miles (796km) across the Antarctic ice cap. Their race is billed as the first to the South Pole since the Amundsen-Scott rivalry that ended with the Norwegian’s triumph in December 1911 a month before Scott reached it. Scott and his men perished in March 1912 trying to return. The fastest of the two and three-person teams is expected to reach the Pole in about 30 days, the organizers said.
■ICE HOCKEY
US beat Czech Republic
James van Riemsdyk scored at 2:49 of overtime to give the US a 3-2 victory over the Czech Republic on Sunday in the fifth-place game at the world junior hockey championship in Ottawa. Also on Sunday in relegation play, Juha Metsola made 25 saves to help Finland beat Germany 3-1, and Roberts Jekimovs and Artjoms Ogorodnikovs each scored twice in Latvia’s 7-1 victory over Kazakhstan. Germany and Kazakhstan dropped to Division 1.
■FOOTBALL
Atlanta’s Smith honored
Mike Smith and Tony Sparano performed so brilliantly as rookie head coaches it was almost impossible to separate them. Atlanta’s Smith edged Miami’s Sparano by one vote on Sunday for The Associated Press 2008 NFL Coach of the Year award. Both coaches oversaw sensational turnarounds, leading their teams from last-place finishes in 2007 to playoff berths this year. Their achievements were reflected by the closeness of the balloting, with Smith getting 23.5 votes and Sparano 22.5 from a nationwide panel of 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the NFL.
■SKIING
Cologna, Kuitunen win
Dario Cologna of Switzerland claimed the men’s Tour de Ski title in Val Di Fiemme, Italy, on Sunday by winning the 11km pursuit, and Virpi Kuitunen of Finland won the women’s competition after taking first place in the 9K pursuit. Cologna, who dominated the seven-event Tour de Ski series, won his race in 35 minutes, 12 seconds. Petter Northug of Norway, who outsprinted Axel Teichmann in the final 100m, was second in 36:11 Kuitunen won the women’s race in 37:26.9, a day after winning the 10K classic race. Aino Kaisa Saarinen was second, 7.2 seconds behind Kuitunen, and took second in the Tour de Ski standings. Petra Majdic of Slovenia was third in both Sunday’s race and the overall standings.
■RUGBY LEAGUE
Player presumed drowned
Auckland Warriors rugby league player Sonny Fai is missing and presumed drowned after rescuing his brother from the ocean surf, team officials said yesterday. Fai, 20, played 15 games for the Warriors in Australia’s National Rugby League competition last year. He was named the Warriors’ under-20 player of the year in 2007. Members of the Warriors took part in a search yesterday for Fai, who had gone to cool off in the surf at Bethell’s Beach west of Auckland after a training run on Sunday with his younger brother and cousins. His brother was caught in a strong current at the treacherous beach. Fai had swum to him, helping him to shore, before being swept away by the surf. He has not been seen since.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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