■SOCCER
Maradona blamed for alarm
Argentina coach Diego Maradona was responsible for a fire alarm at Chelsea’s hotel early in the morning of their clash against Manchester United on Sunday, English newspaper the Sun claimed on Monday. The former World Cup winner reportedly set the alarms off at 7am in a Manchester hotel that caused 200 guests, including the Chelsea squad, to be evacuated. Chelsea’s players spent 40 minutes outside in freezing temperatures, the Sun said, just hours before they were beaten 3-0 by United in the English Premier League at Old Trafford. Maradona, who was in Manchester to watch Argentina striker Carlos Tevez was blamed for the fire alarm, the paper said. “It looks as though it was set off by Diego and his entourage smoking cigars on the 14th floor,” the Sun quoted a fireman at the scene.
■FORMULA ONE
McLaren chief denies racism
Ron Dennis, the head of the McLaren Formula One team, told an employment tribunal on Monday that allegations he made racist remarks were an “absolute lie.” Dennis was responding to accusations made by a former air steward on his private jet, Peter Boland, whom Dennis sacked. Boland previously told the hearing that when Dennis had boarded the jet in the Middle East he said that he wanted to wash his hands because he had been “shaking hands with Arabs all day.” But Dennis, giving evidence at the tribunal in Southampton, denied the accusations of Boland, who is alleging discrimination and victimization due to sexual orientation. Dennis branded the racist allegation an “absolute lie” and “ridiculous.” Dennis, who masterminded the rise of McLaren’s reigning Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton, the first non-white driver to win the title, added: “I am here to defend my reputation, which has been badly damaged.”
■SOCCER
Former star spared jail
Former Scotland international Frank McAvennie was handed a four-month suspended jail sentence on Monday after he admitted brawling outside a bar. The ex-West Ham and Celtic striker, 49, head-butted a man outside a wine bar in the Isle of Man’s capital Douglas on July 4 last year. The High Bailiffs’ Court in Douglas heard that McAvennie had asked security staff to remove Isle of Man resident Ian Moffitt, 23, from the bar as he felt threatened by him. Sergeant John Manley said the two then clashed outside the establishment, “first with words, then pushing each other and throwing ineffectual punches” before the Glaswegian head-butted Moffitt. High bailiff Michael Moyle sentenced the star to four months in prison for affray, suspended for a period of two years. “It is somewhat ironic that you used to be a striker: Mr Moffitt might take the view that you still are,” Moyle said.
■CRICKET
Yousuf criticizes Malik
Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf believes Shoaib Malik does not deserve to be the national captain and said his appointment was an injustice. Yousuf said Malik’s appointment in 2007 over other senior players was hugely unfair. “It is perhaps for the first time in Pakistan cricket that a player who is not a certain choice in the Test and one-day team has been made captain,” Yousuf told the Geo Super Sports channel. Yousuf was one of several senior players overlooked for the captaincy after Pakistan’s first round exit from the last World Cup.
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