■SWAZILAND
No prostitutes for visitors
Police on Wednesday shot down suggestions that tourists should be allowed to hire prostitutes if they visit the kingdom for the 2010 World Cup in neighboring South Africa. Police spokesman Vusi Masuku said police would act against sex workers as long as a 19th century law banning prostitution remains in force. Swaziland hopes to benefit from a predicted influx of hundreds of thousands of soccer fans for the tournament in June. A spokesman for the local organizing committee, Bongani Dlamini, had earlier told local media that the issue was being looked into. “During the 2010 World Cup tournament, we are expecting tourists from all walks of life. After we have taken a decision on prostitution, we will then make a statement or even advise the tourists accordingly,” Dlamini said. Dlamini said the committee had to consider that in some countries, sex workers were not outlawed. “For example, when a tourist who needs the services of a sex worker arrives and finds that prostitution is prohibited, we will advise him accordingly that he has to propose for love to a Swazi girl first and then consent for sex,” he was quoted as saying.
■PALESTINE
Players die in Gaza attacks
Two prominent Palestinian players were killed by Israeli forces this week in the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Football Association (PFA) said on Wednesday. In a statement posted on its Web site, the PFA said a former member of the national team, Ayman al-Kurd, a 28-year-old with three children, was killed two days ago by Israeli shelling. The PFA also reported that Wajih Mushtahi, a member of the Palestinian Olympic soccer team, was killed this week in Gaza. The Islamic Jihad militant group said in a statement that Mushtahi was one of its fighters and had died in combat.
■BRAZIL
Clubs don’t need Viagra
Palmeiras and Gremio denied they are thinking of using Viagra to combat oxygen depletion during high-altitude Copa Libertadores matches. The issue emerged this week when reporters asked Gremio trainer, Alarico Endres, about the potential use of Viagra during the South American championship. “We’re going to analyze everything that could benefit the players in [high] altitude,” Endres said. But Gremio physician Marcio Bolzoni said Endres was misinterpreted. “Gremio would never uses professional athletes to experiment with a drug,” Bolzoni said. “If it is proven that it enhances an athlete’s performance, its use will be immediately considered as doping.” Palmeiras doctor Claudio Pavanelli told the GloboEsporte Web site: “Viagra may be a potent vascular dilator, but it is no use pumping more blood to the muscle if it does not have the capacity to receive it. It would be like equipping an old car with a bigger gas tank but keeping the same engine.”
■INDIA
Size matters for federation
Tall, strong and physically imposing — that’s the new mantra for talent scouts in India. Skill-wise, India is on a par with other nations but the team lacks physique, All India Football Federation’s technical director Colin Joseph Toal said this week at an under-13 soccer festival in the city of Jamshedpur. “Hence, we are focusing on talented footballers with good height and strong physique,” Toal said. India are ranked 20th in Asia after clinching the AFC Challenge Cup last August. The national team has shown improved results in the last two years under British coach Bob Houghton but are still ranked 142nd in the world. On Wednesday they lost 2-1 in a friendly to Hong Kong.
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