■SOCCER
Bosingwa escapes FA action
Chelsea defender Jose Bosingwa escaped any disciplinary action Monday for deliberately kicking Yossi Benayoun in the back during the Blues’ 2-0 Premier League loss to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday. Bosingwa’s reckless act late in the match looked a far more blatant foul than the challenge which saw Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard sent-off on the hour mark. However, although Mike Riley did not see the incident himself, the referee confirmed it had been witnessed by his linesman Mo Matadar. Because the officials deliberately decided not to take action against Bosingwa, the Football Association (FA) said that, under rules laid down by world governing body FIFA, they were barred from imposing any disciplinary sanctions upon the Portugal defender. Congo-born Bosingwa, 26, was in contrite mood on Monday. “I apologise for what I did and it was never my intention to hurt him [Benayoun],” Bosingwa said. “I know it was wrong and I apologize.
■BASEBALL
Venezuela, Mexico start well
San Diego Padres slugger Adrian Gonzalez had two RBIs and drove in the winning run in the seventh inning as Mexico’s Mazatlan Venados beat Puerto Rican team Ponce Lions 3-2 on Monday on the opening day of the Caribbean Series in Mexicali, Mexico. Gonzalez broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh with a sacrifice fly off Puerto Rico reliever Todd Moser. Gonzalez’ brother, Edgar Gonzalez, drove in the other Mexican run.
■SOCCER
Mutu leads Fiorentina win
Returning captain Adrian Mutu scored two goals on Monday to help Fiorentina move back into Champions League contention with a 3-1 win over Bologna. The match in Blogna, Italy, had been scheduled for Sunday but was postponed because of heavy snow. With the three points, Fiorentina moved ahead of AS Roma and into fifth place with 38, two behind Genoa. Mutu gave Fiorentina the lead when he volleyed in Riccardo Montolivio’s lofted pass in the sixth minute for his 100th goal.
■SURFING
Kauanui killer jailed
A man has been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for killing professional surfer Emery Kauanui. Defendant Seth Cravens made a brief statement during sentencing in San Diego, California, on Monday, apologizing to the victim’s family and his own family. Cravens was convicted of second-degree murder for killing Kauanui with a single punch to the head during a scuffle in 2007.
■SOCCER
Steelmen steam past Locos
Inverurie Locos’ stay in the Scottish Cup finally came to an end after they lost 3-0 at home to Premier League side Motherwell in the fourth round on Monday. The match had been postponed four times as the Highland League club’s ground fell victim to the weather. But on a day when much of the rest of Britain was covered in snow, the tie at last went ahead, although the lines were painted orange and a yellow ball was used to cope with the flurries in Inverurie. The conditions appeared to provide the ideal backdrop to a Cup upset. However any hopes of a shock result lasted just 90 seconds. That was all the time it took the Steelmen to take the lead when John Sutton headed in Jim O’Brien’s free-kick. In the second-half, O’Brien crossed for David Clarkson, whose header made it 2-0 before Sutton scored his second and Motherwell’s third in the 69th minute to set up a home tie with Premier League rivals St Mirren on Saturday.
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