■RUGBY UNION
‘Chunk’ facing long lay off
Scotland prop Allan Jacobsen could be out for four months after tests revealed he needs surgery on his shoulder, the team doctor said on Sunday. Jacobsen, 30, damaged his right shoulder during Scotland’s 26-6 win over Italy at Murrayfield in the Six Nations Championship on Saturday. “‘Chunk’ has damaged the pectoralis major muscle adjacent to his right shoulder,” James Robson said. “It will require repair and the operation will be carried out later this week by surgeon Richard Nutton at the Spire Murrayfield Hospital.” The news will be a major blow for Scotland head coach Frank Hadden, as the forward played in all 10 internationals last year and has featured in all three Six Nations games this season.
■SKIING
Lizeroux claims slalom win
France’s Julien Lizeroux produced a blistering second run to win a slalom in Kranjska Gora on Sunday and secure his second World Cup victory. Lizeroux jumped from fourth after the first run to take top spot in an overall time of one minute 40.11 seconds. It was Lizeroux’s second victory this season after his success in Kitzbuehel in January. Italian Giuliano Razzoli was the fastest in the morning but had to settle for second place, 0.34 seconds adrift. It was his best result in a World Cup slalom, bettering his third place in Zagreb in January. Germany’s Felix Neureuther took advantage of another collective failure by the Austrians to steal third place, 0.56 off the pace. Austria had to be content with four men in the top eight after their top slalom specialist, Reinfried Herbst, straddled a gate on the second run having clocked the second fastest time in the opening run. Benjamin Raich missed a podium placing by 0.04 seconds but his fourth place moved the Austrian to within two points of Croat Ivica Kostelic in the World Cup overall standings. A disastrous 25th after the first leg, Kostelic clocked the fastest second run time to finish 11th. Next weekend’s program in Kvitfjell, Norway, with a downhill and a super-G on the schedule, will favour speed specialists like Swiss Didier Cuche and local hope Aksel Lund Svindal, who are still within reach of the overall crystal globe. The slalom World Cup title will be decided in the last race in Are. Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Grange leads on 481 points, 49 points ahead of Kostelic while Austrian world champion Manfred Pranger is the only other contender on 389 points.
■BOBSLED
US earns rare gold medal
American Steven Holcomb has won the four-man bobsled title at the world championships, the first gold medal for the US at the worlds in 50 years. Holcomb finished with a four-run time of three minutes, 36.61 seconds to beat defending champion Andre Lange of Germany by 0.97 seconds. Janis Minins of Latvia took the bronze, a full second behind Holcomb.
■HORSE RACING
Midshipman to miss Derby
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman injured his left front leg and will miss the Kentucky Derby and the rest of the Triple Crown races. The three-year-old colt owned by Dubai’s Sheik Mohammed sustained a “minor soft tissue injury” during a routine exercise at Godolphin’s al Quoz Stables on Saturday, Godolpin Racing said on its Web site on Sunday. Midshipman, the two-year-old champion colt and an early Derby favorite, was purchased by Sheik Mohammed late last year and sent to Dubai to train for the race. The injury is not considered serious, and it is hoped that Midshipman could return to racing for the second half of the year.
■ICE HOCKEY
Eye-gouging Ott suspended
Dallas Stars forward Steve Ott has been suspended indefinitely for trying to injure Anaheim’s Travis Moen, the NHL said on Sunday. Ott received a match penalty, given for deliberately trying to injure an opponent, for his actions during a fight with Moen following Saturday’s 4-3 victory by visiting Anaheim. The 26-year-old Ott was suspended for gouging Moen’s eye during the altercation, which occurred seconds after the final horn sounded. Ott sat out Sunday’s 4-1 loss to visiting Pittsburgh and will not play until he has a hearing with NHL officials, who will determine the length of his suspension.
■BASEBALL
A-Rod talks roids with MLB
Alex Rodriguez met with officials from Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations and Labor Relations Department on Sunday to discuss his past steroid use. Rodriguez was deemed “cooperative” during the two-hour session, a statement released by Major League Baseball said. The league declined to comment further, but US media had previously reported that Rodriguez likely would bring two lawyers with him — personal attorney Jay Reisinger, who has represented Andy Pettitte and Sammy Sosa, and a lawyer from the players’ union. It was expected that the only questions Rodriguez would be compelled to answer were whether he procured performance-enhancing drugs on MLB grounds, such as the clubhouse or team plane. One thing not expected to happen to Rodriguez is a suspension, since he tested positive before MLB had an official drug policy.
■BASEBALL
Nats manager resigns
Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden resigned on Sunday, saying an investigation into the skimming of bonus money given to prospects from Latin America had become a distraction for the club. The team on Thursday fired longtime Bowden assistant Jose Rijo, who ran the Nationals’ operations in the Dominican Republic. Rijo was a key figure in the signing of 16-year-old prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez, who turned out in fact to be a 20-year-old called Carlos Daniel Alvarez Lugo.
■CYCLING
Boonen wins in Belgium
Belgian star Tom Boonen claimed his first big spring classics win of the season at the Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne semi-classic on Sunday. The 2005 world champion, who rides for Quick Step, finished ahead of Columbia sprinter Bernhard Eisel of Austria and Britain’s Jeremy Hunt, who was third in a bunch sprint for the line. In Sunday’s race, held over 194km, the 194-strong field stopped to pay tribute to stricken Belgian racer Frederiek Nolf, 21, who died in his sleep at the Tour of Qatar on Feb. 5.
■FOOTBALL
Players missing at sea
NFL players Corey Smith and Marquis Cooper are among four people missing off the coast of Florida after their boat failed to return from a fishing trip in the Gulf of Mexico, the US Coast Guard said. Cooper, Smith and two of their friends were on a 6.5m fishing craft that left Seminole Boat Ramp in Clearwater Pass, Florida, on Saturday at 6:30am. They were reported overdue on Sunday at 1:30am, the Coast Guard said in a news release. Coast Guard helicopters, airplanes and boats yesterday began searching a 2,000km² area about 80km west of Clearwater Pass. Smith, 29, played defensive end for the Detroit Lions last season and is a free agent. Cooper, 26, is a linebacker for the Oakland Raiders.
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