■ATHLETICS
Doucoure grabs 60m gold
France’s Ladji Doucoure took the gold medal in the men’s 60m hurdles after a photo finish at the European indoor championships on Friday. Doucoure, who won the 110m world title in 2005, started slowly, but recovered by the third hurdle and maintained his speed to edge out defending champion Gregory Sedoc of the Netherlands, both crossing the line in 7.55 seconds. Eline Berings won gold in the women’s hurdles after making the best start. The Belgian was quickest to the first hurdle and confidently maintained her form throughout the race, finishing comfortably ahead of the rest of the field in 7.92 seconds. Petra Lammert took the gold in the women’s shot in a German one-two, with Denise Hinrichs taking the silver. Lammert led with her first throw of 19.66m that neither she, nor the rest of the field, was able to better. She failed to register another attempt until the final round. European powerhouse Russia earned their first medal when Anna Bogdanova took the pentathlon gold with a score of 4761 points.
■TENNIS
Zheng, Li make the semis
Chinese players Zheng Jie and Li Na are on track to meet in the Monterrey Open final after each won in straight sets on Friday. Fourth-seeded Zheng, yet to drop a set, knocked out seventh-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-3, 6-2 in the quarter-finals only two months after losing to Dulko in straight sets in Hobart. To reach her first final in three years, Zheng will have to go through sixth-seeded Iveta Benesova, who beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5, 6-4. Unseeded Li, who ousted top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska to start the new clay tournament, beat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6 (7/3). She will meet second-seeded Marion Bartoli of France, who fought back to beat qualifier Vania King of the US 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.
■SOCCER
US women through to final
Natasha Kai’s spectacular last-minute goal on Friday helped defending champions the US beat Iceland 1-0 to reach the women’s Algarve Cup final. Kai received a cross from Christie Rampone on her chest, flicked the ball over a defender and fired in a left-foot volley from the edge of the penalty area. The win kept the unbeaten US on top of Group B and into Wednesday’s final. They still have to play Norway to complete the group stage. Denmark beat Norway 2-0 on Friday. Group A will be decided tomorrow when Germany meet Sweden. Both teams remain unbeaten. Kerstin Garefrekes scored twice and Kim Kulig added another as Germany defeated China 3-0. Sweden edged Finland 1-0 with a goal from midfielder Nilla Fischer. In Group C, which contains teams not competing for the title, Portugal beat Wales 2-1 and Austria and Poland drew 1-1.
■CYCLING
Schumacher banned by UCI
German rider Stefan Schumacher was banned for two years on Friday after testing positive for a new blood-boosting drug at last year’s Tour de France. The International Cycling Union (UCI) said Schumacher was excluded from the sport worldwide until Jan. 21, 2011. “He’s had a fair hearing,” UCI chief Pat McQuaid told a news conference in Paris. The penalty was announced as the UCI signed a new agreement with the French anti-doping agency to conduct anti-doping controls in races in France this year. The 27-year-old German already received a two-year ban last month from French races by the French anti-doping authority. He said that he would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
■NORDIC SKIING
Demong wins combined
World champion Bill Demong of the US sped past leaders Anssi Koivuranta and Jason Lamy Chappuis in the closing stages to secure a comfortable victory in a Nordic combined World Cup race in Lahti, Finland, on Friday. Demong finished the individual Gundersen event, which began with a ski jump and ended with a 10km cross country race, in 26 minutes, 10.8 seconds. Finland’s Koivuranta was 7.2 seconds behind and Frenchman Lamy Chappuis was 11.5 seconds adrift of the American in third. Victory for the 28-year-old Demong followed his world title last week in the final combined event of the championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. Demong trailed jump winner Koivuranta by 19 seconds and Lamy Chappuis by 16 after the first part of the event, where the American jumped 123.5m for 127.2 points, a sixth best.
■BASEBALL
D’backs down Mexico 4-2
Jorge Cantu and Miguel Ojeda hit solo homers but Mexico lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2 in Hermosillo, Mexico, during preparation for the World Baseball Classic. Mexico was limited to just four hits overall. It was Cantu’s second homer off Arizona pitching in two games. He had a grand slam and six RBIs in Mexico’s 19-4 rout of the Diamondbacks in Tucson, Arizona, on Wednesday. Rodrigo Lopez started for Mexico and gave up two hits in three scoreless innings. He was relieved by Pablo Ortega, who allowed three hits and a run in 2 2-3 innings. It was Mexico’s third exhibition game against a major league team before the Classic. Mexico opens against Australia today in Mexico City.
■BASEBALL
White Sox beat Aussies
Luke Hughes knocked out two hits, including a run-scoring triple, but Australia’s World Baseball Classic team lost to the Chicago White Sox 10-3 in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday. Chris Snelling also drove in a run with a single in the third inning to make it 2-2, but Chicago regained the lead in the bottom of the inning and pulled away. Paul Mildren started for the Aussies and didn’t allow a run on one hit in his only inning. Australia used nine pitchers.
■SPEED SKATING
Davis sets world record
American Shani Davis set a world record in the 1,500m at a speed skating World Cup final in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Friday. Davis, who competes in short and long track, clocked 1 minute, 41.8 seconds on the 2002 Utah Olympic Oval, smashing the record of 1:42.01 set by Canada’s Denny Morrison in Calgary on March 14 last year. Trevor Marsicano of the US was second at 1:42.31 while Morrison crossed third at 1:42.56.
■FREESTYLE SKIING
Deneen wins moguls event
Patrick Deneen of the US won the men’s moguls event yesterday at the World Freestyle Championships in Inawashiro, Japan. Deneen received 23.41 points for a comfortable win over Finland’s Tapio Luusua, who was second with 21.89 points. Canada’s Vincent Marquis took the bronze medal with 21.66 points. Japan’s Aiko Uemura won the women’s moguls event. Uemura scored 24.71 points to edge Canada’s Jennifer Heil, who was second with 22.88 points. Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic finished third with 21.76 points. Uemura, winner of the world cup moguls title last season, booked a place at the Vancouver Olympics with Saturday’s win. It was also her first win in a world championships. Japan’s Tae Satoya finished ninth.
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