■INDY RACING
Castroneves beats Penske
Helio Castroneves, who last month won the Indianapolis 500 for the third time, beat Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe off pit row on the final stop and held on for the final 46 laps to win at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday. Briscoe was dominating the race, with more than a 10-second lead before a caution flag on the 150th of the 228 laps bunched the field. Castroneves worked past Marco Andretti after that restart and was on the tail of his teammate when A.J. Foyt IV crashed 15 laps later.
■OLYMPICS
Putin taps Baltika founder
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday appointed the founder of the Baltika beer company, one of Russia’s best known brands, to head the state firm in charge of building for the 2014 Olympics. Russia is hoping to raise its international prestige by hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in its southern resort city of Sochi, but the economic crisis has sparked concerns whether the building work will be finished on time. At a ceremony at his out-of-town residence of Novo-Ogarevo, Putin appointed Taimuraz Bolloyev head of Olimpstroi, the state firm in charge of overseeing the construction program for the Olympics, news agencies reported.
■BASEBALL
Return may be delayed
Australian left-handed pitcher Ryan Rowland-Smith’s return to the starting rotation of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners might be delayed after he struggled in a minor-league game. The 26-year-old native of Sydney has been on Seattle’s disabled list with triceps tendinitis since the season began but pitched for the Mariners’ top developmental club at nearby Tacoma on Friday. Rowland-Smith surrendered 12 runs and 14 hits in 4 2/3 innings and Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said he would decide by today about Rowland-Smith’s return.
■GOLF
Montgomerie’s hopes hit
Colin Montgomerie’s hopes of mounting a challenge at the rain-hit Wales Open were hit as the former European No. 1 struggled badly at the start of his third round on Saturday. The European Ryder Cup captain was made to wait six-and-a-half hours to tee off after heavy rain flooded fairways and bunkers on the venue for next year’s trans-Atlantic match, and it soon became apparent that he was in for a frustrating day. On the short third, he came up short and rolled down the bank into the lake and at the 433-yard fifth he went from a fairway bunker into more water by the green.
■RUGBY
Perpignan takes Top 14
Perpignan clinched their first French rugby Top 14 title in 54 years when they inflicted on Clermont their 10th defeat in as many finals on Saturday at the Stade de France. Perpignan won the game 22-13 through a try by center David Marty, a drop goal from Gavin Hume, the South African flyhalf who took over from Carter, a conversion and four penalties from fullback Jerome Porical. Clermont replied with a try from Fijian wing Napolioni Nalaga, who headed the Top 14 best try scorer standings with 21 touchdowns, and a conversion and two penalties by Australian flyhalf Brock James.
■BOXING
Foreman III wins pro debut
George Foreman III won his professional debut on Saturday, stopping Clyde Weaver at 1:16 of the first round in Kinder, Louisiana. Foreman, the 26-year-old son of two-time world heavyweight champion George Foreman, floored Weaver with a left hook to the chin. Earlier, the 192cm, 107kg Foreman knocked Weaver (0-2) down with a left hook to the body. When the opening bell rang, Foreman ran straight ahead to meet the unheralded Weaver and began to throw jabs and hooks. Less than 30 seconds into the fight, Foreman threw a left hook that landed on Weaver’s chin, forcing him to the canvas. Weaver got up, but landed back on the mat again when Foreman hit him with a left hook to the body.
■BOXING
Klitschko to fight Chagaev
Wladimir Klitschko will take on Ruslan Chagaev in a heavyweight bout on June 20, the same day the Ukrainian had been due to face David Haye. Haye bowed out of the bout on Wednesday, saying he had injured his back in training, and said he wanted to push the date back to next month. But Klitschko, the 33-year-old fighter who holds the IBF and WBO belts, said he was in top form and wanted to keep the date — a sellout at Schalke’s soccer stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. “It’s unfortunate that David Haye can’t compete. But now I’m looking ahead and I’m excited about a particularly sporting challenge with Ruslan Chagaev,” Klitschko (52-3) said in a statement released on Saturday by his management company, KMG. Chagaev, 30, has been the WBA’s “champion in recess” since withdrawing from two scheduled rematches against Nikolai Valuev.
■SKIING
Athletes, officials indicted
Former athletes and current or former officials of the Austrian ski federation have been indicted by Italian prosecutors over a blood doping probe at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, news reports said on Saturday. Biathlon sports director Markus Gandler and ski federation (OESV) general secretary Christian Leistner told the Austrian Press Agency that they were indicted along with eight others, including OESV boss Peter Schroecksnadel, disgraced coach Walter Mayer and others. The trial on charges of violating Italian anti-doping laws is due to start in October.
■EQUESTRIAN
Summer Bird wins Belmont
Summer Bird, ridden by Kent Desormeaux, won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, denying a unique Triple Crown bid by jockey Calvin Borel aboard Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird. Borel, trying to become the first jockey to win all three legs of the Triple Crown on two different horses, guided Mine That Bird from last to the lead heading into the sweeping final turn in the 2.4km race. But Summer Bird responded under Desormeaux beating Dunkirk by two-and-three-quarter lengths, with Mine That Bird third.
■SWIMMING
Irie wins 200m in Japan
Ryosuke Irie won the men’s 200m backstroke at the Japan Open on Saturday. Wearing a Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit, Irie clocked a time of 1 minute, 54.09 seconds to win Saturday’s final. Irie set a world record in the same event in Australia last month with a time of 1:52.86 seconds Irie wore an Arena brand swimsuit when he broke the record and world governing body FINA has yet to verify the record as the swimsuit is undergoing independent testing. Irie won the men’s 100m backstroke final on Friday, clocking a time of 53.31 seconds.
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