■SOCCER
New 2010 stadium opens
South Africa’s first newly built 2010 World Cup stadium officially opened on Sunday in Port Elizabeth a year before kick-off next June. “For us today’s first opening of a newly built 2010 FIFA World Cup stadium is a huge boost,” said local organizing committee chief Danny Jordaan. Eight 2010 games, including a quarter final and a third and fourth place play-off, will be hosted at the city’s 48,000 seater Nelson Mandela Bay stadium. The 2010 curtainraiser Confederations Cup starts on Sunday at four refurbished stadiums in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Rustenburg. Five additional new stadiums that will also be used in Africa’s first World Cup were “shaping up nicely” to be ready ahead of 2010, Jordaan said.
■SOCCER
Denilson fails to make debut
Denilson, once the world’s most expensive player, failed to make his club debut in Vietnam amid speculation that he might be injured. The ex-Brazil international last week signed to play for Haiphong Cement Football Club in the topflight V-League. He had been expected to appear against Danang on home turf on the weekend, but was not even on the list of substitutes. “Nearly 30,000 fans packed the Lach Tray stadium eager to see the Brazilian star make his debut,” Ngo Duy Ho, deputy director of sports department of the city, said. “They were hugely disappointed.” Haiphong lost 2-0. Ho quoted club officials as saying Denilson’s health did not allow him to play until after June 15. He declined to be specific about Denilson’s health problem. Yesterday’s Thanh Nien newspaper quoted an unnamed doctor at a local hospital where Denilson had his right knee and foot scanned as saying the Brazilian player had damaged a foot tendon and cartilage in his right knee. The paper quoted the doctor as saying Denilson needs at least a month of rest before returning to training after surgery. Denilson became the world’s most expensive player when he moved from Sao Paolo to Spain’s Real Betis in 1998.
■SOCCER
Tragedy strikes Larsson
Sweden captain Henrik Larsson is unlikely to play in the next World Cup qualifier tomorrow against Malta after the death of his younger brother, reports said Sunday. Larsson has left the squad and is with his family, Swedish team spokesman Thomas Saleteg told reporters. Larsson, 37, was informed about the death of his brother after the World Cup qualifier against Denmark ended on Saturday. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.
■RUGBY LEAGUE
Players catch A(H1N1)
Nine representative Australian rugby league players, including national team captain Darren Lockyer, have been quarantined by their clubs after one contracted the A(H1N1) influenza virus. Queensland forward Ben Hannant contracted the virus after last Wednesday’s State of Origin match against New South Wales in Melbourne and the Queensland team doctor ordered players to be quarantined for 72 hours, local media reported. The Brisbane Broncos had six players quarantined, while three players from the North Queensland Cowboys and two coaching staff were also missing from training yesterday with their clubs. Queensland and Broncos skipper Lockyer told reporters in Brisbane yesterday that he and the five other players from his club had been taking the Tamiflu medication as a precaution.
■BASKETBALL
LA gets fifth All-Star game
The NBA All-Star game will return to Los Angeles for a record fifth time in 2011. Commissioner David Stern made the announcement on Sunday before Game 2 of the NBA finals between the Lakers and Orlando Magic. The 60th game will be played on Feb. 20 at Staples Center, also the site of the 2004 game. The city also hosted the game in 1963 at the Sports Arena, and at the Forum in suburban Inglewood in 1972 and 1983, when Marvin Gaye performed a memorable version of the national anthem. Staples Center will be the site of the Rookie Challenge, Youth Jam and All-Star Saturday Night. The All-Star Jam Session, an interactive fan experience, will be staged at the convention center next door. Dallas is hosting next year’s game. This year’s event was in Phoenix, Arizona, where O’Neal and Bryant shared the MVP award and helped the West beat the East 146-119.
■BASKETBALL
NBA studies Premier League
The National Basketball Association and England’s top soccer league are in talks over a marketing and commercial tie-up, the Financial Times reported on its Web site. Representatives from the leagues met in London to discuss how they might work together and compared notes on their respective media rights strategies, particularly in Asia, the paper said. “We are unapologetic imitators,” the paper quoted NBA Commissioner David Stern as saying. “The Premier League’s ability to negotiate their [media] deals and the way they split their packages [of media rights] ... is something we can learn from.”
■CYCLING
Evans wins prologue
Cadel Evans of Australia has won the opening prologue at the Dauphine Libere in France, while his Tour de France rival Alberto Contador of Spain finished second. Defending champion Alejandro Valverde of Spain finished the prologue in third place — as he did last year. Contador pushed Evans hard over the 12.1km route around Nancy, but Evans won in 15 minutes, 36.64 seconds — beating Contador by eight seconds. Valverde trailed Evans by 23 seconds.
■CYCLING
Katusha members rebel
Three prominent members of the Katusha cycling team are refusing to comply with new anti-doping rules imposed by the Russian-backed outfit, a team official said on Sunday. The trio who are refusing to sign contracts containing the new conditions are Australian Robbie McEwen and Belgians Gert Steegmans and Kenny De Haes, Katusha’s sporting director Serge Parsani told reporters. Under the stringent new conditions, racers testing positive would have to pay a fine amounting to five times their annual salary. The team brought in the new rules three weeks ago after one its its riders, Christian Pfannberger of Austria, was tested positive last month.
■MOTORCYCLE RACING
Veteran rider crashes, dies
An Austrian rider was killed on Sunday in a veteran motorcycle race in the eastern Czech town of Horice, the race organizers said. The 61-year-old man slid in a curve, which sent him off the race track and crashing into the roadside, police said. He died on the spot despite efforts to resuscitate him. A witness said that the racer was speeding too fast on the road which had been wet after rain showers. The Czech Tourist Trophy race was canceled after the accident. Last year, a 56-year-old man and his 26-year-old daughter riding a sidecar were killed during the same race.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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