■SOCCER
Barnes quits ‘Reggae Boyz’
Former England midfielder John Barnes has resigned as coach of Jamaica’s national team just six months after taking over to accept a job guiding England’s Tranmere Rovers. The announcement came after Jamaica’s 3-2 victory over Panama on Sunday in an international friendly. Barnes will join the British club, whose roster includes Jamaican central defender Ian Goodison, next month. Theodore Whitmore takes over the Jamaican side, whose first major test comes next month in the CONCACAF Gold Cup to be played in the US.
■SOCCER
India’s skipper faces music
India captain Bhaichung Bhutia insists his dancing days are behind him but the club he “neglected” to appear on a celebrity television show is now telling him to face the music. Mohun Bagan handed the 32-year-old striker a six-month ban after he missed training to feature in the dance competition, domestic media reported yesterday. Bhutia and his female partner won the show but he maintains he has no plans to hang up his boots and don dancing shoes full time. “We saw Bhaichung neglecting his duties towards the club for a long time. So we have decided to suspend him for six months,” Mohun Bagan club vice president Subrata Mukherjee told reporters. The suspension would prevent Bhutia, seen as key to India’s hopes of a good showing at the 2011 Asian Cup, from signing for another club. “He did not take anybody’s permission before participating in the dance program, he is a registered player and cannot act in this manner. This is a message only to show that nobody is above the club,” Mukherjee was quoted as saying in Kolkata daily the Telegraph.
■TENNIS
‘Scream queen’ gets wildcard
Portuguese teenager Michelle Larcher de Brito, whose on-court screaming caused huge controversy at the French Open, was awarded a wildcard into Wimbledon on Monday. The 16-year-old came through qualifying to reach the third round at Roland Garros where her French opponent, Aravane Rezai complained to the umpire about the noise, which she described as “unpleasant.” Larcher de Brito was adamant she will not tone down the volume. “It’s something that’s been part of my game ever since I started,” she said. Britain’s 15-year-old junior Wimbledon champion Laura Robson will be the youngest player to appear in the senior event since Martina Hingis in 1995 after she also received a wildcard. Robson is ranked 482nd in the world, well below the Lawn Tennis Association’s wild card cut-off point of 250th, but was given a slot via a clause that allows juniors in under “exceptional circumstances.” The tournament begins on June 22.
■BASKETBALL
Spurs’ center has heart op
San Antonio Spurs center Fabricio Oberto has undergone a successful heart procedure to treat arrhythmia, the NBA club announced on Monday. The 34-year-old Argentine playmaker underwent the Ablation procedure on Thursday to correct his heart’s electrical system. Oberto, who averaged 2.6 points and 2.6 rebounds a game last season for the Spurs, might be able to resume strenuous exercise in a month. He will begin a gradual cardiovascular exercise program later this week. Oberto averaged 6.0 points and 1.0 rebounds a game in two playoff appearances for the Spurs, who were ousted by Dallas in the opening round of the NBA playoffs back in April.
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