■BOXING
Bullets flew around Forrest
Former champion Vernon Forrest exchanged gunfire with robbery suspects before being shot to death, Atlanta police said on Monday. The 38-year-old former two-division champion was killed on Saturday night. Investigators believe between 20 and 24 shots were fired from two guns, said Lieutenant Keith Meadows. Police recovered Forrest’s gun and one shell casing belonging to that gun, he said. Forrest was putting air in his car tires at a service station when a man asked for money, his manager Charles Watson said. When he pulled his wallet out, the man snatched it and started running, and Forrest took off after him, Watson said. Meadows would not confirm those details and said investigators have no new leads on suspects.
■SOCCER
Ronaldo has double fracture
Three-time FIFA player of the year Ronaldo will be sidelined for at least five weeks while he recovers from a double fracture of his left hand, his Brazilian club Corinthians said on Monday. The 32-year-old striker — a two-time World Cup winner and all-time leading World Cup finals scorer — suffered the injury when he fell during a match against rivals Palmeiras, the club’s doctor Paolo de Faria said.
■SOCCER
Obama backs World Cup bid
US President Barack Obama offered support on Monday for the US bid to host the World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said after a meeting at the White House. Blatter told Obama that as FIFA chief he had to stay neutral on the issue of bids — there are 11 contenders so far for the 2018 host country — but said that Obama appealed for Blatter to “make another move toward United States soccer.” According to Blatter, Obama said that being able to host the competition might boost the US profile of the sport. Blatter said he played a little soccer with the president, who is better known for his basketball skills than his soccer talent. But the FIFA chief said the US president managed to control the ball, kicking it twice with his feet and once with his head, and said he was “impressed” by Obama’s skills.
■BASEBALL
Mets fire combative VP
The New York Mets, who have had a frustrating, injury-plagued season, made a front office move on Monday by firing vice president of player development Tony Bernazard for some combative behavior. Mets general manager Omar Minaya dismissed Bernazard, telling reporters that “his behavior in his interaction with others was inconsistent with our organization’s values.” Bernazard had the spotlight on him after a Daily News report that he had ripped off his shirt and challenged members of the Mets’ struggling Double-A Binghamton team to a fight during a post-game tirade this month. Other incidents were also reported, including a profanity-laced complaint about another team’s scout sitting in a seat he wanted at New York’s Citi Field, and a run-in on the team bus with Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez.
■BASKETBALL
Suns extend Nash contract
Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash has been signed by the Phoenix Suns to a two-year contract extension through the 2011-2012 season, the club said on Monday. The 35-year-old point guard has averaged 14.4 points and eight assists over his 13-year NBA career. Nash is one of only nine players in the NBA to win back-to-back NBA MVP awards (2005, 2006) and is a six-times All-Star.
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