■CRICKET
Australia call up Hartley
Australia have called up uncapped wicketkeeper Chris Hartley for the two-day match against England Lions at Canterbury, which started yesterday. Queensland’s Hartley has been playing league cricket in England and was summoned because of injuries to Brad Haddin and Graham Manou. First-choice Haddin will not be risked, having broken the ring finger on his left hand in the warm-ups of the Edgbaston Test. And tour deputy Manou, who made his international debut in that match, has aggravated a hand injury picked up while batting on the final day in Birmingham.
■CRICKET
Pomersbach receives fine
West Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach, who plays with Indian Premier League team Kings XI Punjab, was fined on Friday after pleading guilty to six charges that included assaulting a police officer and attempting to escape from custody. Pomersbach was fined A$3,500 (US$2,950). He has been suspended indefinitely by the West Australian Cricket Association after he was involved in a car accident in the Perth beachside suburb of Scarborough last Sunday. He assaulted one of the officers who tried to arrest him after the accident, leading to him being taken to hospital with minor injuries. Pomersbach pleaded guilty to the charges in Perth Magistrates Court on Friday, including driving with an excess blood alcohol level and obstructing police.
■EQUESTRIAN
Ahlmann to miss Games
The IOC said on Friday that German rider Christian Ahlmann would not be allowed to compete at the 2012 London Olympics because of his eight-month ban for riding a doped horse at last year’s Beijing Games. Ahlmann was initially banned for four months by the International Equestrian Federation but it was doubled after the German federation appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The International Olympic Committee introduced a rule last year that bans athletes from the next Games if they receive a doping suspension of at least six months. Ahlmann’s disqualification from the Beijing Games was formally confirmed by the IOC executive board at a meeting on Thursday.
■ICE HOCKEY
‘Teeder’ dies, aged 83
Ted “Teeder” Kennedy, a former Toronto Maple Leafs captain and Hockey Hall of Famer, died at 83 on Friday. His son, Mark, said he died of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in his hometown of Port Colborne, Canada. Kennedy spent 14 years in the NHL, all with the Maple Leafs. He won five Stanley Cups and was a five-time All-Star. The center captained Toronto from 1948 to 1955, when he won the Hart Trophy as league MVP. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966.
■FOOTBALL
Manning deal sets record
Quarterback Eli Manning signed a six-year contract extension on Friday with the New York Giants that reportedly makes him the highest-paid player in football history. Manning, the first player selected in the 2004 National Football League Draft, is set to make US$97.5 million, with US$35 million of it guaranteed, Fox Sports said. The younger brother of Indianapolis Colts star quarterback Peyton Manning was the Most Valuable Player of last year’s Super Bowl, when the Giants upset New England 17-14. Manning has guided the Giants into the playoffs in all four of his seasons as a starter, throwing for 14,623 yards and 98 touchdowns.
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