■SOCCER
Schalke draw and go top
Schalke 04 provisionally moved top of the Bundesliga on Friday with a 0-0 draw at Hoffenheim. They are a point ahead of champions VfL Wolfsburg, who have six points and host Hamburg SV today. Schalke looked a shadow of the team that made an explosive start to the season with two comfortable victories. Hoffenheim, who have yet to win this season, gradually upped the tempo, with strikers Vedad Ibisevic and Chinedu Obasi gaining more space, but failed to carve out any clear chances. Hoffenheim coach Ralf Rangnick brought on a third striker in the second half by adding Demba Ba to replicate the trio that took them top at the halfway mark last year, but to no avail.
■SOCCER
Refs to use vanishing spray
Mexican referees are to use a vanishing spray to mark a line on the pitch to ensure defensive walls keep the right distance at free-kicks. The Mexican Football Federation said in a statement the spray, called “AeroComex Futline,” would come into use from this weekend’s first division matches, which include champions Pumas UNAM’s visit to Tecos UAG. Argentina has been using such a spray, carried in an aerosol can, in the first division since the beginning of the year. The white markings made by the non-toxic water-based spray disappear in a matter of minutes.
■FOOTBALL
Burress pleads guilty
Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty to a gun possession charge on Thursday and agreed to a two-year prison sentence in what the Super Bowl hero’s lawyer called an agonizing decision. Burress, 31, caught the winning touchdown in the Giants’ Super Bowl victory in February last year, but his career unraveled the following season when he accidentally shot himself in the leg in a New York City nightclub in November. He was released by the team and stands to lose millions of dollars in salary. After his guilty plea, the National Football League suspended Burress and told him he was ineligible to sign with any team until he completes his jail term, the NFL said in a statement.
■BASEBALL
Cubs sold to Ricketts
The Chicago Cubs, whose century of Major League Baseball championship futility is the longest title drought in US sports history, are at last to be sold to the Ricketts family. The Tribune Company on Friday said it had a definitive agreement to sell all but a 5 percent stake in the team and historic Wrigley Field ballpark to the Ricketts, the culmination of long and convoluted negotiations. The Ricketts will also acquire a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, with the total deal worth at least US$845 million. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908.
■BASEBALL
Taoyuan rout Germans 16-0
Taoyuan routed Ramstein Air Force Base of Germany 16-0 in a Little League World Series contest shortened to four innings because of the 10-run rule on Friday. Kao Yu-chieh had a three-run homer as Taiwan scored 12 times in the first two innings. Offering a faint smile, Kao tilted his head and tugged nervously at the buttons on his jersey when asked about his big blast. “I told myself relax, take your time, and I did it,” the 12-year-old catcher said through interpreter Yeh Ming-huang. In the US’ pool, Warner Robins of Georgia beat Urbandale of Iowa 11-3, and Staten Island of New York beat Mercer Island of Washington 10-2.
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