Print

Mail

wiki links

Sport Briefs

■OLYMPICS

Tokyo head defends remark

The governor of Tokyo defended his controversial remark that “invisible dynamics” were behind the decision to award the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro. He made the claim hours after returning home last Sunday from Copenhagen, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose the Brazilian city ahead of Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo. It drew an angry response in Brazil. “Whether they protest it or not, what I said was true. I was not saying it was bad,” Shintaro Ishihara told reporters on Friday. “I was only speaking the truth and it was not criticism of Rio. What I was saying was that I regretted that Japan could not give our all-out effort.” The one-time novelist had alleged that Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made secret deals to secure votes over the other three candidate cities. The organizing committee for Rio’s winning bid labeled the claims “regrettable.”



■ATHLETICS

ASA want heads to roll

Three South African provincial athletics associations have called for the country’s top officials in the sport to resign over the gender row involving Caster Semenya. The South African Press Association reported on Friday that the associations have called on the Athletics South Africa (ASA) board and senior management to “take collective responsibility for the Semenya gender row fiasco and resign with immediate effect.” The three ASA affiliates are Boland, Eastern Province and Western Province. ASA president Leonard Chuene has admitted he lied about the tests performed on the 18-year-old athlete. Semenya won the 800m at the Berlin world championships in August. Before the final, the IAAF said it had ordered gender tests.



■BASKETBALL

Huang may buy Tigers

Cleveland Cavaliers shareholder Kenny Huang is awaiting approval to become the first foreign owner of a Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) club, local media reported on Friday. The Chinese-born American financier, who works with baseball’s New York Yankees and bought a minority share in the NBA’s Cavaliers earlier this year, had agreed to buy the Jilin Northeast Tigers, who are valued at US$80 million, Xinhua said. Foreign enterprises are banned from holding shares in any professional basketball team in China and so the deal would have to be approved by the CBA, the Titan Sports newspaper said. Huang’s prospects of getting the nod will be improved by the parlous financial state of the CBA league, which lost US$17 million last season, with the Tigers among the teams losing the most money.



■FORMULA ONE

Massa’s vision recovered

Felipe Massa’s vision has recovered fully after his life-threatening accident in July and he will get back behind the wheel of a Formula One car tomorrow, Ferrari said on Friday. The Brazilian, who fractured his skull at the Hungarian Grand Prix, returned to Ferrari’s Maranello factory last Monday and has been working in a Formula One simulator for much of the week. He flew to Paris on Friday for neurological and ophthalmological tests at the Pitie Salpetriere hospital. “The first outcomes are positive: especially the ophthalmological exam confirmed that Felipe, who arrived with his personal doctor Dino Altmann, has recovered the functions of his left eye by 100 percent,” Ferrari said on their Web site. The Brazilian was hit on the head, just over his left eye, by a metal spring that fell off compatriot Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn and bounced down the track in qualifying at the Hungaroring.



■ICE HOCKEY

Franzen out for four months

Swedish star Johan Franzen will be out four months with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, the Detroit Red Wings announced on Friday. The 29-year-old Franzen suffered the injury to his left knee on Thursday in the Red Wings’ 3-2 win over Chicago. It was the first win of the new season for Detroit. Franzen, who goes by the nickname “The Mule,” won a Stanley Cup with Detroit last year and a gold medal with Sweden at the 2006 World Championships. He had 34 goals in 71 games last season and is hoping to play for Sweden at the Vancouver Olympics in February.



■ICE HOCKEY

Fleury says he was abused

Former NHL star Theo Fleury says he was sexually abused by a junior hockey coach. Fleury’s account is detailed in an autobiography titled Playing With Fire. The book is to be released next week. Excerpts appeared online. The former Calgary Flames forward accuses Graham James of abuse. James was jailed in 1997 after admitting to sexually abusing two players on his junior hockey team — one being former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy. James could not immediately be reached for comment. Fleury’s NHL career was derailed by drugs and alcohol.



■ICE HOCKEY

Quinn fined US$10,000

The NHL slapped Edmonton Oilers head coach Pat Quinn with a US$10,000 fine for comments he made after Thursday’s victory over the Calgary Flames. Quinn lashed out at Calgary forward Jarome Iginla for sending Edmonton’s Sheldon Souray to the ice in Edmonton’s 4-3 win. Souray suffered a concussion and Iginla was given a minor penalty for tripping. Quinn said dirty plays often go unpunished and the league is making it more difficult for the players to follow their on-ice code and police themselves. “I don’t understand the players of today,” said Quinn, who played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Flames and Vancouver Canucks. “If that had happened in the old days, [Iginla] would have got hit over the head with a stick right after. It was a pretty dirty play in my opinion. He poked his feet out and then piled on top of him. Somehow they never deal with that and they won’t let the vigilante stuff happen to deal with it. It’s disappointing.”



■SOCCER

Almeida suffers setback

Werder Bremen’s Portugal international striker Hugo Almeida has received a setback in his recovery from an appendix operation and will require further surgery, the club announced on Friday. The 25-year-old has made three Bundesliga appearances this season, but has been out of action since the operation for appendicitis last month and is set for a return to the operating theater because his scars have failed to heal. “At the moment, I can’t say when he’ll resume training,” Werder coach Thomas Schaaf said.



■SOCCER

Van Gaal calls for more time

Bayern Munich coach Louis van Gaal on Friday called on club bosses and fans to give him more time to work wonders on the struggling Bundesliga giants. “If I’m given the necessary time, I’ll have the chance of doing something big,” Van Gaal told German channel DSF. “I’ve shown what I’m capable of in other clubs I’ve been with, I think that the public and media have to keep faith with Louis van Gaal.” The Dutch coach, who previously worked with Ajax and Barcelona, remains optimistic for the remainder of the season, even though his side are eight points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen after eight games.


This story has been viewed 533 times.