■SOCCER
Hertha remain winless
Borussia Dortmund beat bottom-place Hertha Berlin 2-0 in the Bundesliga on Friday, leaving the Berlin team winless in 10 games. Patrick Owomoyela earned a penalty when he went down in a tussle with Gojko Kacar and Nuri Sahin converted from the spot for the first goal in the 60th minute. Lucas Barrios completed the victory in injury time with a powerful shot into the upper right corner. Hertha, which finished fourth last season, has not won since its opening game and fell to its ninth defeat.
■NASCAR
Griese didn’t upset Montoya
Juan Pablo Montoya was never upset by the “taco” remark that got ESPN announcer Bob Griese suspended. The network suspended Griese from broadcasting yesterday for the remark he made last weekend about Montoya. During a TV promotion for NASCAR, the top five drivers in the standings were shown and Griese was asked where Montoya was in the promotion. Griese replied Montoya was “out having a taco.” “I never paid attention to the comment, and as I said, I didn’t really care. If they wanted to suspend him for what he did, it’s their problem, not NASCAR or myself,” Montoya said on Friday at Talladega Superspeedway. He has poked fun at the comment over the past week, including on Friday, when he said he almost brought trays of tacos for reporters during his weekly news conference.
■FOOTBALL
NFL issues slew of fines
Arizona Cardinals safety Antrel Rolle was fined US$7,500 by the NFL on Friday for hitting a defenseless receiver. Rolle was fined for his hit on New York Giants tight end Kevin Boss in a victory last Sunday. Cardinals tackle Cardinals Levi Brown also was fined US$5,000 for a chop block. Indianapolis Colts cornerback Jacob Lacey was fined US$10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct when he went to the ground to celebrate after a touchdown in a win over the St Louis Rams. Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams was fined US$5,000 for an illegal chop block in last Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills when he was late picking up a blitz.
■GYMNASTICS
Dos Santos fails doping test
Brazilian former world champion gymnast Daiane dos Santos has tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said on Friday. The 26-year-old world champion in the floor exercises at the 2003 world championships in Anaheim, California, was tested out of competition, the FIG said on its Web site. Dos Santos, who is recovering from knee surgery and has not competed since last year’s Beijing Olympic Games, has until Nov. 13 to ask for a hearing and 21 days to make an appeal. According to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) code, the suspension for a first offense is two years.
■HANDBALL
EHF may punish coach
Handball’s European governing body has opened disciplinary proceedings against the coach of Austrian women’s team Hypo Niederoesterreich for allegedly going on the court to stop an attack by Metz HB near the end of a game. The EHF says Gunnar Prokop went on to the court four seconds before the end of Thursday’s Champions League match and intentionally collided with an opposing player to stop a counterattack and deny Metz a chance to score. The match ended in a 27-27 draw. The EHF said on Friday its arbitration tribunal expects to reach a verdict before Hypo’s European match next Sunday.
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