■SQUASH
Gaultier slams refereeing
World No. 1 Gregory Gaultier launched into a tirade against the refereeing which he claimed had contributed to his failure to reach the final of the World Open on Thursday. “I can’t believe it was such one-sided refereeing,” the Frenchman said, after his noisy, controversial and incident-packed 11-5, 11-9, 12-10 semi-final loss to Ramy Ashour, the defending champion from Egypt. “It was one European, one Egyptian and one South African and I still get screwed,” Gaultier said, acknowledging, however, that Ashour’s skills were close to their brilliant best. Ashour now faces compatriot Amr Shabana, a three-time world champion, in today’s final. Shabana reached his fourth final after quelling a dangerous fight back from James Willstrop, the 11th seeded Englishman, by 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-9.
■ICE HOCKEY
Flu shots spark debate
Ontario health minister Deb Matthews vowed on Thursday to investigate whether Toronto’s NBA and NHL players jumped the line for the swine flu shot while other groups are being forced to wait as the province’s supply dwindles. Matthews said she shares the outrage sparked by reports that Raptors and Maple Leafs players got the shot even though the province doesn’t have enough yet to vaccinate school-age children. “I don’t care who you are, how rich you are, how famous you are,” she said. “If you’re not in the priority group, get out of the line and let the people who are in the priority groups get their vaccination.”
■BASEBALL
Girardi helps crash victim
New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi capped off a victorious evening by helping a car crash victim in suburban New York. Police say Girardi pulled over to help after a woman lost control on a Westchester County highway and crashed into a wall around 2:30am on Thursday just hours after Girardi’s team claimed the World Series title against the Philadelphia Phillies. Girardi told WFAN-AM he was “really concerned” because of damage to her car. He said he had his wife call the emergency number, then approached the mangled vehicle. The woman had only cuts and Girardi talked to her until the police arrived minutes later. “She had no idea who I was,” Girardi said. “I think the important thing is, you know, obviously there’s a lot of joy in what we do, but we can’t forget to be human beings where we help others out. I think that’s the most important thing we can do in life.” Officer Kathleen Cristiano said seeing Girardi at the accident scene “was totally surreal.”
■SNOWBOARDING
Bright, Kokubo mark wins
Torah Bright of Australia and Kazuhiro Kokubo of Japan won season-opening World Cup snowboarding events on Thursday. Cai Xuetong of China finished second in the women’s competition, followed by Sophie Rodriguez of France. With clean runs in the superpipe, Kokubo was surprised to find himself on top of the podium in the men’s event. Mathieu Crepel of France was second and Peetu Piiroinen of Finland was third.
■BOXING
Judge Filippo dies at 83
Lou Filippo, who judged 85 world champion fights and played an announcer in the Rocky movies, has died. He was 83. Officials say Filippo suffered a stroke and died on Monday at a hospital near where he lived. He had judged a fight only two weeks ago.
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