■SOCCER
Web cheats eye Cup fans
At least one unauthorized Web site is touting tickets to next year’s soccer World Cup in South Africa, Australia’s consumer watchdog said yesterday as it warned of potential fraud in online ticketing. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said an international review of thousands of Web sites, including some 1,400 ostensibly based in Australia, underscored the need for consumer vigilance. “In this year’s sweep, the ACCC identified an unauthorized site offering tickets for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa at www.worldcupticketing.com,” commission deputy chairman Peter Kell said. The Web site, written in poorly worded English, offers to “deliver at your door step” tickets to all rounds of the World Cup as well as “best deals for world cup final match ticket for South Africa Soccer Cup.” Last year, scores of Australians were reportedly caught in an alleged global scam believed to have conned people worldwide into buying non-existent tickets for the Beijing Olympics.
■SOCCER
Bouquets sold for charity
Thousands of bouquets laid at Newcastle United’s St James’ Park Stadium after the death of former England soccer manager Bobby Robson have been turned into garden compost and will be sold to raise money for charity. Proceeds from the compost, costing £10 (US$16) a bag, will go to the Bobby Robson Foundation. Robson, who died of cancer in July aged 76, managed Newcastle from 1999 to 2004. “The flowers were laid with huge respect and affection for Sir Bobby and we didn’t want to see them go to waste,” Julie Clay, a local florist who thought of the idea, told the BBC, adding that 80 bags had already been sold.
■BASKETBALL
Iverson leaves Grizzlies
Memphis Grizzlies guard Allen Iverson has left the National Basketball Association team and headed to his home in Atlanta to deal with personal issues. Iverson, who has expressed his displeasure at not starting for the Grizzlies this season, is in his first year with the team. The nine-time all-star missed the first three games of the regular season with a hamstring injury.
■BOXING
Dawson beats Johnson
Chad Dawson defended his International Boxing Organization title with a unanimous decision over Glen Johnson in a light heavyweight fight in Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday. Dawson (29-0, 17 KOs) won on all three judges scorecards 115-113, 115-113, 117-111 over Jamaica’s Johnson (49-13-2, 33 KOs).
■MOTOGP
Stoner takes pole
Ducati rider Casey Stoner maintained his excellent end of season form to clinch pole position for the Valencia Grand Prix on Saturday. The Australian, who missed three races with a mystery illness before coming back last month to win at home at Phillip Island and in Malaysia, clocked the fastest lap of 1:32:256 at the season-ending event in Spain. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was second fastest on 1:32:519 ahead of Spanish compatriot Jorge Lorenzo (1:32:537) and Lorenzo’s Yamaha team mate and world champion Valentino Rossi in fourth (1:32:922). Rossi clinched his second successive MotoGP title in Malaysia, the Italian’s seventh in the premier class and his ninth motorcycling championship overall including his triumphs in the 125cc and 250cc categories. Stoner is third in the championship standings on 220 points and trails second-placed Lorenzo by 25, the amount a rider is awarded for a race victory.
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