■FOOTBALL
Ingram wins Heisman Trophy
Tailback Mark Ingram became the first player from Alabama to win the Heisman Trophy, awarded to the college football player of the year on Saturday. The tough-running second-year player topped the closest vote in the award’s 75-year history. Next, he’ll try to lead one of college football’s most storied teams to a national championship. Ingram wiped away tears and took a moment to steady himself before starting his speech. “I’m a little overwhelmed right now,” he said. “I’m just so excited to bring Alabama their first Heisman winner.” Ingram received 1,304 points, while Stanford running back Toby Gerhart polled 1,276. The previous closest vote was in 1985, when Auburn’s Bo Jackson beat Iowa quarterback Chuck Long by 45 points. Texas quarterback Colt McCoy was third, while Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh was fourth and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow was fifth. Ingram has been the backbone of No. 1-ranked Alabama’s offense all season, rushing for a team-record 1,542 yards, gaining 6.2 yards per carry and scoring 18 touchdowns. He and Alabama will play Texas for the national title on Jan. 7 at the Rose Bowl.
■FIELD HOCKEY
Pakistan defeat India
Pakistan beat India 6-3 to set up a final against New Zealand in the Champions Challenge on Saturday. New Zealand held out two-time defending champions and hosts Argentina 3-2 to reach the final, where the winner will qualify for the Champions Trophy next July in Moenchengladbach, Germany. Pakistan took only two minutes to score, through Rehan Butt, who would score a hat-trick in another classic match between the arch rivals. While two Pakistan players were cooling off on cards, India forced a penalty corner and leveled through Dhananjay Mahadik. India continued to enjoy the run of play, but Pakistan nailed their chances, with Butt shooting home and Sohail Abbas adding a penalty corner goal for a 3-1 halftime lead. After the break, India dominated, but their desperation to score left the defense vulnerable and Haseem Khan’s goal against the run of play made it 4-1. There were four goals in the last eight minutes, with Butt claiming his third and Abbas his second. Mahadik also finished with a brace for India.
■FORMULA ONE
Schumacher to come back
Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher will come out of retirement to drive for Mercedes next year, German daily Bild reported on Saturday. The newspaper said on its Web site that the two parties have agreed to a one-year contract and will announce the deal next week. “The contract is ready to be signed,” the newspaper wrote. Schumacher refused to comment about the report when asked by a German news channel while attending a junior cart race in his hometown of Kerpen. Schumacher’s spokeswoman, Sabine Kehm, also declined to comment. The 41-year-old Schumacher retired in 2006 after winning a record number of Formula One titles.
■BOBSLED
Hefti wins in Winterberg
Beat Hefti of Switzerland used a strong second run to win a two-man bobsled World Cup race in Winterberg, Germany, despite nearly overturning at the finish line. Hefti and brakeman Thomas Lamparter in the Switzerland 2 sled were tied for fourth after the first heat, but finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 53.17 seconds to beat Germany 3, piloted by Karl Angerer. Ivo Rueegg in Switzerland 1 was third. Rueegg leads the overall World Cup standings ahead of Steven Holcomb of the US.
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