■SOCCER
Cole paparazzi defense fails
Ashley Cole was on Monday found guilty of speeding despite telling police he was trying to escape press photographers in his Lamborghini. Chelsea defender Cole could be banned from driving after being caught driving at 104mph (167kph) in a 50mph zone in southwest London in November 2008, Kingston Magistrates’ Court in London heard. Cole pointed out a man with a camera further down the road to the police officer who stopped him. Prosecutor Richard Lomax said: “The defendant was stopped and spoken to and the words he said at the time ... were: ‘Can’t you do anything about those idiots who keep chasing me?’” Cole also told police he thought he was traveling at 80mph and Lomax said this amounted to an admission of guilt.
■RUGBY UNION
New Super 15 team named
Australian rugby chiefs yesterday named the Melbourne Rebels as the new team in next year’s expanded Super 15 series, ending a lengthy selection process. The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) handed control of the team to the Rebels consortium headed by businessman Harold Mitchell, allowing it to start recruiting officials and players. Rugby chiefs have been mulling which consortium will run the new franchise since November, when Melbourne was named as host city for the 15th Super team, beating off strong competition from South Africa’s Eastern Cape.
■CRICKET
Boycott suggests ‘feng shui’
Former England cricketer Geoff Boycott has urged Manchester United striker Michael Owen to try feng shui in a bid to get his World Cup ambitions back on track, the Daily Express newspaper reported yesterday. United fan Boycott says feng shui was a big help to him when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2002 and has told the soccer player to try it out. “During treatment for cancer I got into feng shui,” Boycott was quoted as saying. “I slept in different rooms, facing different ways. They believe that as you sleep you heal. People who don’t know anything about it say it is rubbish but it worked for me — I’m alive.”
■HORSE RACING
Man sentenced over threat
A gambler who threatened to kill 2008 St Leger winner Conduit unless it was withdrawn from a race was given a suspended jail sentence on Monday. A court in Bolton, England, heard that 26-year-old Andrew Rodgerson warned a racing stud manager not to run Conduit in a Group One race at Ascot after he forgot to place an accumulator bet on behalf of a syndicate. A victory for Conduit in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes would have led to the syndicate expecting winnings of £50,000 (US$80,500). Rodgerson panicked and sent a series of text messages and e-mails to Peter Reynolds, the manager of the Ballymacoll Stud Farm in Ireland. Rodgerson was arrested two days before the race, which Conduit won. He was sentenced to 34 weeks in jail, suspended for two years.
■SOCCER
Materazzi still angry
Italian defender Marco Materazzi says he’s still so angry over Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt in the 2006 World Cup final that he won’t even watch this year’s tournament in South Africa. Instead, Materazzi says he’ll be touring the US with friends and family in a motorhome when the World Cup kicks off in June. Materazzi told La Repubblica on Monday he was still waiting for Zidane to apologize.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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