■SUMO
Fans object to Asashoryu pay
A retirement package proposed for former grand champion Asashoryu has angered some fans. The Japan Sumo Association is considering paying him US$1.2 million, local media reported yesterday. That’s a sum many Japanese see as too much for the Mongolian, who retired last week after a drinking session in which he reportedly hit a man and broke his nose. The allowance would be the second largest ever following that of former grand champion Takanohana, who received US$1.3 million. A golfing trip to Hawaii after his sudden retirement and reports that he is considering going into mixed martial arts have done little to garner sympathy for Asashoryu, who had a checkered reputation throughout his career. “When you consider all the problems he has caused, it’s hard to imagine he would get that much money,” office worker Tetsuya Moriyama said. “Sumo is part of Japanese culture and wrestlers have to be held to higher standards.”
■BOXING
Wife says Holyfield hit her
Evander Holyfield’s wife claims the former heavyweight world champion hit her after an argument over donations to their church. Candi Holyfield, the fighter’s third wife, said her husband hit her in the face, the back of the head and her back on the night of Feb. 1. “He said that I was being disrespectful,” Candi Holyfield said in a Feb. 3 court filing. “He started telling me that I needed to start putting God first in my life.” A magistrate judge signed a temporary order on Feb. 3 barring Evander Holyfield from being within 500 yards (457m) of his wife and children. Candi Holyfield said in the protective order that her husband had struck her before, citing several incidents. However, in a statement released on Thursday, Candi Holyfield praised her husband’s character. “I have been with this man for nine years and will be the first to say that he has many qualities and characteristics that I admire and respect,” she said.
■SOCCER
Atletico reach Cup final
Atletico Madrid set up a King’s Cup final against Sevilla when they went through 6-3 on aggregate despite conceding two late goals to lose 3-2 at Racing Santander in their semi-final second leg on Thursday. Atletico thrashed Racing 4-0 at the Calderon in the first leg but were rocked in only the second minute in Santander when Juan Valera headed into his own net. He made amends six minutes later when he burst into the penalty area and pressured Jose Moraton into diverting a Jose Antonio Reyes freekick past goalkeeper Mario Fernandez. Atletico’s Jurado snuffed out any hopes of a Racing comeback shortly after half-time when he exchanged passes with Sergio Aguero and curled the ball into the bottom corner. Christian Fernandez was sent off left after catching Atletico’s Ibrahima Balde in the face with a forearm and late goals from Racing’s Xisco and Mohamed Tchite were mere consolations.
■SOCCER
Fans threaten hunger strike
FK Moscow fans are willing to go on hunger strike to protest against the club’s pull out of the Russian Premier League after their main sponsor Norilsk Nickel withdrew its financing. “We have 20 supporters ready to go on hunger strike this Saturday. It’s our last chance to save our club,” head of FK Moscow’s fan club Vasily Petrakov was quoted as saying by local media on Thursday. Last week, Norilsk, the world’s biggest nickel and palladium producer, said they would no longer finance the team because it is too far from the company’s base in the city of Norilsk, 3,000km northeast of Moscow.
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