■TENNIS
Kournikova’s mom charged
Former tennis star Anna Kournikova’s mother has been formally charged with felony child neglect in Florida. She was arrested last month and released from the Palm Beach County Jail after posting a US$3,000 bond. Alla Kournikova could face up to five years in prison if convicted of the third-degree felony charge. Palm Beach police say the 46-year-old left her five-year-old son home alone while she ran errands, but he escaped the house. Someone passing by found the boy and called police. He told authorities he jumped out a second-story window, but was not seriously injured.
■FORMULA ONE
Vettel fastest in F1 testing
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel opened Formula One’s penultimate test session by setting the fastest lap, while returning team Lotus made its track debut. Vettel set a best time of 1 minute, 22.593 seconds from 99 laps around the Jerez Circuit in Spain on Wednesday as wet conditions once again hampered testing. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was nearly half a second ahead of Felipe Massa of Ferrari, while Sebastien Buemi of Toro Rosso and Sauber’s Pedro De la Rosa rounded out the top five. Michael Schumacher of Mercedes GP was sixth with a time of 1:23.803 from a day-high 111 laps. Fairuz Fauzy set the 11th-fastest time for Lotus, which is returning to F1 after a 17-year absence with Malaysian backing.
■ATHLETICS
Runners killed, injured
Former world championship runner David Lelei was killed and former 10,000m world champion Moses Tanui was injured in an auto accident on the outskirts of Nairobi, the Daily Nation newspaper reported on Wednesday. Tanui sustained serious leg and chest injuries and was rushed to Nairobi Hospital, where the newspaper described his condition as being “out of danger.” The 44-year-old Tanui won the 10,000m at the 1991 world championships in Tokyo and silver in 1993, narrowly losing to Haile Gebrselassie. He was the first athlete to run a half marathon in under 60 minutes — finishing in 59 minutes, 47 minutes at Milan in 1993. He is also a former Boston Marathon winner. The 38-year-old Lelei was a finalist in the 1,500m at the 1999 world championships in Seville, Spain, and in the 800m at the world indoors at Lisbon, Portugal, in 2001.
■RUGBY UNION
Force ‘curse’ continues
Western Force’s injury problems showed no signs of letting up after outside center Ryan Cross became the latest player to be sidelined ahead of their Super 14 clash against the Hurricanes in Wellington tomorrow. Cross has been ruled out with a shoulder injury and joins winger Cameron Shepherd (thigh, six weeks), former Springbok Andre Pretorius (hamstring, season) and fellow Wallabies David Pocock (finger, six weeks) and Richard Brown (shoulder, six weeks) on the sidelines. Coach John Mitchell has been forced to bring in two debutantes, Mitch Inman to replace Cross, and Ben McCalman into a cobbled-together back row including flanker Matt Hodgson and Sam Wykes at No. 8. “It’s been a bit tricky on the whiteboard the last few days looking at situations, but we have a plan and will be committed to it,” Mitchell told the Force’s Web site, rugbywa.com.au. “We’ll give it a good shake.” The Force have also shaken up their forwards, with Tim Fairbrother starting at tighthead prop and Matt Dunning shifting to the loosehead side. Lock Tom Hockings has been promoted to the second row alongside captain Nathan Sharpe.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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