■SOCCER
udd campaigns for Cup
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants the Socceroos to use the World Cup to have a quiet word with FIFA voters, who will decide whether their country gets to host the tournament. Australia is bidding to stage the World Cup for the first time in either 2018 or 2022 and must win over FIFA’s 24-man executive committee in December’s vote. Australia opens its Group C campaign against Germany on June 13 in Durban, followed by matches against Ghana and Serbia. A week before its opener, Australia will play a friendly against the US, which is also bidding to host the World Cup. Europe is favored to be awarded the 2018 finals, but Australia will also face competition in the 2022 race from Japan, Qatar and South Korea.
■ATHLETICS
Sotherton out of Games
Heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, a bronze medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, will miss this year’s European Championships and Commonwealth Games because of a back injury, she announced in London on Friday. “I’m extremely disappointed not to compete this year,” said Sotherton, 33. “There are some great events coming up this summer and I wish my teammates the best of luck. I fully intend to compete in 2011 and am working towards that.” The European Championships are slated for July 27 to Aug. 1 in Barcelona with the Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi in October.
■BADMINTON
Prize money breaks US$1m
Next year’s Korean Open badminton tournament will become the first in the sport to offer more than US$1 million in prize money. The event is one of five named in a media release late on Friday by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) as one of its new Premier Super Series tournaments, effectively its first “Grand Slam.” The others, agreed at a BWF council meeting in Kuala Lumpur, are Indonesia, China, the All England and Denmark. Prize money in Indonesia has been raised to US$600,000, while the other three are offering a minimum of US$350,000 each.
■GOLF
Romo may go professional
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo may decide to give the pro golf circuit a shot when his days in the National Football League are over. Romo survived a three-hole playoff on Thursday to advance to sectional qualifying for next month’s US Open. Romo’s tap-in with darkness approaching earned him a spot in the 36-hole sectional qualifying at The Woodlands, Texas, on June 7. Ninety qualifiers from 13 nationwide sectional events will earn berths in the US Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links from June 17 to June 20.
■SOCCER
Messi hands coach scare
Argentina superstar Lionel Messi handed coach Diego Maradona a World Cup scare on Friday when he injured his right knee in a training match. Barcelona star Messi immediately left the practice session, but the seriousness of the injury was played down by officials. “Messi is fine. It was only a knock and nothing else,” team official Nicolas Otamendi said. Argentina were training ahead of a World Cup friendly match against Canada taking place in Buenos Aires tomorrow before flying to South Africa for the finals on Friday.
■BASKETBALL
Yao celebrates first child
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and his wife, Ye Li, a former basketball player with the Chinese national team, celebrated the birth of their first child on Friday. “We are happy to announce the arrival of our daughter,” seven-times NBA All-Star Yao, China’s most popular sportsman, said in a statement. “This is a very special moment in our lives. We thank everyone for their support.” The 2.28m Yao, 29, has been sidelined from competition since having surgery on a hairline fracture in his left foot in July last year.
■ICE HOCKEY
Kings’ Hardy arrested
Los Angeles Kings assistant coach Mark Hardy has been arrested in Washington on a sex abuse charge for allegedly fondling a women in a hotel room. Prosecutors said the 51-year-old Hardy was arrested by police on Friday the same day the alleged incident took place. The long-time National Hockey League player and now coach made a brief court appearance on Friday. Hardy, who was born in Switzerland, played in the NHL for 15 years with three different teams, comprising Los Angeles, New York Rangers and the Minnesota North Stars. He was the Kings’ second-round pick in the 1979 entry draft. He is in his second stint coaching in Los Angeles.
■FOOTBALL
Brett Favre has surgery
Minnesota Vikings veteran quarterback Brett Favre underwent surgery on his injured left ankle. The 40-year-old Favre announced the surgery on his personal Web site on Friday, saying he had arthroscopic ankle surgery at a clinic in Florida. He did not say whether the surgery would allow him to return to the Vikings for another US gridiron season. “This is to confirm that I did have a procedure to remove some scar tissue and bone spurs from my ankle, which had been bothering me for a period of time,” Favre said on his Web site. “I appreciate your concerns.” Favre is coming off a season where he threw for 33 touchdowns and only seven interceptions while guiding the Vikings to a 12-4 record.
■BASEBALL
Famed female player dies
Dorothy Kamenshek, a former star of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who helped inspire the lead character in the movie A League of Their Own, has died. She was 84. Kamenshek died of natural causes on Monday at her home in California, according to the Riverside County coroner’s office. She had been having lung problems, said Jeneane Lesko, vice president of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. Kamenshek, who also went by Dottie and Kammie, played for the Rockford Peaches in Illinois from 1943 to 1953.
■MOTOR RACING
Manhole blamed for crash
A loose manhole cover caused Rubens Barrichello’s Monaco Grand Prix crash last weekend, his Williams Formula One team said on Friday. Williams, who had both cars crash out of the season’s showcase race, said in a statement that an investigation had showed the drain cover at turn two was to blame for the Brazilian’s accident. Barrichello’s crash on the approach to Casino square brought out the safety car for the second time in the race and it was deployed again 12 laps later when a loose drain cover was reported. The Brazilian’s car was spun around after it hit the guardrails, facing fast approaching traffic head on.
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