■SOCCER
BCC to host tournament
The British Chamber of Commerce will be holding its first international soccer tournament at Taipei European School’s Wen Lin Campus tomorrow. Spectators are invited to join in the fun from 12:30pm to 5pm at No. 727, Wen Lin Rd, Shihlin. Snacks and refreshments will be available. Friends, spouses and children of the players and other interested spectators are welcome to go along to the warm-up event before the World Cup begins next Friday.
■SOCCER
Benitez offered pay-off
Liverpool have offered coach Rafael Benitez a £3 million (US$4.5 million) deal paving the way for the Spaniard to leave the club in the summer, the Times newspaper reported on Wednesday. The report said the club’s board had proposed the deal to ease Benitez out after a disappointing season that saw the five-time European champions place seventh in the Premier League, missing out on lucrative Champions League qualification. Benitez would normally be entitled to £16 million in compensation for leaving early, having signed a five-year contract only in March of last year, but with reported debts of £351 million, Liverpool will not be able to manage that much and hopes of a compromise appear to be founded on the belief that the coach might walk if the club does not commit to major investment.
■BASEBALL
Ken Griffey Jr retires
Seattle Mariners slugger Ken Griffey Jr, whose 630 career home runs rank him fifth on the all-time list, retired after a 22-season career, the team said on Wednesday. The 40-year-old, 13-time All-Star outfielder was selected first overall by Seattle in 1987 and also spent time with the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago White Sox, before returning to the Mariners last year. “Ken is both the finest ballplayer I have ever known and one of the finest people I have ever known,” Mariners president Chuck Armstrong said in a statement. Griffey ends his illustrious career trailing only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Willie Mays (660) for home runs.
■CYCLING
‘Mechanical doping’ probed
The International Cycling Union (UCI) will examine the issue of so-called “mechanical doping” involving battery-powered motors at a meeting next week with bike manufacturers. UCI president Pat McQuaid said on Wednesday he did not believe rumors sweeping the sport that racers were cheating by getting extra power from motors hidden in their bike frames. “We have no belief at the moment that it’s actually a fact,” McQuaid said in a telephone interview, but he said the subject is on the agenda of a routine meeting between the UCI and industry representatives on Monday. “We want to make sure that, as batteries on bikes progress, the UCI is in a position to monitor completely any usage there might be in an unfair way.” McQuaid said the UCI had been in contact with Davide Cassani, who claims to have tested a motorized bike that could help a rider cheat.
■CYCLING
Engoulvent wins prologue
Frenchman Jimmy Engoulvent, riding for the Saur-Sojasun team, won Wednesday’s Tour of Luxembourg prologue, while seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong finished fifth. Engoulvent, 30, repeated his prologue success from the 2007 edition as he came in nine seconds ahead of teammate and compatriot Cyril Lemoine, while Swiss racer Grefory Rast was third, also nine seconds off the pace.
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