BASEBALL
Players called in Bonds case
MLB players and BALCO steroid scandal subjects were among the witnesses prosecutors said on Friday they plan to call next March in a perjury case against US home run king Barry Bonds. Prosecutors filed court documents outlining strategy and 25 planned witnesses for the trial of the former San Francisco Giants star that is set to begin on March 21 next year. Bonds, 46, has pleaded innocent on 10 charges of perjury and another of obstructing justice for telling a 2003 grand jury looking into the BALCO steroid scandal that he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs. Colorado Rockies first baseman Jason Giambi is on the prosecution witness list along with several former players including Jeremy Giambi, Randy Velarde and ex-Bonds teammates Bobby Estalella, Armando Rios and Marvin Benard.
SWIMMING
Nyad scraps swim this year
Veteran long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad said on Friday she was scrubbing plans to make a treacherous swim this year of more than 160km from Cuba to Key West, Florida, due to bad weather. Nyad, 61, emerged from long retirement as an athlete earlier this year to say she was determined to make the swim she failed to complete in her first attempt in August 1978, when bad weather was also the culprit. The swim, which Nyad had calculated would take about 65 hours, would break her own world record for marathon, long-distance swims without a shark cage. She now plans to try again next summer.
FOOTBALL
Bengals’ Odom suspended
Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom has been suspended for four games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancing substances, the team said on Friday. Odom will be eligible to return on Nov. 15, the team said on its Web site (www.bengals.com). Odom denied any wrongdoing saying he had unknowingly taken one his wife’s weight loss tablets. The NFL accepted it was an innocent mistake but said the suspension would stand, prompting criticism of the policy from his lawyer David Cornwell. “The decision to suspend Antwan Odom for four games highlights the need for the NFL and the NFLPA to fix the NFL’s disciplinary programs,” Cornwell said.
BOXING
Bute knocks out Brinkley
Unbeaten Lucian Bute kept the IBF super middleweight title on Friday by knocking out US challenger Jesse Brinkley in the ninth round. The Romanian-born, Montreal-based southpaw stopped Brinkley 2:48 into the ninth round, improving to 27-0 with his 22nd triumph inside the distance. Brinkley fell to 35-5 and became the sixth title fight loser unable to push Bute to the distance in his past seven fights. While rival champions in the weight division have struggled through the Super Six World Boxing Classic, Bute has ripped through every opponent before adoring Canadian supporters.
YOUTH OLYMPICS
Wrestlers fail doping tests
Two 17-year-old wrestlers, including a silver medalist, failed doping tests at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and have been disqualified by the IOC. The IOC said on Friday that Nurbek Hakkulov of Uzbekistan and Johnny Pilay from Ecuador tested positive for the banned diuretic furosemide in urine samples taken after their events in August. Hakkulov won a silver medal in the boys Greco-Roman 50kg class, while Pilay was fifth in the freestyle 63kg division.
OLYMPICS
Ticket prices revealed
The organizers of the London 2012 Olympics revealed the full range of ticket prices for the event on Friday, with the most expensive — £2,012 (US$3,216) — for the opening ceremony. The lowest price for the same event will be £20.12. Seats priced at £1,600, £995 and £150 will also be available. London 2012 chairman Lord Coe described the policy behind the pricing structure as an effort to make the tickets “affordable and accessible to as many people as possible.” Some local municipal authorities, though, have criticized organizers for “locking out” poorer children from east London. “Olympic organizers have had five years to plan a ticket allocation which would permit the children of the host boroughs to attend the Games taking place on their own doorsteps,” said Chris Roberts, the leader of Greenwich council. “Instead, seven out of eight schoolchildren will be denied that chance. It’s like someone pitching up to have a party in your backyard and being told our kids can’t go.”
SOCCER
Serbia to ask for replay
Serbia will ask UEFA to reschedule their Euro 2012 qualifier against Italy which was abandoned after crowd trouble in Genoa on Tuesday, the Serbian Football Association (FSS) said on Friday. “We will meet with UEFA president Michel Platini and the soccer governing body’s other top officials on Oct. 18 [tomorrow] and ask for a replay,” FSS president Tomislav Karadzic told a press conference. Karadzic condemned the Serbia fans who rioted and forced the game to be abandoned, but also blamed the violence on poor organization by the Italians. “The FSS Executive Board is unanimous in the assessment that it was up to the Italian Football Association to organize the match properly,” he said.
SOCCER
England 2022 bid withdrawn
England’s World Cup bid team withdrew from the race to host the 2022 tournament on Friday after the US ended its interest in staging the 2018 edition. The US’ decision means a European nation will definitely host the World Cup in 2018. The US were the last non-European bidders remaining in the race for 2018. Their move leaves England as one of four European bids, along with Russia and joint bids from Belgium and the Netherlands, and Spain and Portugal.
SOCCER
Milan banner ban denied
Italian authorities on Friday denied reports that Milanese police had told Tottenham Hotspur fans coming to watch their side in Champions League action against Inter on Wednesday not to bring Star of David banners. The star is a traditional club symbol extending beyond religious connotations — though the London side do have a solid base of Jewish fans. The Spurs Web site said: “The police authorities have advised that those flags showing the Star of David will not be allowed access and may be confiscated.” However, via Milanese politician Emanuele Fiano, police denied issuing such a specific instruction. “The Milan prefect, Gian Valerio Lombardi, with whom I have spoken, has denied that any Italian police authority has made any stipulation against banners bearing the Star of David,” Fiano said.
RUGBY LEAGUE
England survive fightback
England survived a second-half fightback by the New Zealand Maori to salvage an 18-18 draw in their rugby league international yesterday. England raced to an 18-0 lead at halftime, but the Maori replied with three tries of their own and three goals from Kevin Locke.
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