SOCCER
United buys Stiles’ medals
The World Cup medal won by England’s Nobby Stiles in 1966 was bought for £188,200 (US$298,000) by his former club Manchester United on Wednesday. The fee is the highest yet for a World Cup medal, surpassing the £165,000 paid five years ago for another 1966 winners’ medal owned by Alan Ball. United also put in a winning bid of £49,402 for a European Cup winners’ medal which Stiles won with the club in 1968. He played for United from 1960 to 1971. “We’re delighted to have acquired these items, which possess tremendous historical significance for Manchester United and English football, and look forward to proudly displaying them in our museum,” United said in a statement. The 68-year-old Stiles raised a total of £424,438 for his family from 45 lots at the auction in Edinburgh. “If you had walked in to my dad’s house you would never have known what he had done,” Stiles’ son John told the BBC. “The shirts were in the loft and the medals were in the bank. Nobody ever saw them.”
CRICKET
Black Caps played ‘like dicks’
New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch yesterday gave a damning verdict of his players’ performance against Bangladesh earlier this month, saying the Black Caps “played like dicks” and must redeem themselves in India. New Zealand capitulated 0-4 in a one-day series against unfancied Bangladesh, a result the local media has described as a low point in the team’s history. “When you play badly like that you’ve got to front up,” Greatbatch told radio station Livesport from India, where New Zealand will next week begin a tour that includes three Tests and five one-day internationals. “It’s very devastating. We played like dicks really and I suppose there’s one positive thing, we’ve got a chance next week to actually put it right,” he said. Greatbatch was similarly blunt in his assessment of the team’s top order batsmen. “I think some aren’t good enough, I think some think they are better than they are,” he said.
GOLF
Woods keen to give back
Tiger Woods says he’s looking forward to giving something back to Thailand when he makes a quick visit to his mother’s home country for the first time in 10 years to play a one-day skins tournament next month. The Nov. 8 event is part of celebrations to mark King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60th year on the Thai throne. “The Thai people never fail to impress me with their warm and genuine hospitality. This is indeed a good opportunity to give something back to them,” Woods said. Paul Casey of England, Camilo Villegas of Colombia and Thailand’s top player, Thongchai Jaidee, will also compete for total prize money of US$300,000. All players have agreed to donate their prize money to charity projects overseen by the king, organizers said. The players will wear pink golf shirts, a sign of respect for the king that symbolizes wishes for good health.
SOCCER
Successor to Paul is French
The successor to the game-guessing Paul the Octopus is French, although it remains to be seen if he will have the same forecasting talents as his famous English-born predecessor. Paul gained global fame by correctly calling all seven of Germany’s World Cup games and predicting Spain’s victory in July over the Netherlands. He was found dead in his tank at the Oberhausen aquarium on Tuesday. Aquarium spokeswoman Tanja Munzig says the new octopus, also to be called Paul, was born near the French city of Montpellier and will be presented to the public next week.
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