BASEBALL
Greinke joins Brewers
The Kansas City Royals have traded former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke to the Milwaukee Brewers in a six-player trade, the teams said on Sunday. In exchange for their prized right-hander, the Royals will receive shortstop Alcides Escobar, center fielder Lorenzo Cain and top pitching prospects Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress. Kansas City also sent shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt and cash to the Brewers, who finished in third place in the NL Central Division last season. Over his seven-year big-league career, all with the lowly Royals, the 27-year-old Greinke has a 60-67 record with a 3.82 ERA.
CYCLING
Landis wore wire for probe
Disgraced US cyclist Floyd Landis used a hidden wire and secret camera to gather audio and video evidence for a US federal probe into doping in cycling, the New York Daily News reported on Sunday. Citing unnamed sources, the News said Landis used the equipment for a meeting earlier this year with Michael Ball, owner of the Rock Racing team that featured Tyler Hamilton and other former Lance Armstrong teammates. Accusations of doping by Landis against Armstrong, a seven-time Tour de France winner, and many of his former teammates have prompted the investigation. Landis was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping and after testing positive fought his punishment for years before eventually admitting that he took performance-enhancing drugs. Federal authorities obtained a search warrant for the apartment of Ball, a fashion designer, in part on evidence collected by Landis in a plan organized by agent Jeff Novitzky, who gathered evidence in the BALCO steroid scandal. The News said a tiny camera caught images of what appeared to be human growth hormone and other doping products in the refrigerator of Ball’s apartment.
CRICKET
Kiwis name Wright as coach
New Zealand have responded to the recent poor showing on the tour to India and Bangladesh by naming John Wright as head coach in place of Mark Greatbatch, New Zealand Cricket said yesterday. Greatbatch will stay on as the side’s batting coach and has also been appointed as chairman of the Black Caps’ selection panel. An under-strength India side thrashed the Kiwis 5-0 in a one-day series earlier this month, extending the tourists’ losing streak in one-day matches to 11. Former Test captain Wright, 56, who had a successful coaching stint with the India from 2000 to 2005, is to take charge immediately with the Dec. 26 Twenty20 match against Pakistan as his first assignment.
HOCKEY
Russia win Channel One Cup
Russia routed Finland 6-2 on Sunday to win the Channel One Cup, the second event of the four-leg Euro Hockey Tour. The Czech Republic came from behind to beat Sweden 4-1 to finish second, Sweden were third, followed by winless Finland. Russia won all three of their games. Alexander Radulov opened the scoring for Russia with a solo effort at 10:49 of the first period, but Mika Pyorala equalized from close range eight minutes later. Alexei Kaigorodov restored Russia’s lead two minutes into the second. Finland then had a two-man advantage for one minute, 25 seconds but failed to score and Russia pulled away. Gennadi Churilov made it 3-1 at 12:22 of the second and Sergei Mozyakin added one more goal a minute later. Alexei Morozov and Churilov added power-play goals later in the period. Markus Nordlund pulled one back for Finland in the third.
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