SOCCER
Crawley beat Derby County
Argentinian midfielder Sergio Torres struck in time added on to give non-league Crawley Town a famous 2-1 win over Championship side Derby County in their FA Cup third round clash on Monday. The 27-year-old — who has played in England for the past six years with either lower league or non-league sides such as Basingstoke — struck with a brilliant shot one minute into time added on to land an away trip to League Two outfit Torquay at the end of the month. It was no more than the hosts deserved as they had dominated the match taking the lead through Scotsman Craig McAllister in the eighth minute — five minutes after the visitors had a Kris Commons penalty saved by Michael Kuipers. Derby had drawn level in the 63rd minute when the injury-prone Miles Addison headed home from Commons’s cross.
SOCCER
Ronaldinho joins Flamengo
Ronaldinho is joining popular Brazilian club Flamengo until the 2014 World Cup. Flamengo’s Web site announced the deal on Monday after details on the player’s transfer from AC Milan were finalized in Rio de Janeiro. The agreement ends several days of negotiations and seals Ronaldinho’s return to his native country after 10 years in European soccer, where he thrived with Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona. Flamengo was able to sign the 30-year-old Ronaldinho after Brazilian clubs Gremio and Palmeiras ended their efforts to acquire the two-time FIFA player of the year over the weekend.
SOCCER
Maradona needs convincing
Former Argentina coach Diego Maradona said on Monday he had received an offer to coach in the English Premier League — but did not divulge the name of his suitor. “I am going to England in February to study the offer from this club,” Maradona said on a visit to the Uruguayan spa of Punta del Este in comments reported by the media. “If they can convince me, I might accept,” added the 50-year-old. “I know one day I will coach a new team,” Maradona said.
SOCCER
Mourinho wins coach of year
Jose Mourinho was named world coach of the year in Zurich, Switzerland, on Monday for securing the treble of Champions League, Serie A title and Italian Cup with Inter Milan last season. The 47-year-old Portuguese — known as the “Special One” — edged out Spain’s World Cup winning coach Vicente Del Bosque and Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola.
CYCLING
Rider commits suicide
Former mountain bike rider Alberto Leon, who was accused of forming part of two separate doping rings in Spain, has been found dead of a reported suicide. A Civil Guard spokesman from San Lorenzo del Escorial — the town near Madrid where Leon lived — confirmed his death to the Associated Press on Monday. The spokesman would not give his name in compliance with departmental rules. The 37-year-old Leon was one of 14 individuals implicated in the Spanish Civil Guard’s anti-doping investigation Operation Galgo that cited him as a supplier of performing enhancing drugs. Leon was also implicated in Operation Puerto, a doping investigation that began in 2006 and led to the banning of cyclists Alejandro Valverde and Ivan Basso. Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that the former mountain bike racer had hung himself at his home, but the Civil Guard spokesman would not confirm details of Leon’s death.
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