MOTOGP
Stoner beats his own time
Australian Casey Stoner lapped inside his own record on Friday as he again dominated practice for MotoGP’s floodlit Qatar season opener. The 2007 world champion, who has switched from Ducati to Honda and is chasing his fourth win in five years at the Losail circuit, followed up his fastest time on Thursday by topping the timesheets in both sessions a day later. Stoner’s quickest lap of 1 minute, 55.035 seconds was 0.158 faster than Spanish teammate Dani Pedrosa in second place, with Italian Andrea Dovizioso third in a 1-2-3 for the factory Hondas. Spain’s world champion, Jorge Lorenzo, was fourth on his Yamaha, ahead of US teammate Ben Spies, while Italian Valentino Rossi was eighth on a Ducati with the circuit far cleaner than the day before. Stoner, winner in 2007, 2008 and 2009 in Qatar, said there was much more to come from the Honda. The team have had the fastest bike throughout pre-season testing. “I haven’t really found the limit with this Honda yet,” he said.
ATHLETICS
Agent banned for dope trade
Longtime US athletics agent Mark Block has been suspended for 10 years for participating in the trading and trafficking of prohibited substances, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said in New York on Friday. The sanction by an anti-doping arbitration panel resulted from evidence connected to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) doping scandal, USADA said in a statement. Block, who has worked with a number of well-known athletes, was also cited by the panel for inciting and assisting others in the use of banned substances.
HORSE RACING
Amateur wins Cheltenham
Sam Waley-Cohen, an adrenaline-seeking entrepreneur with a thirst for speed, enjoyed his biggest thrill yet when he became the first amateur jockey in 30 years to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in London on Friday. In a family triumph, Waley-Cohen, 28, steered home his father’s horse, Long Run, to a seven-length victory in the showpiece race of the Cheltenham Festival. Waley-Cohen, who owns a thriving dental healthcare business, flies helicopters for fun and is friends with Britain’s Prince William, said victory was “beyond my wildest dreams.” “It’s a very special feeling, he’s a very special horse,” Waley-Cohen told Channel Four TV. “I didn’t think we were going to get there, but he picked up ... I still think he had a bit in his pocket ... we got there, he saw the crowd and he thought he’d stop and have a look, but what a horse he is.”
BASEBALL
Mets release Castillo
The New York Mets released struggling second baseman Luis Castillo even though they owed the three-time All-Star US$6 million this season, the team said on Friday. Castillo, 35, was in the final season of a four-year, US$25 million contract with the Mets, but was not enjoying the same numbers that helped earn him three Gold Gloves earlier in his career. “This was [a] baseball decision,” Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said in a statement. “I met with Terry [manager Terry Collins] and made a recommendation to Jeff [chief operating officer Jeff Wilpon) and Jeff approved on behalf of ownership. After 15 seasons in Major League Baseball, Castillo’s range at covering second base had slipped as did his batting average. He hit .235 last season after batting .302 in 2009. He was competing with four other players for the position.”
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