BOXING
Tyson to enter Hall of Fame
Mike Tyson, whose legendary tale of punishing power and meteoric rise ended in an epic fall from grace, will be among the legends inducted today into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Tyson, three weeks shy of his 45th birthday, became the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history in 1986 at age 20 and finished with a record of 50-6 with 44 knockouts, personifying at times the best and worst of the sport. “I am honored,” Tyson said. “The sport of boxing has given me so much and it is truly a blessing to be acknowledged alongside other boxing legends because they paved the way for me, as I hope I have inspired others.”
ATHLETICS
Former 3,000m champ dies
The Italian athletics federation said that former 3,000m European indoor champion Cosimo Caliandro has died in a road accident. He was 29. The federation said Caliandro was driving his motorcycle in his hometown of Francavilla Fontana in southern Italy when he collided with a car. Caliandro captured his European title in Birmingham, England, in 2007. A minute of silence was observed before the start of Friday’s Primo Nebiolo meeting in Turin in memory of Caliandro. Caliandro leaves his wife Graziella and two sons, Damiano and Cristian.
CYCLING
US rider banned for life
Philip Zajicek has been banned for life after admitting to multiple doping violations in a case stemming from an investigation into EPO and human-growth hormone trafficking from China for nearly 200 athletes. The US Anti-Doping Agency said on Friday that Zajicek admitted to a second doping offense for purchasing EPO, a third doping offense for providing false testimony at an arbitration hearing and for encouraging other witnesses to provide false testimony. About a dozen athletes around the world have been penalized in this case, including American riders Jonathan Chodroff and Duane Dickey.
MOTOGP
Stoner has best time
Australia’s Casey Stoner dominated practice for today’s British Grand Prix as the Honda rider looks to capitalize on his win in Barcelona last weekend. Stoner recorded the fastest lap in both sessions with a best time of 2 minutes, 3.748 seconds in the morning, just 0.2 seconds off the circuit record held by world champion Jorge Lorenzo. It was the perfect start for the Australian who will be taking part in his 150th career race today. “I’m pretty happy with how the day has gone after mixed conditions, we’ve seen a dry track, a wet track and then a 50/50 track so it’s been interesting to have these variants throughout the day, but in general the bike has worked well,” Stoner said.
FOOTBALL
Teams talk move to LA
Billionaire Philip Anschutz is ready to purchase an NFL club and relocate the team to his proposed downtown Los Angeles stadium, one of his top executives told the Orange County Register. In a Friday report on the newspaper’s Web site, AEG president Tim Leiweke said Anschutz has spoken with officials from the Minnesota Vikings, St Louis Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers about buying a majority interest and moving the club. “We’re not packing any [moving] vans right now,” Leiweke said, even though the most recent contact was only one week ago. Leiweke said AEG is willing to pay whatever is needed for an existing team to escape its current stadium lease and move to Los Angeles.
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