BASEBALL
Beating suspects arrested
Two new suspects were arrested on Wednesday in the beating of a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium and the original suspect may well be exonerated, a law enforcement official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, said that if the district attorney’s office files a case against the men, the man previously identified as the suspect, Giovanni Ramirez, would be exonerated. The arrest marks a dramatic turn in the case. Since Giovanni was arrested on May 22, police have consistently restated they believed they had their man. Giants fan Bryan Stow was almost fatally beaten outside the stadium after attending the March 31 season opener between the Giants and archrivals the Los Angeles Dodgers. A paramedic and father of two, the 42-year-old Stow was transported from Los Angeles to San Francisco in May after being in a coma and in critical condition for months, before doctors upgraded his condition to serious in June.
BASKETBALL
Jones waived by the Shock
Marion Jones’ bid to resume a sporting career in basketball after her once stellar athletics career ended in drugs disgrace was waived by the WNBA’s Tulsa Shock on Thursday. Jones was stripped of five medals — three gold and two bronze — from the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After years of angry denials, she admitted in 2007 that she was a dope cheat, taking the once-undetectable designer steroid THG. She eventually served a six-month prison sentence for lying to federal investigators about taking performance-enhancing drugs. Jones, 35, played basketball in college and was a starting point guard for the 1994 University of North Carolina women’s national champions. She joined the Shock in March last year as a rookie free agent. The Shock said they had waived her to make room for center Abi Olajuwon, the 23-year-old daughter of former NBA great Hakeem Olajuwon.
SOCCER
Coach sent to the stands
Paraguay coach Gerardo Martino will watch the Copa America final from the stands after he was suspended for two games following a brawl at the end of their semi-final win over Venezuela. Both sides were also fined US$10,000 for the fight which broke out after Paraguay defender Dario Veron scored the winning spot-kick to send his side into tomorrow’s final against Uruguay in Buenos Aires. Martino, who exchanged angry words with Venezuela coach Cesar Farias and was sent to the stands during the game for remonstrating with the referee, must sit out two games, the South American Football Confederation said on its Web site. His assistant, Jorge Pautasso, was suspended for the final. The teams were warned that they faced serious sanctions for any similar trouble in the future, but none of the players involved in the free-for-all were punished.
SOCCER
Barca sign Alexis Sanchez
Spanish and European champions Barcelona have reached a deal with Italy’s Udinese to buy Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez for 26 million euros (US$37 million), the club announced on Thursday. The 22-year-old will sign a five-year contract, Barca said in a statement. Sanchez has played for Udinese since 2008 and last season he was voted the best player in Serie A after scoring 12 goals in 31 games. The player had also been linked with English sides Manchester United and Manchester City, but said last month that he wanted “Barcelona or nothing.”
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