FORMULA ONE
Vettel equals pole record
Double Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel dug deep to snatch pole position from McLaren at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday and equal Nigel Mansell’s 1992 record of 14 in a single season. The 24-year-old German, who has already clinched his second title with Red Bull, saved his best for last after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had been fastest in the first two phases of qualifying, as well as final practice. Hamilton was set to start the season’s penultimate race alongside Vettel on the front row, with teammate and fellow Briton Jenson Button third. Red Bull’s Mark Webber, seemingly no closer to a first win of the season, lines up in fourth. The pole was the 29th of Vettel’s career and the 17th in 18 races this year for champions Red Bull. Mansell, who took his 14 poles in a 16-race season with Williams, congratulated Vettel on social network site Twitter.
RALLYING
Latvala takes lead in Wales
Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala took over the lead from Frenchman Sebastien Loeb following the six special stages on the third and penultimate day of the season-closing Wales Rally on Saturday. Loeb, who virtually secured his record eighth consecutive world title on Friday when sole rival Mikko Hirvonen abandoned the event, was second, six seconds back, after stages 12 to 17. Norwegian Mads Ostberg, who has been suffering from engine problems, did well to end up third, but at nearly three minutes off the pace the fight for the last race of the season has come down to a duel between Latvala and Loeb.
SOCCER
Esperance claim title
Ghana defender Harrison Afful scored midway through the first half to give Tunisian club Esperance a 1-0 victory over Moroccan visitors Wydad Casablanca on Saturday and the African Champions League trophy. Afful darted down the right flank, cut inside and unleashed an unstoppable left-foot shot that flew past stand-in goalkeeper Yassine Bounou for the clinching goal after a 0-0 first-leg draw in Casablanca the previous Sunday. Wydad were reduced to 10 men in first-half stoppage-time when defender Mourad El Massane was red-carded after an off-the-ball incident with giant Cameroonian striker Yannick Ndjeng. Esperance won the competition in 1994 when it was called the African Champions Cup and have finished runners-up three times since, most recently when they were humiliated 6-1 last year by TP Mazembe. The success boosted Esperance’s bank balance by US$1.5 million and they have a chance to earn more when competing at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan next month.
CRICKET
Roebuck commits suicide
Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck committed suicide in his hotel room South African police confirmed yesterday. England-born Roebuck, 55 and a former first-class cricketer, was covering the ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia. Captain Frederik van Wyk, a police spokesman in Western Cape Province, confirmed that a British citizen had been found in his room having committed suicide. “I can confirm that the incident took place at a quarter past nine on Saturday,” van Wyk said. He wouldn’t confirm media reports that Roebuck was spoken to by local police earlier on Saturday and that people had seen him in an agitated state following that. Roebuck studied law at Cambridge and played 335 first-class matches, before establishing an avid following with his forthright, intelligent prose.
RUGBY UNION
Guildford gets naked, drunk
All Blacks wing Zac Guildford has been accused of staggering naked, drunk and bleeding into a bar where he allegedly assaulted two people. The incident happened in the small South Pacific nation of the Cook Islands on Thursday night, according to a report in New Zealand’s Herald on Sunday newspaper, quoting witnesses. Guildford, who has a history of problems with alcohol and was publicly reprimanded by the All Blacks management during the recent World Cup, is in the Cook Islands to attend a friend’s wedding. According to witnesses, he appeared at Trader Jacks Bar and Grill dripping wet, naked and with a gash on his forehead believed to have come from a motorcycle accident earlier in the day. He then allegedly punched one man who asked if he needed help and then hit another man across the back of the head. The Herald said patrons in the bar described Guildford’s behavior as appalling and a New Zealand woman, identified only as Fiona, said he was extremely drunk. “His eyes were gone, he was completely out of it,” she said, adding that after the All Black hit her 60-year-old friend he jumped on to a stage where “he seemed to realize he was naked” and tried to cover himself. Restaurant staff then rushed to wrap an apron round Guildford’s waist as he bolted into the kitchen.
FOOTBALL
Paterno-less Lions lose
Penn State came up short on Saturday minus Joe Paterno, losing an emotionally charged first game since a shocking child sex-abuse scandal engulfed the college campus. In a hushed Beaver Stadium prior to Penn State’s final home game of the season against Nebraska, players from both teams gathered at midfield before the opening kickoff to kneel and pray for the victims of child abuse. Interim Penn State head coach Tom Bradley called Saturday an “unprecedented” day in US college football history. “It was unprecedented ever in the history of college sports what went on today,” he said, following Penn State’s 17-14 loss. The Nittany Lions played for the first time in 46 years without Paterno at the helm. Paterno was fired last week as part of the fallout from the scandal swirling around former assistant Jerry Sandusky.
ATHLETICS
Bolt honored despite loss
Usain Bolt won a record-tying third Athlete of the Year award despite losing his hold on the 100m, while Australian Sally Pearson clinched her first trophy for a nearly flawless season in the 100m hurdles. Bolt beat his Jamaican training teammate and new 100m champion Yohan Blake and 800m champion David Rudisha. After false-starting the 100m final at the world championships in Daegu, Bolt came back to claim the 200m and anchored Jamaica to a world record and the title in the 4x100m relay. Pearson clinched the world title and only saw a perfect season go to waste when she crashed in the last Diamond League race in Brussels. She beat Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya and New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams.
SWIMMING
Thorpe exits Asia World Cup
Australian star Ian Thorpe’s Asia World Cup series ended in the morning heats in Tokyo yesterday when he finished 26th overall in the men’s 100m butterfly. The five-time Olympic gold medalist clocked 53.59 seconds, far behind top finisher Takeshi Matsuda of Japan in 51.39 seconds, failing to qualify for the final. The Japanese duo of Ryo Takayasu and Kazuya Kaneda followed Matsuda in 51.40 seconds and 51.63 seconds, respectively.
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