SOCCER
Djeparov craves move
Uzbekistan’s Server Djeparov admitted he still craved a move to Europe after becoming only the second two-time Asian Footballer of the Year on Wednesday. The 29-year-old goal-scoring midfielder said it was his “dream” to switch to Europe’s big-money leagues after a club career which has taken him from Uzbekistan to South Korea and Saudi Arabia. “Every player is very individual and every player has his way, but it’s still my dream to play for a strong European club,” Djeparov said at the Asian Football Confederation awards. Djeparov, who also won in 2008, now matches Japanese great Hidetoshi Nakata’s double triumph in 1997 and 1998.
SOCCER
Red Star rip out seats
Red Star Belgrade will remove all the seats from the south tier of their stadium because of safety concerns for the Serbian first division derby with city rivals Partizan tomorrow, club officials said. Newspapers on Wednesday splashed photos of seats being dismantled in Red Star’s 55,000-capacity stadium, where rival fans often rip them up during derbies, which have a history of crowd trouble. Partizan’s most passionate fans, who usually occupy the south tier for the Belgrade derby, will now have to stand throughout the showdown. “We made the decision after consultations with police and the Serbian Interior Ministry,” Red Star secretary general Djordje Stefanovic said.
BASKETBALL
Yao Ming sets up wine firm
Months after retiring from basketball, Chinese sporting hero Yao Ming is venturing into business by setting up a wine company to meet a growing thirst for the tipple in his home country. Yao Family Wines will sell vintages using grapes from the famed Napa Valley region of California, reflecting his time playing in the NBA, the China Daily newspaper reported yesterday. The first batch of “Yao Ming” wine, as it will be branded, is a 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon which will sell in China for 3,800 yuan (US$600) a bottle.
FOOTBALL
Chiefs snap up Orton
The Kansas City Chiefs picked up former Denver quarterback Kyle Orton on Wednesday as they try to salvage their playoff hopes following the loss of starter Matt Cassel. Orton was cut on Tuesday after the Broncos handed the reins over to fan favorite Tim Tebow and the 29-year-old was quickly snapped up by AFC West rivals the Chiefs, who announced the move on their Web site. Kansas City (4-6) lost Cassel to a season-ending hand injury on Nov. 13 and were forced to use inexperienced backup Tyler Palko in a 34-3 loss to the New England Patriots on Monday.
SAILING
Read, crew left in the lurch
Limping slowly through the south Atlantic Ocean on what’s left of their rigging and some borrowed fuel, skipper Ken Read and his sailors on Mar Mostro are trying to keep their spirits from sagging, despite being knocked out of the opening leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. After Mar Mostro’s mast snapped and tumbled into the ocean on Monday, Read had no choice but to withdraw from the leg from Alicante, Spain, to Cape Town. Mar Mostro began heading for the remote volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha to rendezvous with a container ship, before heading to Cape Town. However, Read found out on Wednesday that the company hired to do the job backed out, leaving the shore crew scrambling to find another ship that can leave Cape Town as soon as possible.
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