SOCCER
Swansea signs Donnelly
English Premier League newboys Swansea City beat rival bids by Liverpool and Everton to sign highly rated Northern Irish striker Rory Donnelly from Cliftonville on Friday. The 19-year-old — who passed his medical on Friday — will sign a three-and-a-half-year contract when the transfer window officially opens today with the fee, while undisclosed, is more than the original £100,000 (US$155,200) they offered earlier. Donnelly’s transfer fee rose after both Liverpool and their city rivals, Everton, declared an interest in the striker, who has scored 17 times this term for the Northern Irish club. “We are delighted to be able to attract one of Northern Ireland’s biggest talents,” Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers said. “I am really looking forward to helping Rory fulfill his potential and, hopefully, over the next few years ensure that Swansea City has another exciting young player blossoming at the club,” he said.
FOOTBALL
Dockett fined for tackles
Arizona defensive tackle Darnell Dockett was fined a total of US$30,000 by the NFL for two incidents that took place in the Cardinals’ 23-16 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last week, the league said on Friday. Dockett was fined US$15,000 for tackling quarterback Andy Dalton below the knees and US$15,000 for a high tackle around the shoulders and neck area of running back Bernard Scott. Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch was fined US$10,000 for violating the league’s uniform policy and wearing boots featuring a graphic advertising a product. Fellow Seahawks, Richard Sherman was fined US$15,000 for a high tackle and linebacker Adrian Moten was fined US$7,500 for a late hit. In other fines, Washington Redskins’ safety Reed Doughty and Houston Texans’ defensive end J.J. Watt were fined US$15,000 each for illegal hits on quarterbacks.
BOXING
Mayweather fined US$1,000
Welterweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr pleaded no contest on Friday in Las Vegas to misdemeanor battery against a security guard, prosecutors said. Mayweather, a flamboyant 34-year-old boxer widely regarded as the best defensive fighter of his generation, will pay a US$1,000 fine for the offense, according to the district attorney’s office. Mayweather’s no contest plea to the misdemeanor battery charge was entered by his attorney as part of a larger plea deal that last week saw the boxer admit to wrongdoing in a separate attack on his ex-girlfriend, said Tess Driver, a spokeswoman for the Clark County District Attorney’s Office.
TENNIS
ITF rejects Pakistan bid
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) has rejected an appeal by Pakistan to host its Davis Cup tie against Lebanon next year, the Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) has said. “We had filed an appeal against the decision to move the tie and we assured full security arrangements for the visiting team,” PTF secretary Mumtaz Yousuf said of the Asia/Oceania Group Two tie that is scheduled for Feb 10-12. “But the ITF has rejected our appeal.” The tie was originally supposed to be in Lahore and while Lebanon had said they were prepared to play in Pakistan, the ITF moved the tie to Lebanon because of security concerns. Pakistan have not held a Davis Cup tie at home since 2005 because of security issues, though Mumtaz said the ITF had promised to investigate the possibility of allowing the country to choose a neutral venue for future “home” ties.
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