SPAIN
Doping claims withdrawn
A Spanish radio station has withdrawn an item broadcast last year in which it alleged Barcelona players were involved in illegal doping and has agreed to pay the club 200,000 euros (US$268,500) in damages. Cadena Cope published a statement on its Web site, www.cope.es, on Tuesday saying the allegations, made in March last year, had proven to be untrue and had come from an unverified source. “It is recognized therefore that an unlawful interposition against the honor of the club in question was committed,” the statement said. The allegations, which Barca denied and demanded be withdrawn, were particularly controversial as local media reported that the source was an unidentified official at Barca’s archrivals, Real Madrid.
GERMANY
Podolski linked to Arsenal
Experienced German striker Lukas Podolski is close to joining English Premier League side Arsenal from Cologne, German daily Bild said on its Web site on Tuesday. The 26-year-old — capped 95 times and a veteran of two World Cups and Euro 2008 — has apparently already agreed personal terms with Arsenal, though, the two clubs have yet to agree a fee. Podolski’s contract with Cologne, a club he adores as he grew up in the city after his family moved there from Poland, runs till next year and the Bundesliga outfit had been trying to get him to sign an extension. Although presently out injured he has scored 15 goals out of the 30 the club has netted in the Bundesliga, in which they lie fifth from bottom and battling against relegation.
ARGENTINA
Injured coach quits
Nestor Gorosito handed in his resignation as coach of Argentine first division side Argentinos Juniors from a hospital bed after suffering multiple injuries in a car crash. The 47-year-old crashed his pickup truck in the early hours of Saturday on a highway on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, hours before his team lost a league match against San Lorenzo. “Today, the coaching staff led by Nestor Gorosito handed in their resignations to the board. These will be evaluated jointly with the coach given the time that his recovery requires,” the club said on Tuesday on their Web site, www.argentinosjuniors.com.ar. The former Argentina midfielder decided to resign after learning he would have to remain in hospital for at least two months to recover from intestinal damage and a fractured vertebra. Club president Luis Segura confirmed on La Red radio station that Gorosito’s life was not in danger and the board would take two to three days to decide whether to accept his resignation. Picking up a team with no wins in seven matches in September, Gorosito steered them to five victories and three draws in 11. Argentinos have picked up only one point from three matches in the Clausura championship.
FRANCE
Armand Penverne dies at 85
Former France skipper Armand Penverne has died aged 85, a source close to him said on Tuesday. Penverne captained France in seven of the 39 internationals he played between 1952-59 including most famously the 6-3 whipping they doled out to the Germans in the 1958 World Cup third place match. Penverne, a midfielder, won the French league title four times and the French Cup twice with the great team of that epoch, Reims. Penverne, who also played for Limoges and Red Star, was also part of the Reims side that reached the European Cup final twice where they lost on both occasions to Real Madrid, 4-3 in 1956 and 2-0 in 1959.
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