SOCCER
Kaiserslautern earn 0-0 draw
Last-place Kaiserslautern earned a 0-0 draw at VfB Stuttgart on Friday in the Bundesliga, but remained winless in 15 matches. The point left Kaiserslautern stuck at the bottom. Stuttgart also failed to make any ground, remaining eighth. Martin Harnik had two attempts in the first half, the only chances the home side created. Vedad Ibisevic had a penalty claim turned down early in the second half. Julian Schieber also had an effort saved and Cacau, another substitute, was denied 10 minutes from time. Kaiserslautern goalkeeper Tobias Sippel made another save from Cacau in the 85th.
SOCCER
Racing name another coach
Real Racing Club de Santander appointed Alvaro Cervera as their third coach this season, on a contract until June 30, the relegation-threatened La Liga club said on Friday. The 46-year-old’s first game in charge will be at home to La Liga champions Barcelona today, and he has 13 matches left to save Racing, who lie 18th in the 20-team standings and three points from safety. Racing are in administration and have not won a game in their last seven outings.
ALPINE SKIING
Ambrosi Hoffman retires
Former Olympic bronze medalist Ambrosi Hoffman retired from the alpine skiing World Cup circuit on Friday after 16 seasons. The 34-year-old Swiss racer said in a statement that he would stop “because of my age, but also my results.” Hoffman’s career highlight came at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, where he finished third in super-G behind alpine greats Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway and Austrian Hermann Maier. His 231-race World Cup career started and finished at Kvitfjell, Norway, where he placed 31st in a super-G on Sunday last week.
SPEED SKATING
Gregg wins 500m at worlds
Jamie Gregg of Canada won the 500m sprint at the World Cup finals in Berlin on Friday for his first win of the season. Gregg clocked 35.06 seconds to beat Pekka Koskela of Finland by 0.01 seconds. Mo Tae-bum of South Korea was third. Tucker Fredricks of the US finished 14th, but still leads the World Cup standings by 26 points over Koskela before today’s final race. Yu Jing of China won the women’s sprint in 37.94 seconds and jumped to the top of the standings with a 31-point lead over Jenny Wolf of Germany. Wolf was third, behind Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea. Havard Bokko of Norway won the 1,500m title by taking the last race of the season, while Olympic champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic confirmed her 3,000m title.
SOCCER
Rangers players’ pay cut
Players at crisis-hit Rangers FC on Friday accepted pay cuts of between 25 and 75 percent, with administrators insisting the wage-reduction deal has secured jobs at the club. In a statement, joint administrator Paul Clark said: “We are pleased to announce today a package of cost-cutting measures has been agreed with the Rangers playing staff that enables the club to move forward.” He added that coaching staff have also accepted reductions and midfielders Mervan Celik and Gregg Wylde have voluntarily left the club. Administrators were called in on Feb. 14 after British tax authorities went to court to seek payment of an unpaid bill of £9 million (US$14 million) built up since owner Craig Whyte took charge of the Scottish Premier League side in May last year.
ICE HOCKEY
Crosby keen for contact
NHL star Sidney Crosby on Friday said he wants more contact and intensity from workouts before testing himself in games after struggling with concussion symptoms. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain spoke after a morning practice session with the club, the latest workout since he was allowed to return to full contact training with the team. “We haven’t practiced a lot,” Crosby said. “It has been good. Got a little bit of contact in. But just the way the schedule has worked out, I haven’t really tested things as best as I would like. The good thing is that even after the minimal bumping I’ve kind of done, it has been good.” The 24-year-old Canadian still has no timetable for a return to the Penguins lineup as they prepare to play the reigning Stanley Cup champion Boston today.
FORMULA ONE
US’ Rossi new test driver
Caterham appointed Californian Alexander Rossi as their test driver on Friday in a deal that could see an American on track when the US Grand Prix returns to the Formula One calendar later this year. Caterham said Rossi, the only American to hold an FIA Super License, was to take part in some practice sessions, as well as race for a Caterham team in the junior Renault World Series. Dutchman Giedo van der Garde is Caterham’s official reserve and was likely to do most free practice sessions not assigned to regular race drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov. There is no testing allowed until May. There are no US drivers currently on the Formula One starting grid, but the country is returning to the calendar for the first time since 2007 with a circuit being built in Austin, Texas, for a Nov. 18 race.
FOOTBALL
Broncos players suspended
Linebacker D.J. Williams, defensive tackle Ryan McBean and tight end Virgil Green of the Denver Broncos have been suspended for violating the NFL’s anti-doping policy, the league said on Friday. McBean and Williams have been suspended without pay for the first six games of the 2012 regular season, while Green will miss the team’s first four matches, also without pay. Williams issued a statement denying wrongdoing. “I understand from media reports today that the NFL has announced a suspension based on a specimen that the NFL acknowledges did not contain steroids or any illegal substance,” Williams said in a statement. “Instead, the NFL contends that I provided a non-human specimen. I have never failed a test of any kind — for steroids or illegal substances — during my eight-year pro career. We proved — conclusively — at the NFL hearing on this matter that the NFL and its specimen collector wholly failed in their duties to safeguard and process my specimen properly ... We will be vigorously pursuing my rights in the judicial system.”
BASEBALL
Canseco refuses drug test
Former MLB star Jose Canseco has been suspended from the Mexican league after allegedly refusing to undergo a doping test. Mexican league president Plinio Escalante said refusing to take a doping test is the same as being tested positive in the league. His Quintana Roo Tigers team president Cuauhtemoc Rodriguez said that doping control doctors advised Canseco against taking the test because he was using a medicine to produce testosterone. He said Canseco had already told the team he was using the medicine because his body doesn’t produce the substance naturally. Canseco told the Web site ESPNDeportes that he has a prescription for the testosterone treatment and “can’t live without it.”
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