BASKETBALL
Nash named Canada GM
Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns was named general manager of Canada’s national basketball team on Tuesday. Nash, who is Canada’s biggest basketball star, will guide the Canada team as they attempt to qualify for the 2014 FIBA World Cup. His appointment comes as a surprise because Nash still plays in the NBA for the Suns. The 15-year NBA veteran will become a free agent this summer. He helped Canada finish seventh at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, a team coach by former Canada Olympian Jay Triano.
FIELD HOCKEY
Argentine player dropped
The Argentine player filmed training on the Falkland Islands in a controversial video that caused a furor in Britain last week was dropped from Argentina’s final Olympic Games warmup event. Fernando Zylberberg, a 34-year-old midfielder who has captained Argentina, was not included in the 18-man squad for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia posted on the Argentine Hockey Confederation Web site. The other teams participating in the six-nation tournament from May 24 to June 4 are the hosts, India, Pakistan, South Korea, New Zealand and Britain. A veteran of the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, Zylberberg was in the Argentina side that qualified for London as Pan-American champions last year and his absence in Malaysia does not mean he is definitely discarded for the July 27-Aug. 12 Games. The Argentine state-supported television advertisement aired in the run-up to the London Games and featuring Zylberberg was branded by Britain as “tasteless and insulting.”
PARALYMPICS
N Korea to make debut
North Korea will make their debut in the Olympics for the disabled when they take part in this summer’s Paralympics in London, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said yesterday. Chosun Sinbo, a Japan-based paper that reflects Pyongyang’s thinking, said the North were stepping up preparations for the Paralympics, which will take place from Aug. 29 to Sept. 9, two weeks after the Olympics close. Athletes and coaches left for Beijing on May 3 to take part in joint training with Chinese counterparts until early next month, the newspaper said on its Web site. The North will field disabled athletes in various sports including table tennis, swimming and athletics, it said. North Korea joined the International Paralympics Committee in March, an official of South Korea’s Korea Sports Association for the Disabled said. The North said in January they would compete in at least seven events in the main Olympics — women’s soccer, weightlifting, the marathon, wrestling, table tennis, archery and shooting. A sports official said at the time it could also send contestants in sports such as boxing, judo and diving.
TENNIS
Street named after Federer
Roger Federer has had his name on the trophy and now he has it on a street sign as well. The town of Halle in western Germany hosts the Gerry Weber Open, a grass-court tournament that serves as a Wimbledon warmup. Federer has won at Halle five times and has a “lifetime contract” with the tournament — if the Swiss great plays a pre-Wimbledon event, then it is the one in Halle. Since the start of this month, a street leading to the stadium, known as Weststrasse, has been called the Roger-Federer-Allee. Tournament officials released a letter from the third-ranked Swiss star in which he said he is “extremely humbled and honored” by the gesture, calling it an “amazing honor.”
CRICKET
Starc thrown out of Britain
Cricket Australia yesterday denied having anything to do with Mitchell Starc being thrown out of Britain, as the fast bowler attempted to play down the visa problems that saw him deported. The left-armer was due to leave London on Tuesday evening with his English side Yorkshire, coached by former Australia fast bowler Jason Gillespie, blaming either Cricket Australia or Starc’s agent for problems with his paperwork. The 22-year-old arrived at Heathrow Airport at the weekend and was initially cleared to remain, but he was unable to make his Yorkshire debut against Gloucestershire yesterday. Cricket Australia said the issue had nothing to do with them. “Mitchell is on annual leave and decided to organize a short-term contract with Yorkshire. It has absolutely nothing to do with us,” a spokesman said. “We have sent plenty of people to England and know all the requirements. Saying that, we have made it clear that if Mitchell needs our help, we are happy to do that.” While Cricket Australia have been blamed by some, Yorkshire chairman Colin Graves has also fingered Starc’s agent for the “fiasco,” the Guardian reported. Starc was due to begin an initial five-week deal with Yorkshire to help offset the departure of English seamer Ajmal Shahzad, who joined county champions Lancashire on loan this week. Yorkshire coach Gillespie said it was a pity Starc would miss the Gloucestershire clash, but said he would be back, hopefully in time to face Hampshire next week.
FORMULA ONE
Ferrari honor Villeneuve
Ferrari has honored the 30th anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve’s death by having his son Jacques drive one of his old cars. Jacques Villeneuve took to the wheel of the 312 T4 driven by his father in 1979, the season the Canadian and Jody Scheckter ensured Ferrari won the constructors’ title. Also at Ferrari’s track in Fiorano, Italy, on Tuesday were other Villeneuve family members, Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, current Ferrari drivers and former mechanics who worked with the elder Villeneuve. Gilles Villeneuve died in a high-speed crash while qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix on May 8, 1982. Now retired, Jacques Villeneuve was also an accomplished driver, winning the 1997 Formula One title.
RUGBY UNION
Blues to advertise for coach
The Blues say they will advertise the position of head coach, increasing speculation current coach Pat Lam will not retain the job beyond this season. In a statement yesterday, Blues chairman Gary Whetton said the Auckland franchise and the New Zealand Rugby Union had agreed to advertise Lam’s position to test the degree of interest in the role. Lam is contracted to the end of this year with an option of a further year, but with the Blues having won only one of 10 Super Rugby games so far, his chances of reappointment seem slim.
RUGBY UNION
McCaw in starting lineup
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is set to be in a starting lineup for the first time since last year’s World Cup final when he lead the Crusaders against the Melbourne Rebels on Saturday. McCaw has played off the bench in the Crusaders’ last two games after recovering from a foot injury that affected him in the second half of New Zealand’s winning World Cup campaign. He will also take over the captaincy from his All Blacks teammate Kieran Read, who has led the Crusaders in their 10 matches so far this season. The Crusaders are seventh in the Super Rugby standings, with seven wins and three losses.
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