ICE HOCKEY
Ducks re-sign Saku Koivu
Center Saku Koivu has re-signed with the Anaheim Ducks, agreeing to a one-year deal worth US$3 million to return for his 17th NHL season. The Ducks announced the deal on Wednesday on Twitter. The 37-year-old Finn scored 38 points in 74 games for the Ducks last season, his third in Anaheim. The former captain of the Montreal Canadiens is a valuable two-way player for the Ducks, while centering a line with Teemu Selanne, his friend and long-time teammate with the Finnish national team. Koivu spent his first 13 NHL seasons in Montreal before joining the Ducks as a free agent.
SOCCER
Granada defender banned
Granada’s hopes of avoiding relegation on the last day of the season were dealt a blow on Wednesday when winger Dani Benitez was suspended for three months for throwing a bottle at the referee of last weekend’s La Liga clash with Real Madrid. Benitez hurled the bottle at referee Clos Gomez at the end of the 2-1 defeat by Real and was found guilty of an “isolated aggressive incident without serious consequences.” He received the lower end of the possible ban — it could have been six months — because the Spanish Football Federation Committee took into account his public apology delivered on Tuesday.
FOOTBALL
Stars to speak for Seau
Former San Diego Chargers stars Dan Fouts, Rodney Harrison and LaDainian Tomlinson are scheduled to speak at a memorial service for Junior Seau on Friday evening at Qualcomm Stadium. Also scheduled to speak are former Chargers coach Bobby Ross and former NFL safety John Lynch. Seau committed suicide on May 2 at his home in suburban Oceanside, California. He played 20 seasons in the NFL, the first 13 with the Chargers. Harrison and Tomlinson were teammates of Seau’s with the Chargers, while Ross coached Seau from 1992 to 1996. The master of ceremonies will be Miles McPherson, a former Chargers safety who’s now the senior pastor at the Rock Church in San Diego.
SOCCER
Chiefs star ends big week
Reneilwe Letsholonyane completed a memorable week by scoring the opening goal in Johannesburg on Wednesday as Kaizer Chiefs cruised to a 2-0 triumph over Ajax Cape Town in the South African Premiership. The 29-year-old dreadlocked midfielder was voted man-of-the-match on Wednesday last week in a victory against Mamelodi Sundowns when he returned to action as a substitute after a lengthy knee-injury layoff. A couple of days later, his wife gave birth to a son and he took just seven minutes to score against Ajax at Peter Mokaba Stadium in northern city Polokwane as he started a game for the first time since mid-season.
SOCCER
Adler switches to Hamburg
Former Germany international goalkeeper Rene Adler signed for Hamburg SV from Bundesliga rivals Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Wednesday on a free transfer. The 27-year-old was out of contract at Leverkusen and had fallen down the pecking order after a knee operation in July last year had been followed by the astonishing success of 19-year-old Bernd Leno. The young goalkeeper came from VfB Stuttgart to fill in while Adler was recovering from the operation, but in the end he was rewarded with a five-year contract at the end of the season.
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