MOTOGP
Pedrosa wins in Germany
Sachsenring specialist Dani Pedrosa won his third successive German MotoGP to open his account for the year yesterday. While the Spaniard took the honors, his Honda teammate Casey Stoner, destined to take second, crashed out with two bends of the final lap remaining to dent his hopes of defending his world title before he heads into retirement. The main beneficiary of Stoner’s spill was Yamaha’s former champion Jorge Lorenzo, who was gifted the runner-up spot to move clear at the top of the riders standings on 160 points. Pedrosa climbed into second on 146 points with Stoner on 140. First-corner carnage in Assen the previous weekend had checked Lorenzo’s title charge, with Stoner arriving at Sachsenring level on points with the Spaniard. Alvaro Bautista was found guilty for that spill and as a punishment the Honda rider was consigned to the back of the grid. Pedrosa cut a happy figure afterwards. “At the start, I wasn’t comfortable because of changes to my bike,” he said. “As I became used to all the changes, I passed Casey and was feeling good. Towards the end I had to fight for the win, on the last lap I was racing at my maximum.”
SOCCER
Keita quits Barcelona
Mali midfielder Seydou Keita has quit Barcelona after his four-year contract ended, having won 14 titles with the team, the club said late on Saturday. “Seydou Keita has announced this evening that he won’t be staying at the club next season,” a statement published on the club’s Web site said. “FC Barcelona thanks Seydou Keita for his services to the club over the years, and wishes him professional and personal success in the future.” The local press reported that Keita, 32, was planning to move to Chinese club Dalian Aerbin. Keita previously played for French clubs Olympique de Marseille, Lorient and Lens, before moving to Spain where he played for Seville for one season.
SOCCER
Deschamps eyes France job
Former France captain Didier Deschamps is in talks with the French Football Federation about becoming the national team’s new manager, a source close to the talks said on Saturday. “We are in full negotiation. It’s a step further, but it’s not yet an outcome. We are in the phase of entry into talks. If there is an outcome and an agreement, I think it won’t be before tomorrow [Sunday],” the source added. The development comes a week after Laurent Blanc’s decision to step down from the post following two years in charge after being unable to reach an agreement with federation president Noel Le Graet on a new contract. Deschamps became increasingly linked as a candidate to fill the vacancy after quitting his position as coach of Olympique de Marseille on Monday last week.
SOCCER
Zola inks Watford deal
Watford have appointed Gianfranco Zola as their new manager after the Championship club’s new Italian owners sacked former manager Sean Dyche. Watford, who play in the division below the Premier League, said the 46-year-old former Italy international and West Ham United manager joined on a two-year contract.”I think Watford’s fans can expect an exciting and attacking style from his team. Gianfranco represents this project perfectly,” technical director Gianluca Nani said. Dyche was in charge for a year and he guided Watford to 11th in the league last season. He was fired after the Pozzo family completed their takeover last weekend. Zola has been out of work since being sacked by West Ham in 2010.
BASKETBALL
James, Bryant go for gold
With LeBron James and Kobe Bryant already among the NBA stars on board for a bid for a second straight gold, USA Basketball finalized its 12-man squad for the London Olympics on Saturday. James, coming off his first NBA title with Miami, and Bryant are joined by 2008 gold medal-winning teammates Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Deron Williams on the squad again guided by Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski. NBA scoring champion Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City teammate Russell Westbrook, who lost to Miami in the NBA Finals, are also joined by 2010 world championship teammates Tyson Chandler and Kevin Love, two vital big men for the Americans. With those nine in place, US officials had the task of selecting the last three pieces of the puzzle — filling out the squad on Saturday with Blake Griffin, Andre Iguodala and James Harden.
BASKETBALL
Russia, Lithuania in
Former European champions Russia and Lithuania have claimed two of the last three remaining berths in the men’s basketball tournament at this year’s London Games following their victories in the semi-finals of the ongoing Olympic qualifying tournament. The Russians overcame a stiff challenge from Nigeria to beat the west African nation 85-77, while Lithuania blew away the Dominican Republic 109-83 in the fiercely competitive 12-team tournament in Venezuela on Saturday. The Nigerians and the Dominicans, who have been surprise packages in the event, will lock horns for the remaining Olympic slot. The US, Spain, France, Argentina, China, Tunisia, Argentina and Brazil had earlier qualified alongside hosts Great Britain.
FOOTBALL
Adrian Peterson arrested
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was arrested at a Houston nightclub on Saturday and charged with resisting arrest. The Houston Police Department Central Jail booked Peterson and held him until a US$1,000 bond was posted, police department data showed. No other details were immediately available, but the Vikings issued a brief statement acknowledging the incident and saying they would not comment further until more information was available.
NASCAR
Stewart upsets the field
Tony Stewart pinched a dramatic win at NASCAR’s Daytona event on Saturday, charging past Matt Kenseth on the last lap and holding on as several challengers crashed behind him. “I don’t even remember what happened that last lap,” Stewart said. He has 18 victories at Daytona, second only to the late Dale Earnhardt. Stewart qualified second, but started near the back of the field because his time was thrown out by NASCAR when his Chevrolet failed inspection. He was at the back for much of the race, letting Roush Fenway Racing teammates Kenseth and Greg Biffle control the front. The Roush drivers thought they had the field covered, and probably still liked their chances on the final green-white-checkered restart. Kenseth was the leader with Biffle on his bumper, as second-placed Stewart was lined up with Kasey Kahne. Kenseth and Biffle pulled away for a lap, but Stewart came up quickly on the outside, moved to the front, then crossed down the track in front of Kenseth for the lead. Seconds later, Biffle seemed to wiggle in traffic and cars began crashing all over the track. “I’m not really sure what happened, they just started wrecking behind us,” Kenseth said.
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