ICE HOCKEY
NHL reaches agreement
The National Hockey League (NHL) and union representing its locked-out players reached agreement on drug testing and player safety on Friday, but did not address the core economic issues standing in the way of a new labor deal. “We’re taking baby steps right now.” Mathieu Schneider, a special assistant to the NHL Players Association’s executive director, told reporters in New York. “We are not really discussing anything that has to do with the core economics,” he said. The NHL locked out its players on Sept. 16 when the previous labor deal expired with the two sides at odds over how to divide a US$3.3 billion revenue pie. The lockout, which is the NHL’s fourth work stoppage in 20 years, has already forced the league to cancel its entire preseason schedule.
BASEBALL
Twins drop Nishioka
Japanese infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka was released on Friday by the Minnesota Twins after a disappointing year with one season remaining on his Major League Baseball contract. The 28-year-old Osaka native was dropped for a US$250,000 buyout to avoid playing him US$3 million next season in the final year of a deal signed in 2010. Nishioka, who helped Japan win the 2006 World Baseball Classic, suffered a broken leg in a collision with New York Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher after playing only 68 games in the 2011 season. Nishioka, who had batted .226 with 19 runs batted in and 14 runs scored before the injury, went hitless in three at-bats for the Twins this season and spent most of the season with their top developmental team, hitting .258 with two home runs and 34 runs batted in over 101 games.
FOOTBALL
Children’s coach fired
The coach of a children’s gridiron team in suburban Los Angeles and the league president have been suspended after allegations in the Orange County Register by parents of a bounty scheme. The bounty system, allegedly used last season to provide payments to 10-year-olds and 11-year-olds for deliberately injuring opponents, follows a similar scheme that led to National Football League bans this year for the New Orleans Saints. The report says parents claim coach Darren Crawford and an assistant offered players on the Red Cobras of the Tustin (California) Junior Pee Wee league cash for hard hits that knocked football rivals out of playoff games. One player suffered a mild concussion as a result of such a hit. National Pop Warner officials said that Crawford and Pat Galentine, who serves as president of the Tustin league, have been suspended until an investigation into the claims has been conducted.
ICE HOCKEY
Kane to play in KHL
Winnipeg Jets forward Evander Kane has reached a deal to play for Dinamo Minsk of the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for the duration of the National Hockey League (NHL) lockout. Kane became the first Canadian player to sign with a KHL team even as NHL officials and players union leaders renewed talks in hopes of saving a full NHL season in the wake of club owners locking out players almost two weeks ago. The Belarus club announced the agreement on Friday, exactly 40 years to the day after Canada defeated the Soviet Union in ice hockey’s legendary Summit Series. Kane scored 30 goals for the Jets last season and signed a six-year NHL contract extension worth US$31.5 million just before the lockout began.
SOCCER
Steve Kean ‘forced to resign’
Steve Kean quit as Blackburn Rovers manager on Friday, saying he had been “forced to resign” with immediate effect due to his position becoming “untenable.” The Scot had faced constant criticism from Rovers fans throughout his two-year spell in charge at Ewood Park after the club’s owners, Venky’s, an Indian-based poultry firm, controversially brought him in to replace the experienced Sam Allardyce. However, Kean carried on despite the club’s relegation from the English Premier League in May. Yet despite Rovers currently lying a promising third in the Championship, Kean walked out of the northwest club ahead of yesterday’s match away to Charlton Athletic. “For reasons that I cannot discuss on legal advice, it is with deep regret, given my hard work and service for the club for a number of years, that I have been forced to resign as manager of Blackburn Rovers Football Club with immediate effect, due to my position as team manager becoming untenable,” Kean said in a statement.
SOCCER
FIFA delays Kosovo decision
Kosovars were kept waiting in their bid to be allowed to play friendly internationals after FIFA again delayed a final decision on Friday. FIFA had initially given approval at its congress in May, but then put the decision on hold after opposition from the Serbian soccer federation and UEFA president Michel Platini. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the executive committee had decided to postpone a ruling on the matter until its next meeting in Tokyo in December. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but has not yet won recognition from the UN, although it is recognized by about 90 UN member nations. FIFA and UEFA statutes state that only nations recognized by the UN itself can be accepted as members. The Football Federation of Kosovo has made it clear that it is not seeking membership, but simply the right to play matches against teams from countries which recognize it.
GOLF
Pistorius to play in pro-am
“Blade runner” Oscar Pistorius, who has an 18 handicap, will play alongside several of the world’s best golfers at next week’s Dunhill Links pro-am event in Scotland. Last month, the South African became the first double amputee to feature in an Olympic Games and he also won two gold medals and a silver at the London Paralympics that followed. Ten major championship winners are set to feature in the European Tour event. Among the amateurs taking part are Hollywood film actor Greg Kinnear, musician Huey Lewis, Olympic rowing champions Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, and Dutch soccer greats Johan Cruyff and Ruud Gullit. Former cricketers Shane Warne, Ian Botham, Steve Waugh and Andrew Strauss are also set to compete.
CYCLING
Centenarian breaks record
A French centenarian became the fastest cyclist of his age on Friday when he covered 100km at an average speed of just over 23kph. Robert Marchand, a former fireman and boxing enthusiast from Paris, who will celebrate his 101st birthday in November, had been training every day for months to cross the finish line in under five hours. “I did better than expected,” he told reporters at the velodrome in Lyon, southeast France, where he completed the 300 laps in 4 hours, 17 minutes, 27 seconds, averaging 23.305kph. The wiry centenarian, who weighs in at just 51kg, says he never smoked, but otherwise indulged a healthy appetite for wine and women throughout his life.
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