RUGBY UNION
Healy cited for stamping
Ireland prop forward Cian Healy was cited on Monday for stamping on England front row Dan Cole during Sunday’s Six Nations international in Dublin. Healy is set to appear before a disciplinary hearing in London today and, if the citing is upheld, risks a ban that could rule him out of the rest of the Six Nations after he was charged with contravening Law 10.4 (b), which states “a player must not stamp or trample on an opponent.” Tempers flared in the 14th minute of England’s 12-6 win when Healy used his boot on Cole’s ankle at a ruck formed following a collapsed maul, sparking a mass brawl. Match referee Jerome Garces of France took no action at the time, but Healy has since been cited by Italian citing commissioner Alberto Recadini. The recommended suspension for a low end stamping offense is two weeks, the mid-range five weeks and the top end nine weeks, up to a maximum of a year.
SOCCER
Keshi quits as Nigeria coach
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi told a South African radio station on Monday that he had resigned after leading his country to the Africa Cup of Nations title. “I gave the national football federation my letter of resignation immediately after the final, but I have not heard from them,” Keshi told public broadcaster SABC. Keshi dropped hints last week of his unhappiness with Nigerian soccer officials in Durban before the semi-final drubbing of Mali, telling a press conference he would “pack his bags and leave” if unwanted. “If, back home, they do not like what I am doing, well, you cannot force someone to like you,” he said. Keshi captained Nigeria to victory over Zambia in the 1994 final and guided his country to a 1-0 win over Burkina Faso on Sunday in a Soweto final settled by a Sunday Mba goal five minutes before halftime. The coach was reportedly furious when he discovered that Nigerian officials had booked a flight home for the squad immediately after the quarter-final against favorites Ivory Coast.
SOCCER
Betis held by Valladolid
Real Betis Balompie failed to capitalize on their chances and were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Real Valladolid on Monday in a mid-table clash in La Liga. Betis were the more attacking side and created five chances compared with none for the visitors halfway through the second half, but poor finishing and solid goalkeeping by Daniel Hernandez kept the game scoreless. Valladolid then upped the pace until Serbian defender Antonio Rukavina was sent off for a second yellow card in the 75th minute for a foul, with replays indicating he had made a clean challenge. Betis defender Antonio Amaya was sent off in stoppage-time for a dangerous high kick, leaving both teams with 10 men.
SOCCER
Deportivo sack Paciencia
Domingos Paciencia was relieved of his duties as RC Deportivo de La Coruna manager on Monday after just five weeks in charge of the La Liga strugglers. “Portuguese coach Domingos Paciencia and his colleagues won’t coach the first team any more. Jose Angel Franganillo took charge of training today [Monday],” the Galician outfit announced via their Web site, two days after an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat to Granada. The 44-year-old Paciencia, a former Porto star, replaced Jose Luis Oltra on Dec. 31, but his reign produced just one victory in six matches, a sequence of results that left promoted Deportivo bottom of La Liga on 16 points from 23 matches, six adrift of safety.
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