ICE HOCKEY
Perry suspended for hit
Anaheim Ducks playmaker Corey Perry has been slapped with a four-game suspension, without pay, for an illegal hit against the Minnesota Wild, the NHL said on Wednesday. Perry put a late check on Minnesota’s Jason Zucker in the second period of their game on Tuesday, earning himself a major penalty for interference and game misconduct. “Perry delivered a late, illegal check that injured Minnesota forward Jason Zucker,” NHL department of player safety official Rob Blake said in a video. “Perry [had] enough time to avoid this violent check, or, at the very least, minimize it more significantly.” A former Hart Trophy winner, Perry has nine goals and 15 assists this season. The Ducks have the second-best record in the NHL with 41 points and were set to continue their campaign without Perry yesterday against the Dallas Stars.
FOOTBALL
Welker joins the Broncos
Receiver Wes Welker, who is New England’s all-time reception leader, has signed a two-year contract with the Denver Broncos, the NFL team announced on Wednesday. John Elway, the Broncos executive vice president of football operations, announced that Welker would be joining the AFC West champions, but did not go into financial details. The 31-year-old Welker was a major factor in the Patriots going to two Super Bowls. Welker became New England’s all-time leader in receptions last year with a total of 672 catches and 37 touchdowns in six seasons with the team.
ATHLETICS
Doping cases being probed
A top athletics official said the sport’s governing body is investigating 17 suspected doping cases uncovered by the biological passport program. Thomas Capdevielle, the medical and anti-doping results manager of the International Association of Athletics Federations, says the body has so far identified a total of 36 violations based on the blood testing program. Speaking at a conference in London on Wednesday, Capdevielle said 19 athletes have already been sanctioned for biological passport violations and “17 cases are currently under proceedings.” The passport system monitors an athlete’s blood profile over time to check for variations that indicate doping. Cycling also uses the system and tennis announced this week it was also adopting the program. Capdevielle also said the governing body is hoping to set up a doping laboratory in Kenya to make it easier to test the country’s long-distance runners.
SOCCER
Honda, Nagatomo ruled out
Japan will be without CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda and Inter defender Yuto Nagatomo for their World Cup qualifying match against Jordan in Amman on March 26. Nagatomo is recovering from a knee injury. CSKA Moscow said Honda is unfit, but did not elaborate on the specifics of his condition. The 23-man squad named by Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni yesterday does include 13 Europe-based players, including Manchester United’s Shinji Kagawa and VfB Stuttgart forward Shinji Okazaki, who scored twice against Latvia in a friendly last month. The squad warm up for the Jordan match with a friendly against Canada in Doha, Qatar, on Friday next week. A win for Zaccheroni’s Japan against Jordan should secure their a place in Brazil next year.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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