ICE HOCKEY
Bouwmeester dealt to Blues
Defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, who has yet to play a single post-season game in his 10 seasons in the National Hockey League, was dealt by the Calgary Flames to the St Louis Blues on Monday. The Flames received defenseman Mark Cundari, goaltender Reto Berra and a first-round draft pick in exchange for Bouwmeester, who has six goals in 33 games this season for Calgary. The 29-year-old was a former first-round pick of the Florida Panthers, but has been on the move the last few years. This is the third team in the last five years for Bouwmeester.
BASKETBALL
Ginobili out with injury
Guard Manu Ginobili is expected to miss up to four weeks because of a strained right hamstring, the San Antonio Spurs said on Monday. Ginobili, of Argentina, sustained the injury during the first quarter of Friday’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, causing the 11-year veteran to miss Sunday’s 88-86 loss to Miami. In 59 National Basketball Association games this season, Ginobili averaged 11.9 points, 4.6 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. Spurs forwards Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard, both suffering from sore left knees, also did not play in San Antonio’s 92-90 loss to Memphis on Monday. San Antonio have already locked up a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
FOOTBALL
Colt McCoy joins 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers acquired quarterback Colt McCoy from the Cleveland Browns in exchange for two undisclosed picks in this month’s NFL Draft. McCoy gives the 49ers the mobile backup to starter Colin Kaepernick they have been seeking since dealing Alex Smith to the Kansas City Chiefs last month. McCoy started 13 games for the Browns in 2011, but he played in just three games last year, completing nine of 17 passes.
ATHLETICS
Powell forced to withdraw
Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell has been forced to withdraw from his first meeting since last year’s Olympic final because of a hamstring injury, Athletics Australia said yesterday. The 30-year-old Jamaican, who has run the 100m in less than 10 seconds more times than any other sprinter, was scheduled to race at the IAAF World Challenge in Melbourne on Saturday. The injury also forced Powell to pull out of the final of Monday’s Stawell Gift, a 131-year-old handicap race run on grass in a small town in Australia’s Victoria state. Powell suffered a groin injury in the Olympic final in London last year and trailed home last as his compatriots Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake won gold and silver.
BOXING
Ministry seeks investigation
The Indian sports ministry has asked the national anti-doping body to conduct an out-of-competition test on a boxer after claims from police and local media he uses heroin. The ministry says the unusual move is necessary because if the claims about Vijender Singh are true it “may have a debilitating influence” on other athletes. Vijender, who won middleweight bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, denies using drugs. Athletes are normally only tested for recreational drugs during events, while out-of-competition tests are conducted for performance-enhancing substances. Vijender has refused police permission to undergo tests to establish whether he is linked to a batch of heroin worth more than US$25 million that was confiscated from an international criminal network.
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