WINTER OLYMPICS
Georgia to send team
Georgia has confirmed it will take part in next year’s Winter Olympics in Russia. Georgia’s participation in the Sochi Games had been in doubt because of lingering resentment over the short war between the countries in 2008. Sochi is located just north of the separatist Georgian territory of Abkhazia, from which the last Georgian forces were driven out in the war and which Russia and a handful of other countries now recognize as independent. Some members of Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s party strongly opposed sending a team to the Sochi Games, but the Georgian Olympic Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to take part.
BASKETBALL
T-Wolves fire Kahn
David Kahn was fired as the president of basketball operations for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday, the team announced two weeks after the end of a 31-51 season. The Timberwolves declined to pick up the one-year option in Kahn’s contract for the 2013-2014 campaign. He had been originally hired by the club in May of 2009. “These are always difficult decisions, but at this time, we believe it is in the best interest of our organization to make a change,” Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said. The Timberwolves were last in the NBA Northwest division, 14 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers and the last Western Conference playoff berth. Only New Orleans, Sacramento and Phoenix had worse records in the West last season.
TENNIS
Top seed wins in Munich
Top-seed Janko Tipsarevic opened his campaign at the Munich ATP claycourt tournament on Thursday by easing into the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Slovenia’s Grega Zemlja as four Germans reached the last eight. The Serbian, ranked 10th in the world, is aiming to clinch his second title of the year, having started the season with a win in Chennai. Tipsarevic, who captured his first clay title in Stuttgart last year, was due to play Germany’s Daniel Brands, who beat French wild-card Gael Monfils 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, for a place in today’s semi-finals. Veteran Tommy Haas was to take on compatriot Florian Mayer in the only all-German quarter-final after the 35-year-old beat Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-1 on his 10th appearance in Munich. Mayer, the sixth-seed and 2011 runner-up, rallied past Australia’s Marinko Matosevic 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. In the other quarter-final, fifth-seed Alexandr Dolgopolov was due to face Croatia’s Ivan Dodig.
SOCCER
La Liga match probed
The Spanish league is investigating a game between topflight teams UD Levante and RC Deportivo de La Coruna for possible match-fixing. League spokesman Juan Carlos Santamaria confirmed Spanish media reports yesterday that the league was examining Deportivo’s 4-0 win at Levante on April 13. Following the loss, Levante forward Jose Barkero apparently accused some of his teammates of a lack of effort in the match. He later publicly retracted his accusations. Levante issued a statement on their Web site saying they will “help and collaborate with any investigation.” Deportivo coach Fernando Vazquez said “our conscience is clean.” Match-fixing is a crime in Spain and can lead to prison time for individuals or expulsion of a club from official competition.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite