RUGBY UNION
Carter may miss opener
All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter has cracked a bone in his right hand and is doubtful for the opening Test in the three-match series against France next weekend, the New Zealand Rugby Union said yesterday. Last year’s World Player of the Year sustained the injury playing for the Canterbury Crusaders in their Super Rugby victory over the New South Wales Waratahs at the weekend and a decision on his availability will be made later in the week. Aaron Cruden is most likely to replace Carter should he be ruled out of the Test at Eden Park after some fine performances for the Waikato Chiefs this year and Wellington Hurricane Beauden Barrett, a solid place-kicker, is also in the squad. “It’s only a crack, it’s not completely broken, not displaced,” All Blacks coach Steve Hansen told local media. “We’ll see how the swelling goes and make a decision on that late in the week... We’re very fortunate we’ve got people like Crudes and Barrett available.”
RUGBY UNION
O’Driscoll subs Warburton
Brian O’Driscoll will captain the British and Irish Lions for their opening match in Australia against the Western Force tomorrow as Sam Warburton continues to rest his sore knee. The former Irish skipper leads a side featuring seven of his international teammates — flyhalf Jonny Sexton, hooker Rory Best, winger Tommy Bowe, prop Cian Healy, flanker Sean O’Brien, scrumhalf Connor Murray and No. 8 Jamie Heaslip. England’s Manu Tuilagi will join O’Driscoll in the centers, one of eight new Lions to play at Subiaco Oval in the team named yesterday. “The tour feels like it has truly begun now we have landed on Australian soil,” O’Driscoll, who captained the 2005 Lions, told reporters in Perth. Irish fullback Rob Kearney was the only player not considered because of injury, Gatland said, with Warburton rested and likely to play on Saturday against the Queensland Reds.
SOCCER
Alonso out with injury
Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso has been left out of Spain manager Vicente del Bosque’s final 23-man squad for the Confederations Cup due to a groin injury. Despite Alonso’s absence, midfielders Benat Extebarria and Javi Garcia have also been left out from the original 26-man list Del Bosque delivered earlier this week. Alonso has struggled with injuries in the second half of the season and has not been given the all-clear by Madrid’s doctors to take part in the competition, which starts on June 15. Arsenal’s Nacho Monreal has been included as backup to Jordi Alba at leftback, despite a back problem that has prevented him playing since last month. Meanwhile, Roberto Soldado’s fine goal-scoring form toward the end of the campaign for Valencia has ensured he is included alongside Fernando Torres and David Villa as Del Bosque’s main striking options.
SOCCER
AS Livorno back on top
AS Livorno were promoted to Serie A on Sunday after a 1-0 home victory over local rivals Empoli in the second leg of Italy’s Serie B playoff final saw them win 2-1 on aggregate. A bullet Paulinho header from a Pasquale Schiattarella cross 32 minutes into the first half was enough to seal promotion for the Tuscan side, who return to Serie A after three years away. They will join US Sassuolo, who were promoted as champions, and second-placed Hellas Verona in Serie A. Former Italian champions Verona will play in the top flight for the first time in 11 years, while Sassuolo will be making their first-ever appearance in the top flight.
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