SOCCER
Bates sacked over jet row
Ken Bates on Sunday revealed he was sacked as president of Championship club Leeds United after a disagreement over a private jet. Former Chelsea chairman Bates bought Leeds in 2005 and remained on the board after selling the three-time English champions to Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House (GFH) in December last year. However, the 81-year-old’s time with Leeds appears to have come to an acrimonious end after reports he renewed a contract with a private jet company without the approval of GFH. Bates had used a private jet to travel between his base in Monaco and Leeds for eight years and is adamant the contract, reported to be worth £120,000 per year, he signed to become president continued that arrangement with the full knowledge of GFH. Bates was on holiday in Italy when he received a hand-delivered letter informing him of his dismissal.
CYCLING
Zabel admits to doping
Former sprinter Erik Zabel admitted to having used doping products including EPO from 1996 to 2004, in an interview published on German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Sunday. He also admitted to blood doping and using cortisone. Zabel’s admission comes a few days after he was named in a French government report that identified cyclists who had tested positive for EPO during the 1998 Tour de France. The German had previously admitted in 2007 to taking EPO in 1996, although he said he had stopped using it after one week.
CRICKET
Probe clears BCCI president
A probe ordered by India’s cricket chiefs into a betting scandal in the Indian Premier League has found no wrongdoing, allowing the return of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president N. Srinivasan, a source said yesterday. Srinivasan stepped aside temporarily as president of the BCCI on June 2 after his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan was arrested, and later released on bail, over alleged links to illegal bookmakers. Meiyappan is a team owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings, a team bought by Srinivasan’s India Cements conglomerate when the league was launched in 2008. The BCCI appointed two retired High Court judges, Jayaram Chouta and R. Balasubramanian, to conduct an internal probe into the involvement of its members or of IPL owners. Police have also questioned Raj Kundra, husband of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and co-owner of the Rajasthan Royals franchise which had three players arrested for alleged spot-fixing. The probe report, which was submitted to BCCI’s acting chief Jagmohan Dalmiya on Sunday, cleared Srinivasan’s India Cements, Rajasthan Royals, Meiyappan and Kundra of spot-fixing allegations.
TABLE TENNIS
Prodigy sets sights on Rio
Twelve-year-old Japanese table tennis prodigy Mima Ito has set her sights on challenging China’s hegemony at the next Olympics after once again wowing audiences in Taiwan. Ito won the under-15 and under-18 events at the Chinese Taipei Junior and Cadet Open over the weekend, retaining the titles she won two years ago at the age of 10. “I am very happy to have won this double title for the second time after two years,” she said in an International Table Tennis Federation press release. “Two years ago my technique was very basic and I won purely on my reflexes. This year, I have a much higher level of technique.” Now Ito is hoping to break the Chinese stranglehold on the sport at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
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