SOCCER
Messi out until next year
Lionel Messi will probably not play again until next year. Barcelona said on Monday that the four-time World Player of the Year has another leg injury — his third of the season — and this time needs six to eight weeks to recover. That would rule Messi out until about Christmas, when La Liga takes its annual winter break. The Argentina forward sustained a left-hamstring tear on Sunday in Barcelona’s 4-1 victory at Real Betis Balompie, the latest setback for a player whose reign as the world’s best player had been largely injury free until the end of last season. A hamstring problem forced him to miss crucial games then as well and Barcelona struggled without him. This season, the 26-year-old forward hurt his left thigh in August and then was sidelined for three weeks with a small muscle tear in his right thigh sustained in late September. It is reason for concern for both Barcelona and Argentina, whose hopes of winning next summer’s World Cup largely rest on having Messi fit. “It’s worrying when a player injures himself in the same place,” Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella said. “Being injured so near the World Cup could be influential.”
SOCCER
UC Sampdoria fire Rossi
Former SS Lazio and ACF Fiorentina coach Delio Rossi has been sacked by UC Sampdoria, the Italian Serie A team said on Monday. Sampdoria dropped into the relegation zone following their third defeat in a row on Sunday at Fiorentina. The 52-year-old lasted less than a year, having only been hired in December last year. Youth team coach Francesco Pedone is to take over training until a replacement is found. Italian press speculation has linked Serbia coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, who previously coached Bologna, Catania and Fiorentina, with the post. Rossi becomes the third Serie A coach fired this year following Genoa’s Fabio Liverani, who was replaced by Gian Piero Gasperini, and Rolando Maran, succeeded at Catania by Luigi di Canio.
TENNIS
Llagostera Vives banned
Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives, a doubles winner at the 2009 WTA Tour Championships, has been banned for two years after testing positive for d-methamphetamine, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) said on Monday. Mallorca-born Llagostera Vives, 33, gave a urine sample at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California, in July where she was competing in the doubles, the ITF said. After analysis at a laboratory in Montreal, Canada, it was found to contain the prohibited substance. “An independent hearing was held [on Oct. 29], in which Ms Llagostera Vives ... was not able to demonstrate how the d-amphetamine entered her system,” the ITF said. “It was determined that she is suspended from participation for a period of two years.” Llagostera Vives, who has two career singles and 16 doubles titles, denied deliberately doping and suggested to the tribunal she may have inadvertently ingested d-methamphetamine by drinking from the wrong water bottle while training.
RUGBY LEAGUE
Samoa set up Fiji clash
Samoa beat France 22-6 in Perpignan, France, on Monday to secure second place in Pool B and a theoretically easier quarter-final draw in the Rugby League World Cup. Samoa next play Fiji in Warrington, England, on Sunday, while France must take on hosts England a day earlier in Wigan. Daniel Vidot, Anthony Milford, Pita Godinet and Junior Moors scored Samoa’s tries in a dominant, although at times brutal, display, while Morgan Escare notched France’s lone score.
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