SOCCER
Rapid fans demolish arena
Austria’s Rapid Vienna have invited fans to help demolish the soccer club’s stadium, offering the chance to unscrew seats, chisel walls and cut out bits of the goalnets to take home. Prices at Saturday’s “Demolition Party” include 19.77 euros (US$24.94) — the year the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium was built — per seat, 18.99 euros for some net and 5 euros for a slice of turf. Thirty-two-time Austrian champions Rapid Vienna are constructing a new, 22,000-seat stadium which is due to be completed in 2016.
CRICKET
Ashes pig charges dropped
Prosecutors have dropped animal cruelty charges against a man who smuggled a pig into the opening day of the Ashes cricket series between Australia and England in November last year. David Gunn was charged after security guards spotted the live pig wrapped in a towel and being carried in a baby harness. The Australian Associated Press reported that a prosecutor told the Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday that no evidence would be offered against Gunn. Lawyer Kate Clark said her client maintained his innocence and had faced “significant public vilification.”
SOCCER
Alves to join English club
Brazil international Dani Alves is planning to leave Barcelona at the end of this season and join an English club, the fullback said on Wednesday. “I am moving to England next year,” he told Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper. “I am going to play in the cradle of football. This will be my last year at Barcelona.” He did not say which club he might join or why he wanted to leave the Spanish giants. The 31-year-old joined Barcelona in 2008 and has won four La Liga crowns and two Champions League titles.
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