FOOTBALL
Broncos split up with Fox
The Denver Broncos and head coach John Fox have mutually agreed to part ways, the NFL team said on Monday, a day after their season-ending playoff loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Fox led Denver to four division titles since taking charge of the team in 2011, but his teams came up short in the playoffs each year, losing last season’s Super Bowl and falling in the second round of the playoffs in the other three seasons. Broncos general manager John Elway said in a statement that he and Fox met for more than an hour on Monday to discuss the latest season and goals for the future when it became clear that the timing was right for a change. “While we have made significant progress under Coach Fox, there is still work to be done,” Elway said. “I believe this change at the head coaching position will be in the best interest of our long-term goal, which from day one has been to win World Championships.”
FOOTBALL
Bills pin hopes on Ryan
The Buffalo Bills named Rex Ryan their new head coach on Monday in the hope that the former New York Jets boss can help them snap the longest playoff drought currently in the NFL. The hiring ends what the Bills said was an extensive search after Doug Marrone abruptly stepped down after Buffalo went 9-7 in the 2014 season and missed the postseason for a 15th consecutive year. “Rex brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to the position that we feel will be a tremendous benefit to our players and the entire Bills organization,” Bills owner Terry Pegula said in a statement. “We look forward to his leadership and expertise in directing our team to the playoffs and bringing a champion ship to Buffalo for our fans.” Ryan, 52, spent the past six seasons as the head coach for AFC East division rivals the Jets, a team he lead to the penultimate round of the NFL playoffs in his first two years in charge. However, he was unable to lead the Jets to a winning record in each of the past four campaigns and was fired last month after the team finished near the bottom of the league standings with a 4-12 record.
BASKETBALL
Three-team trade sealed
Jeff Green and Russ Smith are headed to the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team NBA trade that was in the works for days before it was confirmed on Monday. Memphis acquired forward Green from the Boston Celtics and guard Smith from the New Orleans Pelicans in the swap, while the Celtics pick up forward Tayshaun Prince and a future first-round draft selection from Memphis, as well as guard Austin Rivers from New Orleans. The Pelicans acquired forward Quincy Pondexter and a future second-round draft pick from the Grizzlies. Green averaged a career-high 17.6 points to go with 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 33 starts with Boston this season. The 28-year-old has averaged 14.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 511 games (395 starts) with Seattle, Oklahoma City and Boston. Smith played in just six games for New Orleans this season. He was traded to New Orleans on draft night for Pierre Jackson. Prince averaged 7.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 26 games with Memphis this season. The 34-year-old holds career averages of 11.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists over 908 games (851 starts) for the Pistons and Grizzlies. Rivers appeared in 35 games for the Pelicans this season, averaging 6.8 points, 1.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He was selected as the 10th overall pick of the 2012 NBA Draft by New Orleans. Pondexter averaged 4.5 points and 1.9 rebounds in 30 games with Memphis this season.
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