ICE HOCKEY
Lamoriello to manage Leafs
Lou Lamoriello was hired Thursday as the new general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, ending an almost three decade stint with the New Jersey Devils, the National Hockey League teams announced. Lamoriello, 72, resigned as president of the Devils and was introduced later on Thursday as the general manager of the Maple Leafs. “I have worked with Hall of Fame coaches, and players and a great staff, all of whom contributed to our success. In the end, it’s about the people which makes this decision so difficult,” Lamoriello said. His new task is to turn around one of the league’s Original Six franchises. Toronto has not won a Stanley Cup since 1967. The Devils won three Stanley Cup titles during Lamoriello’s 28 years there, but they missed the playoffs each of the past three years and four times in the past five seasons.
ICE HOCKEY
Coyotes, Glendale reach deal
The Arizona Coyotes reached an agreement with the city of Glendale that is to cut taxpayer subsidies for the National Hockey League team and allow it to keep playing in Gila River Arena. The Glendate City Council was scheduled to vote on the agreement yesterday, the city and team said in press releases posted on their Web sites on Thursday. The deal promises to end a legal dispute between the Coyotes and the Phoenix suburb, which tried to terminate its contract with the team ahead of the next season. According to city documents, the management fee paid to the team under the new agreement will be cut to US$6.5 million a year from US$15 million. “This revised agreement represents a positive outcome for both the city and the Coyotes,” Glendale Acting City Manager Dick Bowers said in a statement. The Coyotes sued the city last month after the council voted to cancel the team’s lease over a purported conflict of interest during contract negotiations. A judge issued a temporary restraining order last month, which temporarily let the team continue playing in the arena.
CRICKET
Oman into World Twenty20
Oman’s fairy-tale rise as a cricket nation continued on Thursday when they qualified for next year’s World Twenty20 in India. A five-wicket win over Namibia at the ICC qualifying event in Malahide near Dublin saw the Gulf minnows reach their first major international tournament. Victory also saw the ICC grant Oman, coached by former Sri Lanka captain Duleep Mendis, and with ex-England all-rounder Derek Pringle recently recruited as a technical advisor, full Twenty20 status. Oman had previously beaten Canada, the Netherlands and Afghanistan, all far more experienced associate or non-Test cricket nations, at the qualifying tournament. Afghanistan sealed the other qualifying spot on offer Thursday with a six-wicket win over Papua New Guinea.
CRICKET
Chittagong Test rained out
Heavy rain washed out the entire fourth day’s play in the opening Test between Bangladesh and South Africa at Chittagong yesterday. Rain and bad light had also forced early finishes to the second and third days, eating up time and making a result unlikely. South Africa made a slow start to their second innings after conceding a first innings lead of 78 runs. Opening batsmen Stiaan van Zyle was on 33 with Dean Elgar on 28, with South Africa 61 without loss. The Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur is to host the second and final Test from Thursday next week.
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