BASKETBALL
Kings hire Dave Joerger
The Sacramento Kings named Dave Joerger as the team’s new head coach on Monday, two days after he was fired by the Memphis Grizzlies. Terms were not disclosed, but Joerger agreed to a US$16 million four-year deal with the fourth year of the contract a team option, ESPN reported. Joerger, 42, emerged on Sunday as the top candidate for the job after he had talks with Kings vice president of basketball operations and general manager Vlade Divac. “I am thrilled to welcome Dave to the Sacramento Kings,” Divac said in a statement. “He is a strong and passionate leader with a proven track record of producing results. Dave shares our focus on creating a long-term culture of winning and I look forward to a bright future ahead for the Kings with his leadership on the court.”
RUGBY LEAGUE
Henry switching codes
Rugby World Cup-winning former All Blacks coach Graham Henry is taking his talents to rugby league, announcing yesterday that he has teamed up with the struggling Warriors in the Australian National Rugby League (NRL). Henry, who guided the All Blacks to victory in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, will be with the Warriors for the next month working with coach Andrew McFadden, the club said. “I’ve got a lot of time for him as a coach and I also really enjoy his company,” Henry said. “We’ve had some healthy discussions about coaching previously and I’m thrilled to have the chance to be able to work with him, to observe the organization and to provide some feedback.” The Warriors lie 10th of 16 teams in the NRL with four wins from nine matches.
SOCCER
Goalkeeper collapses, dies
The goalkeeper of a Cameroonian women’s team has died after collapsing before a first-division game, less than 48 hours after the death of Patrick Ekeng, the nation’s soccer federation announced on Monday. Jeanine Christelle Djomnang, 26, fell ill during the warm-up prior to a Femina Stars Ebolowa match on Sunday, with the cause of her death still unknown as the federation awaits a medical report. Her death follows that of Cameroon international Ekeng, who collapsed while playing a first-division match on Friday with his Romanian side Dinamo Bucharest. The 26-year-old was rushed to hospital, but doctors were unable to resuscitate him.
SOCCER
Gus Poyet to coach Betis
Gus Poyet, who has been in charge of Greek side AEK this season, is to be the new coach of Real Betis Balompie after the Spanish club said on Monday that incumbent Juan Merino would be leaving at the end of this season. “Betis have signed Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet for the next two seasons,” the club said in a statement. The Seville-based side are 14th in La Liga with 42 points from 37 matches. Poyet joined AEK in October last year, but announced last month, on the eve of a Greek Cup semi-final second leg against Atromitos, that he would be quitting the club at the end of the season.
SOCCER
ESTAC Troyes hire Garcia
Relegated Ligue 1 side ESTAC Troyes have appointed Jean-Louis Garcia as their new coach on a three-year contract. Garcia is to be tasked with helping the club return to the top flight after a woeful season in which last year’s Ligue 2 champions have won just three times in 37 matches.
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