BASEBALL
Darvish signs with Cubs
The Chicago Cubs held off strong competition to sign highly rated Japanese free-agent pitcher Yu Darvish on a six-year contract, the 2016 World Series champions announced on Tuesday. Four-time All Star Darvish last season notched a 10-12 record and a 3.86 earned run average in a combined 31 starts for the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers, helping the latter reach the World Series. Media reports say that the deal for Darvish is worth about US$126 million. “I’m honored to be part of such a wonderful organization,” Darvish told a news conference. “My priority in selecting a team was [one] that has a great chance of winning the World Series, and the Cubs obviously have more than a great chance.”
BASEBALL
Ohtani to stick with pitching
Japanese standout Shohei Ohtani, a threat on the mound or in the batter’s box, is to initially focus as a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, manager Mike Scioscia said on Tuesday. “He’s going to get the most looks as a pitcher,” Scioscia told reporters as Ohtani prepares for his first spring training in the MLB. “If he can pitch to his capabilities, that will always influence your team more than what he would do hitting, but that’s not to say he won’t have a chance to be a difference-maker on the offensive end, too.”
SOCCER
No-fan ban for Nacional
Nacional de Montevideo have received a three-match no-fan ban after some of their supporters mocked Chapecoense over the plane crash in 2016 that wiped out most of the Brazilian club’s squad. The South American soccer confederation (Conmebol) made the ruling on Tuesday after Nacional fans sang songs and made gestures at Chapecoense’s stadium during a Copa Libertadores game on Jan. 31. The Brazilian club asked Conmebol to throw Nacional out of the competition, but the confederation instead banned the Uruguayan club’s fans from their next three games in the competition and fined the club US$80,000.
HOCKEY
Seattle applies for team
Seattle’s application to become the NHL’s 32nd team arrived at the league office on Tuesday, along with a US$10 million down payment. The next step toward Seattle getting a team will be the NHL reviewing the application before recommending it to the board of governors, the Sports Network’s Pierre Lebrun said. The expansion fee was set at US$650 million — US$150 million more than what Bill Foley paid to establish the Vegas Golden Knights. The earliest the team could begin playing is the 2020-2021 season.
AUSTRALIAN RULES
Transgender player admitted
The Australian Football League has agreed to let a transgender player participate in the nation’s second-tier state women’s competition while the governing body considers its gender diversity policy for the national league. Hannah Mouncey in October last year lost her bid to take part in the national draft, barring her from this year’s elite-level season. The league ruled her out due to the advantage her physical strength and stamina would have over opponents in the newly formed semi-professional competition, but left the door ajar for this year’s draft as it finalizes its gender diversity policy.
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