BASEBALL
Yankees hire Carlos Beltran
Long-time star Carlos Beltran has joined the New York Yankees as a special adviser. His hiring came shortly before prized free agent Manny Machado was expected to meet with the Yankees yesterday. Beltran and Machado have the same agent. Beltran spent nearly three seasons of his 20-year major league career with the Yankees. Popular and productive in pinstripes, he was dealt to Texas at the 2016 trade deadline. Beltran played his final season last year with World Series champions the Houston Astros, then was among the final candidates to manage the Yankees. After Aaron Boone was hired, Beltran said that he turned down an adviser/assistant role with the team. The 41-year-old also played for Kansas City, St Louis, San Francisco and the New York Mets.
SOCCER
Solskjaer to coach United
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was yesterday named as Manchester United’s caretaker manager until the end of the season following the dismissal of Jose Mourinho. The former United striker is to take charge of the first team with immediate effect and would remain in place while the club looks for a new full-time manager. Mourinho was axed on Tuesday after just two-and-half years in charge at Old Trafford, with the 20-time English champions languishing in sixth place in the Premier League, 19 points behind leaders Liverpool. Solskjaer, 45, is to be joined by Mike Phelan as first-team coach, working alongside Michael Carrick and Kieran McKenna. “Manchester United is in my heart and it’s brilliant to be coming back in this role. I’m really looking forward to working with the very talented squad we have, the staff and everyone at the club,” the Norwegian said.
SOCCER
Cavani leads PSG to victory
Edinson Cavani scored his 15th Coupe de la Ligue goal in Tuesday’s 2-1 victory at second-tier US Orleans Loriet in the last 16 to equal the record held by former Paris Saint-Germain star Pauleta. PSG have lifted the trophy each of the past five seasons and are unbeaten in all domestic cup competitions dating back to January 2014. Thomas Tuchel’s side took the lead on 41 minutes, when Cavani lobbed the Orleans goalkeeper following an assist by Angel di Maria. Orleans hit back through a goal from Joseph Lopy midway through the second half, but substitute Moussa Diaby sent PSG through to the quarter-finals with the winner 10 minutes from time.
SOCCER
Milan struggle to 0-0 draw
Gennaro Gattuso’s AC Milan on Tuesday stumbled to a second successive 0-0 draw in Serie A away to a Bologna side coached by fellow 2006 FIFA World Cup winner Filippo Inzaghi. Seven-time European champions Milan last week crashed out of the UEFA Europa League following a 3-1 loss at Olympiakos and they struggled against Bologna, who are third from bottom in Italy. Milan played the final 15 minutes with 10 men after French midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko picked up a second booking and dropped five points behind city rivals Inter in third. Bologna remained a point adrift of safety after their winless run was extended to nine matches. Gattuso and Inzaghi spent more than a decade together as teammates in Milan, winning the Champions League in 2002-2003 and 2006-2007, as well as a pair of Serie A 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
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