BASEBALL
Red Sox dismiss Alex Cora
The Boston Red Sox on Tuesday said that they were parting ways with manager Alex Cora in the wake of a sign-stealing scandal involving the Houston Astros, where Cora had been the bench coach, during their World Series-winning 2017 season. In its judgement on Monday, the league said that Cora had arranged for the installation of a monitor showing centerfield camera shots, giving players the ability to decipher the signs and alert batters. The Red Sox said that it would not be possible for Cora to remain with the team given the league’s findings. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that Cora “implicitly condoned” the Astros players’ conduct. The MLB would withhold any disciplinary action against him until the completion of a separate investigation of allegations the Red Sox engaged in sign-stealing in 2018, when they won the World Series in Cora’s first year as manager, he added.
GOLF
Slow players face more fines
PGA Tour players guilty of slow play are to face tougher fines and more frequent stroke penalties under tough new rules due to take effect in April, tour officials said on Tuesday. Maximum fines for slow play would be increased 10-fold from their current level, while players taking too long to play shots would be placed on an observation list, the tour said in a statement. Under the new slow-play policy, data from the PGA Tour’s Shotlink database would be analyzed to identify players guilty of slow play. Players would be placed on the tour’s observation list and subjected to warnings if they exceed 60 seconds to play a shot. A second breach of the time limit in a tournament would result in a one-stroke penalty. However, the list would not be made public. Players are to be notified if they are on the list on a week-to-week basis. Any player in a tournament — even if they are not on the observation list — would also be penalized if they are found to take longer than 120 seconds to play a single shot without good reason. Players will face a one-shot penalty for the second time breach in a tournament — rather than a round — while the maximum fine for cumulative bad times over a season has been raised from US$5,000 to US$50,000.
SOCCER
Inquiry launched into union
The Professional Footballers’ Association, the trade union for players in England and Wales, is facing a statutory inquiry into serious concerns about how the charity is run. The Charity Commission for England and Wales described the inquiry as the “most serious intervention” it can take, and would focus on the management of the union charity by its trustees, who include association chief executive Gordon Taylor. The inquiry is to focus on the charity’s relationship and transactions with other bodies and whether they are in the best interests of the charity, and whether its activities have been exclusively charitable and for the public benefit. “The public rightly expect charities to operate to the highest standards — across all they do,” said Stephen Grenfell, the commission’s head of investigations, monitoring and enforcement. “Serious concerns have been raised about the way the Professional Footballers’ Association charity is run. We will now examine what has happened at the charity through a full statutory inquiry and ensure, where necessary, action is taken.”
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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