■ Soccer
Hargreaves out with injury
England midfielder Owen Hargreaves likely broke his left foot during his play on Saturday for German Bundesliga team Bayern Munich. Hargreaves was sent out of Bayern's 2-1 loss at Arminia Bielefeld after a collision with an opponent. "There is the suspicion he has a broken fibula -- we won't know more until after the examination," Bayern coach Felix Magath said. The x-rays were to be performed late on Saturday in Munich for the 25-year-old Hargreaves, whom Manchester United tried to sign this season.
■ Field Hockey
De Nooijer voted year's best
Teun de Nooijer of the Netherlands was named field hockey's world player of the year on Saturday for the third time in four years. The 30-year-old playmaker was picked in a poll of players from the 12 countries that participated in the World Cup. German striker Christopher Zeller was voted the best under-23 player after leading his country into yesterday's World Cup final against Australia with six goals in six matches. "What makes this so worthwhile is I was chosen by hockey comrades all over the world," Zeller said.
■ Golf
Sorenstam wins Skins
Annika Sorenstam beat Mexican star Lorena Ochoa in the Acapulco Skins, finishing with US$165,000 in the two-player event at the Tres Vidas course on Saturday. Ochoa earned US$105,000 in the US$15,000-a-hole competition. Ochoa bogeyed the 16th to hand Sorenstam US$45,000. "It was an error. My shot went to the right," Ochoa said. After they tied on the 17th, Ochoa took the 18th for US$30,000. "It was a good game," Ochoa said. "I fought like I'd hoped. I don't like to lose, and that's why I asked for a rematch, and she already told me, `Yes.'" Sorenstam struggled on the unfamiliar course. "Sometimes I didn't know where to shoot. That's why I made some mistakes," she said.
■ Tennis
Baghdatis outlasts Paradorn
Marcos Baghdatis outlasted Thai star Paradorn Srichaphan 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the China Open final in Beijing, his first since the Australian Open. Cyprus' third-seeded Baghdatis was scheduled to face Croatian No. 4 Mario Ancic in yesterday's finale. Ancic, in his first tournament since Wimbledon, overcame No. 8 Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. After making the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, Ancic hurt his back and knee in a yachting accident, and was sidelined for two months until this week. "It was very hard to expect anything coming back from a long injury but I worked pretty hard," Ancic said. "I knew I was ready but match situations are completely different."
■ Sumo
Asashoryu tops Tamakasuga
Grand champion Asashoryu of Mongolia overpowered winless Tamakasuga in Tokyo yesterday to stay tied for the lead at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament. Asashoryu, who is bidding for his 18th Emperor's Cup, barely broke a sweat in the day's final bout at Ryogoku Kokugikan when he came bursting out of the blocks and shoved the No. 4 maegashira out in a matter of seconds. Asashoryu improved to 7-1 and is tied for the lead with Roho and Ama midway through the 15-day tourney. In other major bouts, sixth-ranked maegashira Ama kept pace when he forced out Mongolian compatriot Kyokutenho to improve to a 7-1 record in the tournament.
■ Soccer
Celtic top Scottish league
Stephen McManus scored on Saturday to give Celtic a 1-0 victory over Dunfermline and lift the Glasgow club four points clear atop the Scottish league. McManus headed in Shunsuke Nakamura's 31st-minute corner at Celtic Park for the Hoops' fifth victory in seven games. Second-place Rangers, unbeaten in six games, had the chance to trim the defending champion's lead to one point yesterday by winning at Hibernian. In Saturday's other games, Aberdeen moved third with a 2-0 victory at Falkirk with goals by Gary Dempsey and Dyron Daal, and Kirk Broadfoot's own goal 20 minutes from the end enabled Kilmarnock to climb to fourth after a 1-0 victory at St Mirren. Inverness and Dundee United drew 0-0. Yesterday's other game was Motherwell at home to Hearts.
■ Soccer
Juventus gets Serie B win
David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero scored on Saturday to give Juventus a 2-1 win over Vicenza and its first ever win in Italy's Serie B. Striker Trezeguet, who was making his Serie B debut, scored just before halftime by tapping in a cross from left-back Giorgio Chiellini. Captain Del Piero then curled in a 53rd-minute free kick from a central position just outside the penalty area. The game gave Juventus coach Didier Deschamps his first opportunity to pair Trezeguet and Del Piero.
■ Rugby Union
Fan interrupts game
The English Premiership match between Northampton and Bath on Saturday was briefly interrupted after a spectator complained about racist abuse allegedly being traded between the two teams. The game, won 33-18 by Northampton, was held up in the 57th minute by referee Wayne Barnes on the orders of the chief security officer at Northampton's ground, Franklin's Gardens. Barnes told Northampton captain Bruce Reihana and Bath skipper Isaac Feaunati to warn their players about their conduct before restarting the game with a scrum. None of the refereeing team was aware of any abuse but the Rugby Football Union confirmed it would be investigating what took place.
■ Rugby Union
Tests coming to Brisbane
Brisbane will host 10 Australian rugby internationals over the next eight years, including three money-spinning Bledisloe Cup Tests against New Zealand, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said yesterday. The ARU said Lang Park will host one of the two Bledisloe Cup Tests in 2008, with other trans-Tasman Tests in 2011 and 2014 pending the extension of the SANZAR joint venture with New Zealand and South Africa beyond 2010. ARU chief executive Gary Flowers said a new record ground crowd for this year's Bledisloe Cup Test demonstrated that Brisbane, Australia's third-biggest city, deserved to stage more high-level rugby Tests.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
Italian defender Marco Curto has been banned for 10 matches for racially abusing South Korean forward Hwang Hee-chan while playing for Como 1907 against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a pre-season friendly in July. Curto, who is on loan from Como to Serie B club Cesena, would serve half of the punishment immediately with the other half suspended for two years. “The player Marco Curto was found responsible for discriminatory behavior and sanctioned with a 10-match suspension,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “The player is ordered to render community services and undergo training and education with an organization approved by FIFA.” Wolves said the club would
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
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