■ Golf
Duo tee up record attempt
Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and Emanuele Canonica of Italy will attempt to break the world driving-distance record of 808m ahead of next week's Mallorca Classic. Briton Paul Slater, the record holder, will also be present when the South runway of the Son Sant Joan airport in Palma is closed for two hours on Tuesday. Slater, 35, a teaching professional from Bolton, set the record in April on the runway of an old airport in Wroughton, England, surpassing his previous mark of 658.3m.
■ Soccer
English FA suspends agent
England's Football Association suspended agent Charles Mambo on Friday from all soccer-related activity. The FA, citing legal reasons, would not say why Mambo was suspended. However, the FA and Premier League have been cracking down on agents implicated in probes into illegal payments in player transfers. Mambo was suspended after the FA received the results of a test to determine "good character and reputation." That test includes consideration of an agent's criminal record and financial history.
■ Rugby Union
Fijian ace returning to Agen
Fiji winger Rupeni Caucaunibuca, who has been absent from his club Agen for four months, will return to France this weekend, the club said on Friday. Caucaunibuca, the top try scorer in France for the last two seasons with 33 in total, had been expected to resume his career in France in time for the new league season. But he was delayed by having to play internationals matches. Then he was forced to stay in Fiji after falling seriously ill and was hospitalized. Reports suggested that he lost 12 kilos in the process. After recovering, Caucaunibuca's expected return to Europe was delayed further when his wife became sick after giving birth to the couple's second child last month.
■ Snowboarding
Grabner and Kober triumph
Austria's Siegfried Grabner and Germany's Amelie Kober won the snowboarding season's opening races in the parallel giant slalom World Cup on Friday. Grabner beat Switzerland's Simon Schoch in the final to secure the victory in the men's events while Olympic silver medalist Kober defeated Marion Kreiner of Austria in the women's final. Thursday's win gave Grabner an early overall standings leadership of 1000 points, followed by Simon Schoch, who has 800. Marc Iselin, Schoch's compatriot, is third with 600 points. On the women's side, Kober held the standings lead with 1000 points while Kreiner has 800. Heidi Neururer of Austria is third with 600 points. The Dutch meet was the first of 31 events to be held across 12 countries.
■ Golf
Woods opts out of Classic
Tiger Woods has decided not to enter the Funai Classic at Disney. Woods missed the cut at Disney last year, so this is the third straight US PGA Tour event to which he will not return the year after missing the cut. The others were the 1997 Canadian Open and last year's Byron Nelson Championship. That streak is sure to end next year at the US Open, where he missed the cut at Winged Foot for the first time in a major. Woods has won six consecutive starts on the PGA Tour, and it will be at least two weeks before he tries for No. 7. He likely will not play again until the season-ending Tour Championship that starts on Nov. 2 at East Lake, although Woods has not said for sure he is playing.
■ Soccer
Sun vows not to shave
China international Sun Jihai has said he will not shave until he returns to the first team at Premiership club Manchester City, he told Sky Sports on Friday. The 29-year defender said: "One day I was a little bit lazy and didn't shave the beard and she [his wife] said `that's okay you look good, maybe you can change your image.'""I tried it and I want to keep the beard until I play my first game. I don't think it's good for me. After I play the first game I will cut it off, and my hair as well to make me more handsome."
■ Basketball
Nets suffer injury blows
New Jersey Nets guard Eddie House has a torn meniscus and will have arthroscopic surgery on the troublesome left knee, the NBA team said on Friday. House, a free agent signed by the Nets on Aug. 17, will have the operation tomorrow. House averaged a career-high 9.8 points in 81 games for the Phoenix Suns last season. Entering his seventh season, he has averaged 7.3 points in 378 games. Also on Friday, the Nets announced that forward Darvin Ham has a strained right calf. Ham, who suffered the injury in a preseason game at Indiana on Wednesday, will be out indefinitely.
■ Badminton
Lin Dan makes Japan final
World champion Lin Dan of China defeated Denmark's Peter Gade yesterday to advance to the final of the Japan Open badminton tournament. Top-seeded Lin posted a 21-12, 21-14 win over third-seeded European champion Gade in a match that lasted just 33 minutes at Tokyo's Metropolitan Gymnasium. Lin will face Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat in today's final. Hidayat downed second-seeded Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia 21-17, 21-13. In the women's semi-finals, China's Zhang Ning defeated compatriot Zhu Lin 21-18, 21-16 to set up a final with Xie Xingfang of China, who posted a 21-16, 21-16 win over Hong Kong's Wang Chen.
■ NFL
Rolle fined for facemask pull
The NFL fined Arizona cornerback Antrel Rolle US$12,500 on Friday for his facemask foul against Larry Johnson of Kansas City on Sunday. Johnson caught a short pass from Damon Huard and turned it into a 78-yard gain to the Arizona 9-yard line with 2:31 left in the fourth quarter. Johnson would have likely made it to the end zone if Rolle had not grabbed him by the facemask and twisted his head backward. At first it appeared that Johnson had suffered a serious injury.
He was down on the field for a few minutes before getting to his feet and wobbling to the sidelines. The injury was diagnosed as a neck strain and Johnson, the reigning AFC rushing champion, is listed as probable for this weekend's game at Pittsburgh. It marked the second time this season that Rolle, a first-round pick last year, has been fined by the league for an excessive hit. In a Sept. 17 game at Seattle, Rolle was fined US$5,000 for an illegal tackle on running back Shaun Alexander, although he was not penalized on the play.
A runner who stopped during a marathon in China to pose doing the splits and another who hoarded energy gels have been banned for two years, the local athletics association said yesterday. The incidents happened during Sunday’s marathon in Sichuan Province’s Chengdu and were widely shared online. Videos showed a female runner stopping suddenly and dropping to the ground in the splits position, holding up her arms in a heart shape as she apparently posed for a photograph. She “committed obstructive fouls during the race, affecting the safe participation of other runners,” the Sichuan Athletics Association said in a statement, which identified
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
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