■ Golf
All change for Wie
Michelle Wie has a new agent, the second significant change in the golf prodigy's camp in the last 10 weeks following the dismissal of her caddie. Ross Berlin, whom the William Morris Agency hired specifically to handle Wie, has taken a management position with the US PGA Tour. He will be replaced by Greg Nared, a manager from US athletic apparrel maker Nike who spent nearly three years recruiting Wie to the company. Nike signed her to a five-year deal when she turned pro last year at age 16, and Wie signed other multiyear deals with Sony and Omega. Her earnings -- on the course, endorsements and appearance fees -- in her first year were expected to approach US$20 million. Berlin spent his summer traveling the globe with the Hawaiian teen, and had been seen at US PGA Tour headquarters in recent weeks. Wie finished 17th in the 20-player Samsung Championship on Sunday, putting a dour end to her first year as a pro.
■ Olympic Games
Pan-Korean team unlikely
IOC president Jacques Rogge says North Korea's nuclear test last week has threatened the prospects of North and South Korea forming a unified team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "I had meetings with the national Olympic committees of North and South Korea a short while ago and we were making progress," Rogge told a news conference in Tokyo yesterday. "But the nuclear test has changed everything and we are waiting for the resolution of this situation." Although Rogge said he is still in contact with the Olympic committees of both North and South Korea and that the IOC remains committed to the two nations forming a unified team. After meetings last month mediated by Rogge, the two countries' top Olympic officials remained hopeful that all remaining issues on forming a unified team for Beijing could quickly be addressed. The two countries failed in recent talks to reach a breakthrough.
■ Cycling
Armstrong pans book
Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong assailed a new book going on sale in France yesterday as "another baseless attack." The book by Pierre Ballester and David Walsh, who wrote L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong in 2004, is based on testimony given in a legal dispute between Armstrong and Dallas-based SCA Promotions that had a bonus contract with the cyclist. The new book, LA Official evokes the "strategies put in place by the Armstrong `clan' to preserve intact `the legend,'" the French daily Le Monde reported on Wednesday. "This latest attack will be no different than the first -- a sensationalized attempt to cash in on my name and sully my reputation by people who have demonstrated a consistent failure to adhere to the most basic journalistic standards or ethics," Armstrong said.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ¥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ¥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the