■ HORSE RACING
Jockey fails breath test
Officials at a New Zealand race meeting on Monday breath-tested a jockey they suspected had been drinking and ruled him too drunk to handle a horse. Stewards at the Riverton Racing Club on New Zealand's South Island used a newly awarded power to demand a breath test when they became suspicious of the rider's behavior. The test showed the jockey had been drinking alcohol and he was stood down for the remainder of the meeting. The jockey now faces a disciplinary hearing and could be fined, suspended or disqualified from riding.
■ BOXING
Danny Green quits
WBA light heavyweight world champion Danny Green quit boxing yesterday, saying he wanted to protect his health and spend more time with his family. The 35-year-old Green, (25-3 with 22 knockouts) had been preparing in Sydney for a mandatory defense of his WBA title against Argentina's Hugo Garay on April 27. "I am getting out on my terms, with my dignity and respect intact," Green said. "I have made the decision of an intelligent man -- looking to 25 years in the future." Green turned professional in 2001 after coming to prominence at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and won his first 16 bouts before a fifth-round disqualification against Germany's Markus Beyer in a WBC world title challenge in August 2003. Green won the WBC interim super middleweight belt with a sixth-round stoppage of Canadian Eric Lucas four months later, before a second loss -- this time on points -- to Beyer in March 2005.
■ BOXING
Judah expresses confidence
Zab Judah is so sure he's going to stop Shane Mosley he's willing to put his money on it. Judah offered to bet Mosley US$100,000 that he's going to win their welterweight bout at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas on May 31 by knockout. "That's free money," the 30-year-old Judah said on Monday at a news conference to publicize the fight. "If he's so confident and so much in shape, then why didn't he take it? The last time I put a US$100,000 bet on the table was against Corey Spinks. What did I do? I knocked him out." Judah is 36-5 with 25 knockouts. "He's getting knocked out May 31," Judah said. "He's older now and he's not as fast. I've been talking to Winky [Wright] and Vernon [Forrest] and they tell me his punching power is not the same. I'm a 100 percent better fighter." The 36-year-old Mosley held the WBC and WBA light-middleweight championships from September 2003 to March 2004.
■ HORSE RACING
Rags to Riches retired
Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches was retired on Monday. Rags to Riches was the first filly in 102 years to win the Belmont, edging Preakness Stakes winner Curlin by a head in a thrilling duel last June at Belmont Park in New York. The champion three-year-old filly will be shipped to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky. She will be bred to leading sire Giant's Causeway. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Rags to Riches finished her career with five wins in seven starts and earned US$1.3 million. Rags to Riches finished second in her last race, the Gazelle Stakes at Belmont last Sept. 15. The day after, it was discovered she had a hairline fracture of her right front pastern. The filly recently re-injured the pastern -- an area between the ankle and the hoof. "It's a sad day for racing and all of her fans," Pletcher said in a statement.
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
Top seeded Jessica Pegula on Friday once again fought back from a set down to reach the WTA Charleston Open semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against Russia’s Diana Shnaider. Defending champion Pegula has lost the first set in all three of her matches at the tournament so far, but again dug deep to maintain her hopes of retaining the title. The world No. 5 from the US took 2 hours, 10 minutes to defeat 19th-ranked Shnaider, relying on a formidable service game that included eight aces. Shnaider battled well in the first two sets and broke early for a 2-0 lead
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