■ BASKETBAL
Aussie women beat Taiwan
Natalie Porter scored 20 points and Emma Randall added 19 yesterday as Australia beat Taiwan 100-57 in the first game of a three-game women’s basketball series. Randall added seven rebounds for the winners while Hollie Grima had 18 points. Chiang Feng-chun led Taiwan with 15 points. Beijing-bound Australia won silver medals at the last two Olympics, losing to the US in the final each time. The team was without most of its top players yesterday, including Seattle Storm center Lauren Jackson, last year’s WNBA most valuable player. “It was a very pleasing result,” said Australia head coach Jan Stirling. The second game will be played today in Terrigal.
■ATHLETICS
Man testifies in doping trial
The man who says he sold performance-enhancing drugs to the track coach whose anonymous tip sparked the largest doping scandal in sports history testified on Wednesday in San Francisco that their relationship ended because of a money dispute. Angel Guillermo Heredia, known as “Memo,” testified that he stopped selling performance enhancing drugs to Jamaican-born track coach Trevor Graham right before the 2000 Sydney Olympics because Graham and Marion Jones’ ex-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter, did not pay him the US$25,000 to US$30,000 they owed him. “I don’t have any ledgers,” Heredia said.
■TENNIS
Bolelli wins two matches
Simon Bolelli won two matches on Wednesday, helping Italy beat Germany 2-1 at the World Team Cup. Bolelli first beat Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (4), 7-6 (0) in the second singles match, and them teamed with Potito Starace to beat Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzshner 2-6, 6-3, 10-4 in doubles. Also in the Blue Group, Spain defeated Russia 2-1. In the Red Group, the US beat Argentina 2-1 and Sweden defeated the Czech Republic 3-0. At the World Team Cup, eight teams are split into two groups. The winner of each group will meet in tomorrow’s final.
■TENNIS
Argentina knocked out of Cup
Argentina’s dreams of successfully defending the World Team Cup ended on Wednesday when they lost a tight rubber against a resilient US team. After splitting the singles rubbers on Tuesday, the Americans wrapped up the tie 24 hours later when Wayne Odesnik and Bobby Reynolds edged past Lucas Arnold Ker and Sebastian Prieto 6-3, 6-7, 10-7. In the other group tie, Sweden swept aside the challenge of the Czech Republic 3-0. Robin Soderling and Thomas Johansson teamed up to dispatch Michal Tabara and veteran Pavel Vizner 6-4, 7-5 in the doubles. Sweden and the US will next face each other to decide which nation will advance to tomorrow’s final.
■FOOTBALL
Benson works out with team
Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson, who is battling charges of drunk boating, worked out with his NFL teammates in Lake Forest, Illinois, on Wednesday. Benson was arrested on May 3 in Austin, Texas, and charged not only with boating while intoxicated but also with resisting arrest. The fourth-year running back has disputed those charges, saying he wasn’t drunk and didn’t resist. Benson repeated his denials on Wednesday. “It’ll be nice to get it cleared up and over with, but I don’t really spend too much time thinking about it at all,” Benson said. “I’m sticking to my story, and the truth will come out some time, whether it’ll be now or a year from now or whenever.”
■ BASEBALL
Martinez leaves to see father
New York Mets righthander Pedro Martinez on Wednesday left the team for the Dominican Republic, where his father is fighting brain cancer. The 36-year-old, who has been sidelined since early April with a left hamstring injury, had been expected to join the Mets for a bullpen session on Wednesday. But after learning his father, Pablo, experienced a medical setback, Martinez went to be with him, a Mets spokesman said. On Tuesday, Martinez told the New York Daily News that he was considering retirement after this season due to the health of his 78-year-old father. “It’s taking a toll on me and my family, my dad’s situation,” Martinez told the newspaper.
■RUGBY
Young player of year named
Danny Cipriani had cause to cheer after his weekend injury setback when he was named England’s Young Player of the Year by his fellow professionals on Wednesday. However the England and Wasps fly-half was not able to receive the Nick Duncombe Memorial Trophy personally after suffering a dislocated fracture of his right ankle in Wasps’ 21-10 Premiership semi-final victory against Bath. Cipriani, who will miss the Premiership final against Leicester and England’s two-Test New Zealand tour next month, faces a lengthy rehabilitation as he tries to return to action before the end of the year.
■RUNNING
Doping decision shelved
France’s 1,500m bronze medalist in the 2005 world athletics championships Bouchra Ghezielle will have to wait till next week to find out her punishment for doping, the French athletics federation (FFA) said at her hearing on Wednesday. The 29-year-old had tested positive for banned blood-booster EPO after a random test where she lives and the FFA could ban her for up to six years if they decide to hand out the maximum punishment under French law.
■SKI JUMPING
Official responds to petition
Trying to add women’s ski jumping into the 2010 Winter Olympics would be difficult since the Games schedule is set long in advance, a member of the Vancouver organizing committee (VANOC) said on Wednesday. A group of women ski jumpers plan to sue for inclusion of their sport at the Vancouver Games. But Cathy Priestner Allinger, VANOC’s executive vice president of sport and Games operations, said even if the suit were successful, accommodating another sport at this late date would be a logistical challenge. “Our schedule gets finalized in August this year by the IOC, so at that it becomes that much more difficult for us to make adjustments,” Priestner Allinger said.
■SOCCER
Dispute threatens match
A dispute over stadium fees could force the cancelation of a soldout soccer match between Trinidad and England. Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation special adviser Jack Warner, a FIFA vice president, claims a fee of 10 percent of the gate — or US$24,000 — that is being demanded by the government for the June 1 match at Port-of-Spain’s Hasely Crawford Stadium is substantially more than initially agreed. Federation’s general secretary Richard Groden said on Wednesday that the new conditions proposed by the ministry “could lead to a possible cancelation of the game.” Trinidad Sports Minister Gary Hunt said federation officials knew the original agreement could change. Officials were told that the government was considering an increase in stadium fees, Hunt said.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
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