■ SOCCER
Hammers invite Obama
US President-elect Barack Obama has been invited to watch a match at English Premiership club West Ham, it was revealed on Thursday. Family members took Obama to watch a match at Upton Park in 2003 and he is now believed to be something of a fan. The club are sending him a message of congratulations and an invitation to renew acquaintances with the Hammers when he visits Britain. A club source said: “We are delighted that Barack Obama has an association with West Ham and are sending him our congratulations and an invitation to attend a match whenever he is in Britain.”
■ BOXING
WBC row distracting star
Philippine icon Manny Pacquiao’s build-up for the biggest fight of his life are being marred by allegations that he owes the World Boxing Council money, his lawyer complained yesterday. The WBC is demanding Pacquiao pay the organization US$130,000 in 15 days or it will pull his lightweight belt just ahead of his Dec. 6 match with Oscar de la Hoya. Pacquiao’s lawyer, Jeng Gacal said they were “surprised” by the charge that Pacquiao still owed the WBC money for his July match against David Diaz, when he won the organization’s lightweight belt. Boxers pay fees to the WBC in exchange for the organization sanctioning their bouts but there is a question mark over whether Pacquiao paid the fees for the Diaz match. Gacal said that she had sent a letter to the WBC asking for an explanation, saying such fees had always been regularly deducted from Pacquiao’s payments. “This is a bit of a distraction,” for Pacquiao who faces De La Hoya in a non-title fight in Las Vegas, Gacal said. Pacquiao is a national hero but his impending fight against the bigger De La Hoya has caused even his fans to worry. In September Philippine legislators called for the fight to be scrapped, saying Pacquiao stood no chance and it would be too damaging to the country’s morale to see him lose.
■ GOLF
Rain washes out play
Heavy rain washed out day two of the US$5 million HSBC Champions yesterday, forcing organizers to consider the possibility of extending the tournament into a fifth day. Sweden’s Henrik Stenson is the leader after the first round. Round two was due to tee off yesterday morning at the Sheshan International Golf Course but overnight rain persisted throughout the day, forcing organizers to declare a complete washout. Officials said they still hoped all 72 holes of the tournament would be played, and scheduled the start of round two to begin early today. If the weather is clear, players would fit in at least 27 holes today and play the end of their third round tomorrow, then immediately start their final round. But organizers left open the possibility of players having to complete the tournament on Monday.
■ FORMULA ONE
Racism no joke: Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton rejected F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s assertion on Thursday that racist abuse directed at the driver had probably started as a joke. F1’s first black champion was the target of racist abuse on a Spanish Web site and endured other insults in the buildup to last Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. “[It was] probably beginning as a joke rather than anything abusive,” Ecclestone said on Thursday in a radio interview, pointing to poor sportsmanship rather than racism by Spanish and Brazilian fans. “I don’t see why people should have been [insulted by it].” Hamilton said he “didn’t see it as a joke ... It’s something that happened but it is in the past you’ve got to look forward.’’
■ SAILING
Alinghi, Oracle to race in NZ
Alinghi and Oracle, whose legal standoff has delayed the next edition of sailing’s America’s Cup, will clash on the water in February after agreeing to compete in a regatta hosted by former Cup-holder Team New Zealand. Swiss syndicate Alinghi, who wrested the Cup from New Zealand in 2003, and San Francisco-based Oracle confirmed their entries on Thursday for the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, a 12-team match-racing regatta to be held off Auckland from Jan. 30 to Feb. 14. A total of 23 teams expressed interest in competing in the Pacific series, which will be raced in America’s Cup-class yachts provided by Oracle and Team New Zealand. The 12 competing teams were named in Paris on Thursday. Teams in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series (in entry order): Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa (Italy), Oracle (US), K-Challenge (France), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), Team Origin (Britain), China Team, Team Shosholoza (South Africa), Italia, Team Germany, Greek Challenge, Alinghi. Waiting list: Italia, Team French Spirit.
■ BASEBALL
Japan honors Lasorda
US baseball great Tommy Lasorda will receive the Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions to Japanese baseball. Lasorda will be honored on Dec. 2 by Japanese Consul-General Junichi Ihara in Los Angeles. “I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this award,” Lasorda said on Thursday. “I have the highest respect for the Japanese people and have loved working with them in every aspect to help build a bridge between our two countries through baseball.” Lasorda and the Los Angeles Dodgers have a long history with Japanese baseball. In 1965, on behalf of the Dodgers, Lasorda traveled to Japan as a guest coach of the Tokyo Giants.
■ ATHLETICS
Four more Russians cited
Four more Russian athletes have been sanctioned for doping, bringing to 16 the number of Russians caught for drug violations in recent months. Race walker Anatoly Kukushkin, distance runner Anton Jarov, steeplechase runner Roman Usov and runner Julia Smirnova are the latest athletes punished by the Russian athletics federation, the International Association of Athletics Federations said on its Web site on Thursday. Kukushkin tested positive for the stimulant carphedon at the national championships on June 8, and was banned for two years. Also getting a two-year suspension was Smirnova, who tested positive for strychnine on March 29. Usov, who was pulled out of the Beijing Olympics after Russian media reports of a failed doping control, was banned for two years for testing positive for carphedon in July. Jarov, a 5,000m runner, tested positive for cannabis at the youth championships in June and received a public warning. The IAAF also confirmed the previously announced two-year bans for five Russian race walkers who tested positive for the endurance-boosting hormone EPO: Sergei Morozov, Viktor Burayev, Vladimir Kanaikin, Igor Yerokhin and Alexei Voevodin.
■ BOXING
WBC re-elects Sulaiman
World Boxing Council (WBC) president Jose Sulaiman has been unanimously re-elected to another four-year term in office at the WBC’s annual world convention in Chengdu, China. “I accept this election and I appreciate your trust in me,” he told the convention. “I have eternal gratitude and I ask you to please keep working together to make our mission in the WBC get stronger and stronger in the world.” He has headed the WBC since 1975.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
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