■ CRICKET
IPL to be staged abroad
The lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) will be held abroad this year as the government says it can not provide security at the same time as national elections, an official said yesterday. “Due to the attitude of the government that it cannot provide security for the tournament, we are forced to take a decision to move the IPL out of India,” the country’s cricket chief Shashank Manohar told reporters. “A final decision on the venue will be announced in two to three days.” South Africa and England are the two countries being considered as the likely venues, an IPL source said.
■ DOPING
Lab has bad news for cheats
A German lab said on Friday it has developed a new test for gene doping that should be ready for use at the 2012 London Olympics. Gene doping, the practice of using genetic engineering to artificially enhance athletic performance, is believed by many to be the next frontier in drug cheating. “The test is ready to be used. For sure we could go ahead with testing for gene doping at the 2012 Olympics in London and probably a lot sooner,” said Mario Thevis, a researcher who helped developed the test. The test was developed at the Cologne Sports College, one of Germany’s leading anti-doping institutions, and still needs to be approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency. “The proof is watertight, the procedure solid,” Thevis said. “Since we have a substance foreign to the body, the test is even more reliable.”
■ MARATHON
Kipsang triumphs in Tokyo
Kenya’s Salim Kipsang won the Tokyo Marathon yesterday in two hours, 10 minutes and 27 seconds, beating out Japan’s Kazuhiro Maeda and Kensuke Takahashi. Japan claimed the top three women’s spots, with Mizuho Nasukawa taking first at 2:25:38 ahead of Yukari Sahaku and Reiko Tosa. Kipsang, who won the Paris marathon in 2005, said he was pleased with his performance in difficult conditions, which saw the field battling a strong headwind. Maeda’s second-place finish at 2:11:01 qualified him for the world championships later this year in Berlin as the top Japanese finisher. “The pace was too fast for me at 30km, so I had to run alone against the strong wind. I hadn’t expected to finish top among Japanese runners, so I’m really happy about it,” he said. Takahashi came third at 2:11:25.
■ BOXING
Klitschko still champion
Vitali Klitschko retained his WBC heavyweight title with a ninth-round TKO of Juan Carlos Gomez on Saturday. The 37-year-old Klitschko twice put the Cuban defector on the canvass, in the seventh and ninth rounds, before referee Daniel Van de Wiele stopped the fight with 1 minute, 11 seconds left in the ninth round. Gomez was trying to become the first Cuban heavyweight world champ. Klitschko was making the first defense of the title he reclaimed by stopping Samuel Peter last October.
■ BOXING
Dunne wins title in Dublin
Bernard Dunne of Ireland knocked Panama’s Ricardo Cordoba out in the 11th round to capture the WBA super-bantamweight title on Saturday in Dublin. In a fight which had six knockdowns, Dunne put the defending champion down with a left hook in the third round, but Cordoba came back to floor the Irishman twice in the fifth. Dunne took control of the fight from the sixth and put Cordoba down three times in the 11th until the Panamanian finally failed to make the count.
■ BADMINTON
England withdraws players
England withdrew two players from this week’s India Open badminton tournament because of security concerns, Indian media reported on Saturday. Organizing secretary Punnaiah Choudhary told the Indian Express that Carl Baxter and Rajiv Ouseph, seeded 11 and 12, had pulled out of the event in Hyderabad. “The communication stated that they were advised by the Foreign Office to withdraw,” Choudhary said. Security fears in the Indian subcontinent have increased following an attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team bus in Lahore, Pakistan, earlier this month, and last November’s militant attacks in Mumbai. World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei will head a field that includes former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat and former all England champion Muhammad Hafiz Hashim.
■ RUGBY UNION
Baxter to miss matches
New South Wales Waratahs prop Al Baxter will miss up to four Super 14 rugby matches after suffering a calf strain in a loss to the Canterbury Crusaders, the club said yesterday. The injury was a recurrence of the problem that kept the Test prop on the sidelines earlier this season, Waratahs coach Chris Hickey said. “We’d expect him to be out for around a month, but depending on how his rehab goes maybe sooner,” Hickey said.
■ ICE HOCKEY
NHL suspends Ben Eager
The National Hockey League’s disciplinary committee slapped Chicago forward Ben Eager with a three-game suspension on Saturday. The 25-year-old Canadian was suspended for delivering a high, hard check to the head area of an Edmonton player during a 5-4 loss to the Oilers on Friday. The suspension was handed down by the league despite a decision by two on-ice referees not to call a penalty on the play. It was the second three-game ban for Eager this year. He was also suspended during the league’s exhibition season. This time he delivered a blow to the head of Edmonton’s Liam Reddox halfway through the final period. Reddox left the game and did not return.
■ SPORTS CAR RACING
Audi wins Sebring again
Audi introduced a new car with the same old winning results in the 12 Hours of Sebring in Sebring, Florida. Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello, who now have a combined total of 12 victories in the sports car classic at Sebring International Raceway, outdueled a Peugeot shared by Franck Montagny, Sebastien Bourdais and Stephane Sarrazine on Saturday in a battle of diesel-powered prototype sports cars. It is Audi’s ninth win in the endurance race in the past 10 years — a string broken only by Porsche’s victory last year — and the third time in that stretch that Audi has won in the debut of a new car.
■ BIATHLON
Bjorndalen extends lead
Norway’s legend Ole Einar Bjorndalen extended his lead in the World Cup overall standings on Saturday when he won the men’s pursuit in Trondheim, Norway, for his 88th career win. Germany’s Andrea Henkel triumphed in the women’s event. Bjorndalen, who holds the record for the most world championship wins with 14, finished the 12.5km race in a time of 33 minutes, 36.3 seconds with two penalties, ahead of Austria’s Simon Eder with Tomasz Sikora of Poland third. With four events remaining in the season only Sikora can threaten Bjorndalen’s overall lead. Henkel achieved her 16th World Cup victory by completing the 10km course in 30 minutes, 8.8 seconds.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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