■CYCLING
Bike thief faces prison
A Sacramento, California, man is facing prison for stealing Lance Armstrong’s bicycle while the seven-time Tour de France winner was competing in the Tour of California. Sacramento County court documents show 40-year-old Lee Crider is to be sentenced on Monday to three years in prison for burglary and theft. He pleaded no contest on June 1 to stealing Armstrong’s time trial bike and two other bikes from a trailer after the Sacramento prologue to the Tour of California in February. Another man, 33-year-old Dung Hoang Le of Elk Grove, pleaded no contest on June 1 to receiving stolen property. He has been sentenced to 90 days in jail, to be served on the sheriff’s work project. A police report says he bought Armstrong’s US$10,000 bike from Crider for US$200. He later turned it in to police.
■CYCLING
Valverde to miss Tour
Top-ranked cyclist Alejandro Valverde will not race in the Tour de France next month because of a doping ban in Italy. Valverde met on Tuesday with his lawyers, who explained that the Spaniard won’t have any recourse against the ban before the three-week Tour starts at Monaco on July 4, his Caisse d’Epargne team said. The race dips into Italy on July 21. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has agreed to hear Valverde’s appeal to overturn the Italian ban, but any decision won’t come early enough for him to start the Tour, the team said in a statement on Tuesday. The team called the situation “unfair” and said it would cause “damage difficult to repair” for the sponsor, as well as Valverde himself and fans.
■ICE HOCKEY
Three ex-Wings honored
Three renowned Canadians, who were members of the 2002 Detroit Red Wings championship team, were named to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Luc Robitaille, Steve Yzerman and Brett Hull will be officially inducted on Nov. 9 in Toronto. American Brian Leetch was also chosen on Tuesday along with current New Jersey Devils chief executive Lou Lamoriello who was picked in the builder category. Yzerman, Hull and Robitaille won the Stanley Cup championship together in 2002 while playing for the Red Wings.
■BASKETBALL
Spurs pick up Jefferson
The Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday dealt forward Richard Jefferson to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for guard Bruce Bowen and forwards Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. In 82 games, Jefferson averaged 19.6 points and 4.6 rebounds Milwaukee last season. The 29-year-old Jefferson spent the first seven seasons of his career with the New Jersey Nets. He was the 13th overall pick of the 2001 NBA entry draft, Bowen, Thomas and Oberto are each in the last years of their contracts. Bowen spent the last eight seasons in San Antonio.
■RUGBY LEAGUE
Hock tests positive for coke
Wigan second row forward Gareth Hock tested positive for cocaine and was provisionally suspended by the Rugby Football League (RFL), the club said on Tuesday. The 25-year-old England international, who represented Britain in the 2006 Tri-Nations tournament, tested positive for the recreational stimulant in a sample taken after Wigan’s match against Salford City on June 5. “The Club ... joins with the RFL and UK Sport in deploring and condemning the use of drugs in sport including so-called recreational drugs,” a statement on the club Web site said. Hock faces a two-year ban.
Two people died on Thursday after fans and police clashed outside the Estadio Monumental in Santiago ahead of a game in South America’s Copa Libertadores, Chilean authorities said. The fatalities happened shortly before the match between Chile’s Colo-Colo and Brazilian club Fortaleza, when police blocked about 100 fans when they attempted to enter the stadium. There were conflicting accounts of how the fatalities occurred, with local media reporting that one of the dead was a 13-year-old boy. The other victim was an 18-year-old woman, according to a relative at the hospital where she was treated. The fans died after being caught underneath a
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Japan yesterday secured a second consecutive Billie Jean King Cup finals appearance with a 2-1 win over 2023 champions Canada, thanks to Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama’s 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Kayla Cross and Rebecca Marino in the qualifying doubles decider. Shibahara and Aoyama powered through the opening set 6-3, breaking twice for a quick 3-0 lead. Cross and Marino hit back in the second, edging it 7-5 to level the match, before the Japanese pair regained control in the third. Canada’s 18-year-old Victoria Mboko edged Shibahara 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a marathon opening clash. Mboko fired eight aces to
RSS