Mon, Jan 11, 2010 page19

• Sport Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■RALLYING

  Coma mulls pulling out

  Defending motorbike champion Marc Coma was considering withdrawing from the Dakar Rally on Saturday after he was hit with a six-hour penalty for illegally changing a tire during Friday’s racing. Meanwhile, quad motorbike leader Marcos Patronelli and his second-placed brother Alejandro Patronelli both withdrew on Saturday, incensed that Marcos was penalized three hours for changing a tire on Friday, which he denied. The Argentine brothers led the quads by more than three hours. Coma, the winner in 2006 and last year, was punished by race stewards for changing to a new tire before the start of the second half of the 600km seventh stage through the Atacama Desert, from Iquique back to Antofagasta.

  ■CRICKET

  Tahir withdrawn from squad

  South Africa have withdrawn Pakistan-born leg-spinner Imran Tahir from their squad for Thursday’s fourth and final Test against England because of fears over his eligibility. Cricket South Africa media officer Michael Owen-Smith said on Saturday the 30-year-old had been pulled out to avoid any problems. Tahir, born in Lahore, married a South African woman and became a naturalized citizen last year. “Imran Tahir’s permanent resident papers have not come through yet and Cricket South Africa would rather be absolutely certain of his eligibility before playing him,” Owen-Smith said. “We have to be 100 percent certain before putting him in a national squad.”

  ■ATHLETICS

  Bekele outpaced by Kenyans

  Ethiopia distance star Kenenisa Bekele could only manage fourth place in the 9km Edinburgh cross-country race as he suffered a rare defeat on Saturday. Joseph Ebuya led a Kenyan clean sweep of the podium places as Bekele, returning to the snow-covered Holyrood Park venue for the first time since winning his sixth World Championship on the course in 2008, finished well behind the leading trio. “I got killed by three Kenyans,” said Bekele, the reigning Olympic champion at both 5,000m and 10,000m, after Ebuya, Titus Mbishei and Eliud Kipchoge came in ahead of him. Better news for Ethiopia came in the women’s race, where Tirunesh Dibaba outpaced her opponents on the final lap to claim victory on the 6km course.

  ■FOOTBALL

  Lynch accused of stealing

  Buffalo Bills running back Marshawn Lynch has been accused of taking US$20 from a woman at a Buffalo-area restaurant. The alleged victim is the wife of a police officer who reported the Dec. 7 incident the following day and was then interviewed by police on Wednesday, the Buffalo News reported on Saturday. “She’s terrified of him. He threatened her girlfriend, who tried to retrieve the money after he robbed my wife,” the woman’s husband, William Crawford, told the newspaper. “He thinks he’s above the law because of his status as an athlete.” Crawford, who didn’t want to give his wife’s name because of safety concerns, said the incident occurred at a TGI Friday’s restaurant where the police sergeant’s wife and her girlfriend had stopped for dinner.

  ■BASKETBALL

  Gordon nets landmark point

  Ben Gordon of the Detroit Pistons scored the 10 millionth point in NBA history on Saturday with a jump shot with 3 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half of Detroit’s 104-94 loss to Philadelphia. The first NBA points were scored by New York’s Ossie Schectman on Nov. 1, 1946, at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens.
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