■SOCCER
udd campaigns for Cup
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants the Socceroos to use the World Cup to have a quiet word with FIFA voters, who will decide whether their country gets to host the tournament. Australia is bidding to stage the World Cup for the first time in either 2018 or 2022 and must win over FIFA’s 24-man executive committee in December’s vote. Australia opens its Group C campaign against Germany on June 13 in Durban, followed by matches against Ghana and Serbia. A week before its opener, Australia will play a friendly against the US, which is also bidding to host the World Cup. Europe is favored to be awarded the 2018 finals, but Australia will also face competition in the 2022 race from Japan, Qatar and South Korea.
■ATHLETICS
Sotherton out of Games
Heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, a bronze medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, will miss this year’s European Championships and Commonwealth Games because of a back injury, she announced in London on Friday. “I’m extremely disappointed not to compete this year,” said Sotherton, 33. “There are some great events coming up this summer and I wish my teammates the best of luck. I fully intend to compete in 2011 and am working towards that.” The European Championships are slated for July 27 to Aug. 1 in Barcelona with the Commonwealth Games being held in Delhi in October.
■BADMINTON
Prize money breaks US$1m
Next year’s Korean Open badminton tournament will become the first in the sport to offer more than US$1 million in prize money. The event is one of five named in a media release late on Friday by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) as one of its new Premier Super Series tournaments, effectively its first “Grand Slam.” The others, agreed at a BWF council meeting in Kuala Lumpur, are Indonesia, China, the All England and Denmark. Prize money in Indonesia has been raised to US$600,000, while the other three are offering a minimum of US$350,000 each.
■GOLF
Romo may go professional
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo may decide to give the pro golf circuit a shot when his days in the National Football League are over. Romo survived a three-hole playoff on Thursday to advance to sectional qualifying for next month’s US Open. Romo’s tap-in with darkness approaching earned him a spot in the 36-hole sectional qualifying at The Woodlands, Texas, on June 7. Ninety qualifiers from 13 nationwide sectional events will earn berths in the US Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links from June 17 to June 20.
■SOCCER
Messi hands coach scare
Argentina superstar Lionel Messi handed coach Diego Maradona a World Cup scare on Friday when he injured his right knee in a training match. Barcelona star Messi immediately left the practice session, but the seriousness of the injury was played down by officials. “Messi is fine. It was only a knock and nothing else,” team official Nicolas Otamendi said. Argentina were training ahead of a World Cup friendly match against Canada taking place in Buenos Aires tomorrow before flying to South Africa for the finals on Friday.
■BASKETBALL
Yao celebrates first child
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and his wife, Ye Li, a former basketball player with the Chinese national team, celebrated the birth of their first child on Friday. “We are happy to announce the arrival of our daughter,” seven-times NBA All-Star Yao, China’s most popular sportsman, said in a statement. “This is a very special moment in our lives. We thank everyone for their support.” The 2.28m Yao, 29, has been sidelined from competition since having surgery on a hairline fracture in his left foot in July last year.
■ICE HOCKEY
Kings’ Hardy arrested
Los Angeles Kings assistant coach Mark Hardy has been arrested in Washington on a sex abuse charge for allegedly fondling a women in a hotel room. Prosecutors said the 51-year-old Hardy was arrested by police on Friday the same day the alleged incident took place. The long-time National Hockey League player and now coach made a brief court appearance on Friday. Hardy, who was born in Switzerland, played in the NHL for 15 years with three different teams, comprising Los Angeles, New York Rangers and the Minnesota North Stars. He was the Kings’ second-round pick in the 1979 entry draft. He is in his second stint coaching in Los Angeles.
■FOOTBALL
Brett Favre has surgery
Minnesota Vikings veteran quarterback Brett Favre underwent surgery on his injured left ankle. The 40-year-old Favre announced the surgery on his personal Web site on Friday, saying he had arthroscopic ankle surgery at a clinic in Florida. He did not say whether the surgery would allow him to return to the Vikings for another US gridiron season. “This is to confirm that I did have a procedure to remove some scar tissue and bone spurs from my ankle, which had been bothering me for a period of time,” Favre said on his Web site. “I appreciate your concerns.” Favre is coming off a season where he threw for 33 touchdowns and only seven interceptions while guiding the Vikings to a 12-4 record.
■BASEBALL
Famed female player dies
Dorothy Kamenshek, a former star of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League who helped inspire the lead character in the movie A League of Their Own, has died. She was 84. Kamenshek died of natural causes on Monday at her home in California, according to the Riverside County coroner’s office. She had been having lung problems, said Jeneane Lesko, vice president of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association. Kamenshek, who also went by Dottie and Kammie, played for the Rockford Peaches in Illinois from 1943 to 1953.
■MOTOR RACING
Manhole blamed for crash
A loose manhole cover caused Rubens Barrichello’s Monaco Grand Prix crash last weekend, his Williams Formula One team said on Friday. Williams, who had both cars crash out of the season’s showcase race, said in a statement that an investigation had showed the drain cover at turn two was to blame for the Brazilian’s accident. Barrichello’s crash on the approach to Casino square brought out the safety car for the second time in the race and it was deployed again 12 laps later when a loose drain cover was reported. The Brazilian’s car was spun around after it hit the guardrails, facing fast approaching traffic head on.
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
Taiwan’s top male badminton player, Chou Tien-chen, on Saturday bowed out in the men’s singles semi-finals at the Thailand Open after losing in straight games to Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn. The world No. 6 Chou, seeded fourth at the Super 500 tournament, lost to the world No. 2 Thai 21-7, 21-19 in 53 minutes. The victory improved Vitidsarn’s head-to-head record against Chou to 3-5. Chou, 36, trailed throughout the opening game after the score was tied 2-2. His relatively passive approach allowed the 25-year-old Thai to capitalize on Chou’s defensive clears with powerful smashes while committing few unforced errors. The Taiwanese
FRUSTRATION: Gauff smacked herself on the head with her racket before storming down the tunnel, emerging afterward to have a heated discussion with her coach Elina Svitolina on Saturday won the Italian Open after beating Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-2 to claim her third Rome title, while Jannik Sinner set a date with Casper Ruud in the men’s final. Ukraine’s Svitolina had not claimed a WTA 1000 title since her last victory at the Foro Italico eight years ago, but prevailed over the ever-erratic Gauff to claim her 20th tournament triumph. Saturday’s win over Gauff was her third in a row against a player in the top four of the world rankings — including Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina — ahead of the French
West Ham United’s 3-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Sunday left Tottenham Hotspur realistically only needing one more point to win the battle for English Premier League survival, while Bruno Fernandes made history in Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest. Spurs can avoid dropping out of the English top flight for the first time in nearly 50 years with victory at Chelsea today, but a draw would also likely suffice thanks to their much superior goal-difference over West Ham. “Overall bad performance. Too many things [went wrong], I think we gifted them the goals,” West Ham head caoch Nuno Espirito Santo
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