MOTORSPORTS
Maldonado joins Williams
Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado will partner Rubens Barrichello at Formula One team Williams next year. The 25-year-old Maldonado joins the British team after winning the championship in GP2, which acts as a feeder series to F1. Maldonado is the first Venezuelan driver on the starting grid in 27 years. Johnny Cecotto was the last, racing 18 times over the 1983 and 1984 seasons.
RUGBY UNION
McCaw bags third award
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw became the first player to win the International Rugby Board’s player of the year award three times after receiving this year’s edition of the prize on Wednesday. The 29-year-old flanker led an all All Black clean sweep of the major prizes with Tri-Nations champions New Zealand, beaten just once this year, named team of the year and Graham Henry coach of the year for a record fourth time.
SOCCER
Aberdeen sack McGhee
Scottish Premier League strugglers Aberdeen got rid of manager Mark McGhee on Wednesday as the former Dons striker paid the price for the club’s recent run of poor results. The 53-year-old was recently given a vote of confidence by the Aberdeen board, but now McGhee and his assistants, Scott Leitch and Colin Meldrum, have all left Pittodrie with the Dons second bottom of the table.
BOXING
Pacquiao could pick fight
Should a highly anticipated clash with Floyd Mayweather Jr fail to materialize, Manny Pacquiao will pick from a shortlist of three opponents for an April 16 bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the Filipino’s promoter Bob Arum has said. Arum told the Manila Bulletin that the shortlist consisted of former light-middleweight champion Shane Mosley, undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto and Mexico’s WBA and WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. Arum said he would talk to Pacquiao about who he would prefer to fight when he arrives in Manila for the fighter’s 32nd birthday on Dec. 17.
TENNIS
Clijsters receives award
Kim Clijsters, whose five titles this year included her second US Open crown in a row, was named the WTA Player of the Year in awards voting announced by the tour on Wednesday. The 27-year-old Belgian, who also won the award in 2005, won at Brisbane, Australia; Miami and Cincinnati, Ohio, and the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha as well as taking her third title at Flushing Meadows. Just one year after making a comeback following a break to rest injuries and start a family, Clijsters was voted the top honor in a balloting of players as well as the Player Service award for supporting women’s tennis off the court.
GOLF
LPGA adjusts gender rule
LPGA players have voted to allow transgender players to compete on tour in response to a lawsuit filed by a California woman who had her sex changed five years ago. The players voted to remove the “female at birth” requirement from the tour’s constitution at a year-end meeting at the LPGA Tour Championship, commissioner Michael Whan said. He said steps will be taken in the coming weeks to make the change. Players competing this week in Orlando were mostly satisfied with the change.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
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