Thu, Sep 29, 2011 page18

• SPORTS BRIEFS

  • Agencies
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  SOCCER

  ‘Chus’ Pereda passes away

  Jesus Maria Pereda, known as “Chus” Pereda and one of the heroes of Spain’s 1964 European Championship winning side, died at age 73. Pereda — who played for both Barcelona and bitter rivals Real Madrid — scored and set up Spain’s second in the 2-1 victory over the Soviet Union in the 1964 final. Capped 15 times, Pereda spent time at Madrid in the early stages of his career and was at the Santiago Bernabeu when they won the league and the European Cup in 1958. He later played for Barcelona for eight seasons and won the Spanish Cup — then named after General Franco — during his time at the Camp Nou. After retiring as a player, Pereda most notably coached the national side in 1992.

  BASEBALL

  Nunez won’t face charges

  Authorities in the Dominican Republic said Florida Marlins closer Leo Nunez would not face charges for using false documents to sign a professional baseball contract. Dominican Central Electoral Commission president Roberto Rosario on Tuesday urged any athlete in a similar situation to contact authorities and help identify whoever provides false documents. Dominican authorities detained Hector Pena Diaz last week on suspicion of falsifying Nunez’s documents. A person familiar with Nunez’s immigration status said last week his real name is Juan Carlos Oviedo and that he is 29, a year older than listed in the team media guide.

  BASEBALL

  Madoff victim could still win

  A US federal judge said the trustee trying to recover almost US$300 million for investors in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme “might well prevail” in court against owners of the New York Mets. However, Jed Rakoff, a US district judge, said on Tuesday Irving Picard must show money that Mets owner Fred Wilpon made came after “the defendants willfully blinded themselves to Madoff’s securities fraud.” “How to determine which profits the trustee can recover remains an open question,” Rakoff said in a ruling that helped clear the mess surrounding the Mets since Picard brought a US$1 billion lawsuit against the major league club. Mets lawyers have denied Picard’s claims that club executives should have known profits from Madoff’s investments were phony.

  HOCKEY

  Ducks’ Jacques suspended

  Anaheim Ducks forward Jean-Francois Jacques has been suspended for the remainder of the preseason and five regular-season games for leaving his team’s bench to start a fight, the NHL said on Tuesday. Jacques left the Anaheim bench late in the third period of Saturday’s game and skated straight toward Vancouver Canucks forward Mike Duco to initiate an altercation, the NHL said in a statement.

  BASKETBALL

  Atlanta into WNBA finals

  Angel McCoughtry scored 26 points and Iziane Castro Marques added 23 as the Atlanta Dream defeated the Indiana Fever 83-67 on Tuesday to win the series 2-1 and advance to the WNBA finals for the second straight year. Lindsey Harding scored 16 points and Sancho Lyttle added 10 points, 11 rebounds and five steals for the Dream. Atlanta will play at Minnesota on Sunday in Game 1 of the best-of-five series. Indiana’s Tamika Catchings, the WNBA Most Valuable Player, had six points, five rebounds and four fouls as a reserve. Katie Douglas had 16 points and nine rebounds, while Tammy Sutton-Brown added 11 points and nine rebounds for top-seeded Indiana.

  RUGBY WORLD CUP

  Argentina move up

  Argentina have leapfrogged Scotland to regain a top-eight place in world rankings, reflecting their progress toward the quarter-finals at the Rugby World Cup. The Pumas beat Scotland 13-12 on Sunday, exchanging places with the Scots on the latest ranking list: moving up to eighth while Scotland dropped back to ninth. Scotland will play England and Argentina will play Georgia in their last Pool B matches and Argentina are seen as having the better chance of progressing to a quarter-final match against New Zealand. Argentina, who finished third at the 2007 World Cup in France, are now only one ranking point behind seventh-placed Wales.

  RUGBY WORLD CUP

  Russia hooker suspended

  Russia hooker Valery Tsnobiladze has been suspended for three weeks for a headbutt in Russia’s World Cup loss to Ireland on Sunday. Tsnobiladze denied the charge at a hearing yesterday, but World Cup judicial officer Jeff Blackett of England watched TV footage, and reviewed evidence from Tsnobiladze and Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien, before ruling that the Russian was not free to play until Oct. 17. Blackett said the incident was reckless and not deliberate and the victim wasn’t injured, and reduced Tsnobiladze’s potential sanction by a week because of his previously good disciplinary record.

  RUGBY WORLD CUP

  Chips a secret weapon

  Ireland fullback Geordan Murphy has a novel way of dealing with Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni when their teams meet at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday. Murphy says: “I’m thinking of leaving some baskets of chips in the corners ... The amount he eats, it should distract him quite nicely.” However, while the on-field rivalry will be fierce in their crucial Pool C match, it was just a lighthearted insult from Murphy, who co-owns an Italian restaurant with Castrogiovanni, his Leicester Tigers clubmate. The banter is flying both ways. Murphy says “the closer the game gets, I’m receiving more and more text messages from him ... He swears a lot at me in Italian.”

  MOTOGP

  Simoncelli stays with team

  Italian MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli will stay with the Honda Gresini team next year after they announced a new contract on Tuesday. “Over the past two years together we have been able to appreciate Marco’s qualities as a rider, as a man and as an extroverted communicator, which made us keen to continue our collaboration,” team boss Fausto Gresini said in a statement. Simoncelli has caused almost as much controversy in MotoGP this season as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in Formula One, with the frizzy-haired Italian’s aggressive style leading to clashes with other riders.

  SWIMMING

  Phelps training early

  Michael Phelps said he had started training earlier than at any time since 2007, before his record-setting Beijing Olympics. The 16-time medalist said: “There’s a lot more drive inside of me” after the motivation hadn’t always been there the last three years. Phelps said he had been back in the pool for six weeks. He said he was confident he could get into peak shape to achieve his goals at his last Olympics in London next year. Phelps was in Manhattan, New York, on Tuesday to run and swim with eight-time Winter Games medalist Apolo Anton Ohno, who was training for the New York City Marathon.
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