BASEBALL
Wada signs with Orioles
Japanese pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada has signed a two-year, US$8.1 million contract with the Baltimore Orioles, the Major League Baseball team reported on Wednesday. The 30-year-old left-hander signed a deal that includes an option for 2014. Wada becomes the second Japanese native to play for Baltimore, following Koji Uehara. Wada comes to the Orioles from the Fukuoka Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League. In 210 games with the Hawks, Wada had 107 wins, 61 losses and 1,329 strikeouts. Meanwhile, bidding closed on Wednesday for Major League Baseball (MLB) teams trying to land Japanese pitching ace Yu Darvish. MLB officials declined to release details of the bid process, including the name of the team that made the highest offer. Darvish’s current team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, have until Tuesday to accept the bid.
ATHLETICS
Sprinters top nominees list
Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake head the list of athletes nominated for Jamaica’s Sportsman of the Year award. Blake, the 100m champion at the World Athletic Championships in Daegu, South Korea, was recently named the winner of the Jamaica Track and Field Association’s top athlete award. Bolt won the 200m at the same Worlds. Others in contention for the award include West Indies cricketer Marlon Samuels, Pan American 100m champion Lerone Clarke, IAAF Diamond League winner Asafa Powell and boxer Nicholas Walters. Among the women, Veronica Campbell-Brown, the world championships 200m gold medallist and 100m silver medallist, is considered a frontrunner in a group that also includes ICC cricketer of the year Stafanie Taylor. The winners will be announced on Jan. 22.
SOCCER
Ex-wife’s assault ends in ban
Sweden will not select forward Alexander Gerndt until further notice after being convicted of assaulting his ex-wife, the Swedish Football Association (SvFF) said on Wednesday. Gerndt, who has played six times for his country, scoring two goals, was fined 80,000 Swedish kronor (US$11,700) and put on probation for two years on Tuesday. “After a very deep discussion, we decided that domestic violence is something we find very difficult to accept. Therefore, Alexander Gerndt is not available for selection, with immediate effect,” chairman Lars-Ake Lagrell said after a meeting of the SvFF. How long the 25-year-old FC Utrecht player will remain suspended is unclear. Helsinborg district court found Gerndt guilty of two counts of assault, for grabbing his wife by the throat and for kicking a football at her so hard that it bruised her leg.
TENNIS
Davis Cup captain leaves
Argentina’s Davis Cup captain, Modesto Vazquez, says he is to leave after three years in the role. Vazquez admits that during his time in charge he had a “difficult” relationship with David Nalbandian, one of the country’s top players, who he described as “not a positive leader” in an interview with TyC Sports TV channel on Wednesday. Vazquez says the Argentine tennis association decided not to renew his contract following the loss to Spain in the Davis Cup final earlier this month. He says the association had “every right” to make the change. Argentina, which has never won the Davis Cup but was a finalist in 1981, 2006, 2008 and this year, starts next year’s campaign in Germany from Feb. 10 to 12.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop