SOCCER
Player rips scrotum
Chris Whelpdale, a winger with English fourth-tier side Gillingham, suffered a painful and unusual injury in the 2-1 Boxing Day win at Crawley when a tackle split open his scrotum. “It’s an horrific injury,” Gillingham boss Andy Hessenthaler told the BBC. “He’s going to be very sore, and I’m sure his wife won’t be too happy either.” The 22-year-old Whelpdale, who joined the club from Peterborough in July, has scored four goals in 22 games.
JUDO
Olympian charged with rape
Japan’s retired double Olympic judo gold medalist Masato Uchishiba was indicted Tuesday on charges of raping a teenage girl at a Tokyo hotel. Uchishiba, 33, who won the 66kg title at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and retired from competition last year, was arrested three weeks ago. He has acknowledged that he had sex with the unnamed girl, but has insisted it was consensual, police have said. The Tokyo public prosecutors office said in a statement that Uchishiba had sexual intercourse with the girl in a hotel room on Sept. 20 when she was “unable to resist as she was in a profound sleep due to intoxication.” Uchishiba was hailed as a hero at home when he became the first Japanese to win a gold medal in any sport at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when Japan won just two medals in men’s judo, an all-time low. He was sacked nearly a month ago by a provincial university where he had been coaching its women’s judo team since April last year. He became a visiting professor at the school last January.
SOCCER
Italy’s scandal deepens
Italy’s new soccer match-fixing scandal gained momentum on Tuesday when legal testimony showed former Atalanta captain and Italy midfielder Cristiano Doni admitting his role in illicit betting. Reports also said another accused player, former Piacenza defender Carlo Gervasoni, had told prosecutors that many more Italian matches than previously suspected involved illegal betting and match-fixing, including games in Serie A. Promoted top-flight side Atalanta had six points deducted and Doni was banned for three-and-a-half years in August after a soccer federation probe into betting in Serie B last term, but Doni had never previously admitted his guilt. On Tuesday, the ANSA news agency published his testimony in front of criminal prosecutors where he said he engaged in illegal betting “only because of the passion which linked me to my team and the hope of being able to help them to the objective [of promotion] that season.” Atalanta, thriving in 11th in Serie A despite the deduction, issued a statement last week saying they had reacted with “surprise and great bitterness” after hearing rumors Doni had admitted involvement following his arrest this month.
TENNIS
Corretja to captain Spain
Alex Corretja will be Spain’s new Davis Cup team captain for the next two years, the country’s tennis federation said in a statement on Tuesday. The former world No. 2 and twice French Open finalist replaces Albert Costa, who stepped up into a director’s role at the federation after leading Spain to Davis Cup final victories over Czech Republic in 2009 and Argentina this year. “I am absolutely convinced that today we have reached a great agreement for Spanish tennis,” federation president Jose Luis Escanuela said. The 37-year-old Corretja added: “It’s a privilege to be able to captain the best team of players in the world.”
RUGBY UNION
Game draws record crowd
Tuesday’s English Premiership match between London rivals Harlequins and Saracens set a new world attendance record for a regular-season club fixture after 82,000 fans piled into Twickenham. The crowd figure, confirmed by the Rugby Football Union, surpassed the 79,842 spectators that saw Paris-based Stade Francais play Clermont Auvergne in the French Top 14 on April 4, 2009. Tuesday’s match, won 19-11 by champions Saracens, was also a record for any Premiership fixture, topping the 81,601 at Twickenham for the 2009 Premiership final between Leicester and London Irish.
CYCLING
Cadel Evans adopts child
Australia’s Tour de France champion Cadel Evans and his Italian wife are adopting a one-year-old Ethiopian boy, a report said yesterday. Evans had hinted at a child, telling his Twitter followers on Tuesday he was “busy baby sitting.” His wife, Chiara Passerini, who had posted an image via Twitter of her holding a small child’s hand with the message “We had the most special Christmas of our lives,” confirmed the couple had traveled to Ethiopia to adopt a child. “We came here to bring home our little 12-month boy after months of paperwork,” she told the Age. “We always felt the strong wish to adopt, so we decided to start our family through adoption.” The couple hope to bring the infant back to their home in Switzerland within weeks, she said. Evans, 34, has said he wants to ride in at least two more Tour de France races before he considers retiring from the event, which he became the first Australian to win this year and the oldest in 88 years. The cyclist is not expecting to race before February, having ruled out Australia’s Tour Down Under in Adelaide next month as he looks at aiming for world and London Olympic glory next year and defending his yellow jersey.
CRICKET
Segway claims victim No. 2
The Segway scooter claimed another victim at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday when it clean bowled former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy shortly before the third day of the first Test against India. Healy, working as a commentator for the host broadcaster, stepped off the front of the scooter after taking a ride around the Melbourne Cricket Ground, but it kept going and rode over the top of him. It then proceeded to chew up the Melbourne Cricket Ground turf before it was brought under control. The farcical incident followed a crash by Joe “The Cameraman” Previtera into a helmet on the turf on Tuesday that resulted in an embarrassing spill in front a huge crowd as he was filming the team before play. Previtera was being interviewed by the host broadcasters yesterday when Healy jumped on the scooter, completed a number of sweeping circuits on the ground then took his tumble.
FOOTBALL
49ers drop injured Edwards
The San Francisco 49ers, bound for the NFL playoffs and still chasing a first-round bye, cut veteran receiver Braylon Edwards on Tuesday, the player said on his Web site. “I was released today by the 49ers due to my injury that required more time to rehab and hasn’t allowed me to re-sync with the offense,” Edwards said. “I wish the 49ers organization the best of luck during the playoffs.” In eight games, Edwards had 15 receptions for 181 yards and no touchdowns. Edwards injured his right knee in a Sept. 18 loss to Dallas.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
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