SOCCER
New Zealand beat Fiji 1-0
Stand-in captain Tommy Smith scored the lone goal as New Zealand struggled to a 1-0 win over Fiji in its opening match at the Oceania Nations Cup soccer tournament yesterday. The Ipswich defender tapped home a rebound after goalkeeper Simione Tamanisau failed to hold Leo Bertos’ free-kick in the ninth minute. Fiji had several chances to equalize, the best coming in the 49th minute when veteran Roy Krishna back-heeled the ball to striker Osea Vakatalesau on the edge of the box. However, keeper Mark Paston tipped Vakatalesau’s shot over the bar.
SOCCER
FIFA checks Guatemalans
The Guatemalan soccer federation said on Friday that investigators from FIFA were in the country looking into a match-fixing scandal involving four matches, with three players implicated and suspended from the national team. Bryan Jimenez, president of the National Football Federation of Guatemala, confirmed the three players involved are Gustavo Cabrera, Yoni Flores and Guillermo Ramirez. They were suspended from the Guatemala national team earlier this week for what coach Ever Hugo Alemeida called acts of “indiscipline.” “Their exit from the team is due to indiscipline, which probably has to do with these rumors,” Jimenez said. He said he could not comment further because of FIFA’s investigation. In World Cup qualifying, Guatemala play at Jamaica on Friday and then face the US on June 12 in Guatemala City. “This is not going to influence the Jamaica game or the match with the United States,” Jimenez said.
SOCCER
King wants to stay at Spurs
Ledley King wants to stay at Tottenham Hotspur even if he can no longer play for them, the veteran defender said on Friday. The 31-year-old, who has endured numerous injury problems, was not on the retained list provided by the club to the Premier League, but he has not ruled out signing a new contract. King, who has been at Spurs since he was a trainee, told the club’s official Web site: “I had a really good start to last season and was pleased to play as many games as I did. A knock in training set me back towards the end, but I opted to carry on playing rather than take the time out to have the knee seen to. Unfortunately that meant that I didn’t play the last few games at the standard I would have liked. ... The club has been fantastic in supporting me and given me several options to stay involved with Tottenham. ... Tottenham have been the only club for me and if I can’t play here then I shall look to be involved in another capacity.” Other notable players not on their club’s retained list include Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, Manchester United’s Michael Owen and Manchester City’s Owen Hargreaves.
RUGBY UNION
Ben Mowen joins Wallabies
Brumbies captain Ben Mowen joined the Wallabies camp yesterday as cover for Western Force No. 8 Ben McCalman, who is continuing to be affected by a shoulder injury ahead of Australia’s rugby Test against Scotland on Tuesday. Australia will name their team today for the Scotland match at Newcastle north of Sydney. Six Nations champions Wales will play Australia on the following three weekends. Mowen has previously represented Australia in under-21s and Sevens, but is uncapped in test play. He led the Australia Conference-leading Brumbies to a 27-19 win over the Melbourne Rebels in a Super 15 match on Friday.
FOOTBALL
Bounty ‘ledger’ exists: report
A key piece of evidence held by the NFL in the New Orleans Saints bounty scandal is a “ledger” that shows there was a system for paying players to injure their opponents, Yahoo Sports reported on Friday. The ledger includes a laundry list of injuries and the money a player could earn for inflicting them, Yahoo said, citing two sources with knowledge of what evidence the NFL holds. Among the more lucrative items were the US$1,000 paid for a cart-off (a hit that resulted in a player being helped off the field) and US$400 paid for whacks (hard hits), Yahoo said. NFL Players Association spokesman George Atallah told Yahoo that the league informed the union of the ledger, but never showed it to the players group. Sources told Yahoo that the NFL showed portions of the ledger to some of the defensive players who have been investigated in the scandal.
ATHLETICS
Kiprop wins 10,000m trials
Wilson Kiprop used a late surge to win the 10,000m at the Kenyan Olympic trials held at the Prefontaine Classic on Friday in Eugene, Oregon. Kiprop finished in a world-leading time of 27 minutes, 1.98 seconds as he beat his personal best by nearly 25 seconds on a rain-soaked track. Moses Masai was second and Bitan Karoki took third to round out Kenya’s 10,000m for the London Games. Athletics Kenya elected to hold their trials in Eugene to take advantage of the low altitude. The 25-year-old Kiprop took the lead with around 50m to go and steadily pulled away from Masai down the homestretch. Asked if he could envision this victory, Kiprop simply said: “I could not imagine I could win the race today ... It’s something very incredible.”
BASEBALL
Vlad Guerrero into AAA
Vladimir Guerrero is going to Las Vegas, moving him one step closer to a return to the major leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto assigned the 37-year-old to their Triple-A affiliate on Friday. Guerrero signed a minor league deal with Toronto on May 10. A 16-year veteran, Guerrero reported to extended spring training in Florida after signing with the Blue Jays. He appeared in four games with Class A Dunedin, batting .450 (9-for-20) with a double, four homers and eight RBIs. Blue Jays manager John Farrell said Guerrero would be a designated hitter and play the outfield in Las Vegas, as he did in Dunedin. This is the first trip to Triple-A for the nine-time All-Star and 2004 AL MVP. He jumped from Double-A to the majors with Montreal in 1996.
BOXING
Williams rests after surgery
Former welterweight champion Paul Williams’ promoter says the boxer was resting on Friday following surgery to stabilize his spine. Promoter Dan Goossen said the surgery lasted 6 hours, 30 minutes on Friday night. Goossen said the surgery “went as planned” and doctors said they would talk with Williams about the procedure on Saturday. The 30-year-old Williams severed his spinal cord when he was thrown from his motorcycle on Sunday last week in Marietta, Georgia. Police said he was driving too fast for conditions. Williams’ manager, George Peterson, said the former welterweight champion has no movement from the waist down. Known as “The Punisher,” Williams had been scheduled to fight on Sept. 15 in Las Vegas against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Williams won his first major welterweight title in July 2007 by beating Antonio Margarito. Goossen said Williams has been talking and in good spirits as he predicted he would walk again.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Kite-surfing fabrics, car tires and shortened shoelaces helped Kenyan Sabastian Sawe and Adidas crack the two-hour marathon barrier. When Sawe on Sunday shattered one of athletics’ most elusive barriers in storming to victory at the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds, it did not come from just physiology and grit, but from design choices drawn from far beyond the course. Sawe debuted Adidas’ lightest-ever racing shoe, the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3. “It starts with the mentality of the athlete, the coach, and the team behind the product, which is: What can we do better? What is the 1 percent
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