■ OLYMPICS
Beijing fish dies in HK
Chinese officials berated Hong Kong yesterday after one of five “Olympic” fish presented to the city by China ended up dead within days. The rare Chinese sturgeon, one of China’s five Olympic symbols, died on Monday, just four days after being publicly released into an aquarium at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park. Vets believe the 1.1m sturgeon, the smallest of five presented by China, was fatally injured when a barracuda sharing the its giant tank bit it on Saturday. Officials from China’s National Aquatic Wildlife Conservation Association quoted by Hong Kong’s government-run radio station yesterday questioned whether the fish had been “adequately handled.”
■ CRICKET
S Africa cuts Zimbabwe ties
Cricket South Africa (CSA) has suspended its bilateral agreements with Zimbabwe because of the worsening political crisis in the country, the body said on Monday. The agreements, including development and administrative programs, as well as the participation of Zimbabwe teams in CSA’s domestic competitions, have been suspended until further notice. “In the past, CSA has defended Zimbabwe cricket against heavy odds, but the general situation in Zimbabwe has now made this untenable,” CSA president Norman Arendse said.
■ BASKETBALL
Shaq skewers Kobe Bryant
Just in case anybody had forgotten that Kobe Bryant has never won an NBA title without Shaquille O’Neal, the big man sent out a reminder. The Phoenix Suns center can be seen rapping that “Kobe couldn’t do without me” in a video posted online at celebrity news site TMZ.com. During the two-minute video, a grinning O’Neal lurches through an improvised rap in which he skewers the Lakers star, with whom he won three straight NBA titles from 2000-2002 while with Los Angeles. “I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever,” O’Neal told ESPN.com on Monday. “That is what MCs do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all.”
■ BASKETBALL
Carmelo Anthony suspended
The Denver Nuggets suspended NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony for the first two games of the next season as punishment for his April arrest on suspicion of drunken driving. The announcement by the team on Monday comes a day before he is scheduled to enter a plea in the case. Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said in a written statement the team would continue to support Anthony as he “strives to live up to the high expectations” set by the Nuggets and by Anthony. Anthony was arrested on April 14 on Interstate 25.
■ SOCCER
Angola face elimination
Angola are in danger of being eliminated from the 2010 World Cup qualifying race after Uganda exceeded expectations by forcing a 0-0 Group 3 draw in Luanda on Monday. The shock 2006 World Cup qualifiers visit leaders Benin in the penultimate series of second round fixtures during September and a loss coupled with a win for Uganda in Niger would rule Angola out of contention for a top-two finish. The 12 group winners and best eight runners-up advance to the third round, where the countries will be split into five pools with the winners joining hosts South Africa at the first World Cup to be staged in Africa. All World Cup fixtures in Africa double as qualifiers for the 2010 Nations Cup and Angola are guaranteed a place among the 16 participants as hosts of the biennial tournament.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
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