■FOOTBALL
Faulk suspended for pot
New England Patriots running back Kevin Faulk was suspended for one game by the National Football League on Saturday after being charges with possession of marijuana earlier this year. Faulk will miss New England’s Sept. 7 opener against Kansas City and will be fined an additional game check after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge last month and receiving one year on probation. Faulk, 32, was found with hand-rolled cigars containing marijuana while attending a rap music concert in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Feb. 22.
■RALLYING
Loeb takes third straight
World champion Sebastien Loeb won the Rally of New Zealand yesterday to extend his lead in the world rally championship drivers’ standings. The Frenchman finished 17.5 seconds ahead of Citroen teammate Dani Sordo, with Finland’s Mikko Hirvonen in third, 41.5 seconds off the lead. Hirvonen held the lead at one point on the final day but a spin on the penultimate stage put him out of contention. The win was Loeb’s third in a row following victories in Finland and Germany.
■ATHLETICS
Sahaku wins debut marathon
Yukari Sahaku won her debut marathon for a Japanese double victory with Masaru Takamizawa taking the men’s event at the Hokkaido marathon yesterday. The 19-year-old Sahaku overtook front-running teammate Hitomi Niiya at the 28.7km point and never looked back, crossing the finishing line in two hours 31 minutes 50 seconds to win the women’s race. Niiya, who won the Tokyo marathon last year, came in second in 2:32:19, followed by fellow Japanese Kaori Yoshida third in 2:33:37. Takamizawa, the runner-up here last year, broke away from a front group at the 20km mark before making a long solo run to clock his personal best time of 2:12:10.
■CYCLING
Italians lead in Spain
Italian team Liquigas won the first stage of the Tour of Spain on Saturday, a time trial of 7.7km in the southwestern city of Granada, that saw Filippo Pozzato take the first golden jersey of the race for the overall leader. The Italian side came ahead of two Spanish teams: Euskaltel by eight seconds and Caisse d’Epargne by nine seconds. “It was a nice victory for the whole team, particularly since I am leaving at the end of the season. They were nice enough to let me have it,” said Pozzato, who is heading to a new outfit, Russia’s Katusha, next year. Astana, the team belonging to race favorite and last year’s Tour de France champion Alberto Contador, finished in eighth place, 14 seconds behind Liquigas. The 3,133km Tour of Spain finishes in Madrid on Sept. 21.
■FORMULA ONE
Toro Rosso place ‘open’
Ferrari-powered Toro Rosso have told Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais he cannot take his place on the Formula One team for granted beyond the end of the season. Bourdais, France’s only current grand prix driver, joined the Red Bull-backed team this year after winning four ChampCar titles in a row in the US. However, has been overshadowed by teammate Sebastian Vettel. The 21-year-old German has scored nine points from 12 races to two for Bourdais. Asked whether Bourdais was a fixture at Toro Rosso next season, team co-owner Gerhard Berger said: “No, it’s open.” Berger said the team’s young driver program would be looked at first in the search for a replacement for Vettel and Red Bull would have the final say on next year’s lineup.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946