■INDYCAR
Power steps up at Penske
Will Power is stepping in for Helio Castroneves at Team Penske while the two-time Indianapolis 500 champion fights tax evasion charges in court. Team Penske announced the deal on Tuesday, saying Power will handle testing for Penske’s No. 3 car, which has belonged to last year’s IndyCar Series runner-up Castroneves. Power’s contract with KV Racing Technology expired at the end of last season. The team said whether Power drove in any races depended on the outcome of Castroneves’ trial in Miami, scheduled to begin on March 2. The IndyCar season opens on April 5 in St Petersburg, Florida. Castroneves has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and tax evasion involving about US$5.5 million in income stashed in offshore accounts.
■BASEBALL
Braves, Kawakami ink deal
Japanese All-Star pitcher Kenshin Kawakami and the rebuilding Atlanta Braves on Tuesday agreed to a three-year contract. The 2004 Central League MVP has won 112 games in 11 seasons in Japan and was regarded as one of the top free-agent pitchers from Japan this offseason. He was 9-5 for the Chunichi Dragons last year, when he missed several weeks because of a back strain. The 1.78m right-hander passed a physical in Atlanta on Monday. He will be the first Japanese-born player in franchise history. The Braves have attempted to boost their presence in Japan in recent years, and manager Bobby Cox said scouts have closely followed the 33-year-old Kawakami. Cox said he was impressed by video of Kawakami. “He looked very good,” Cox said. “He was able to throw the ball right where he wanted to with three or four pitches.”
■BASEBALL
Phillies’ Park drops S Korea
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Park Chan-ho will miss the upcoming World Baseball Classic (WBC) after quitting South Korea’s national team. Park, who finalized a US$2.5 million, one-year contract with the Phillies last week, said on Tuesday he needed to focus on trying to become a starter for the World Series champions. “I’m very sorry to my fans and the people who wanted me to play in the WBC,” said Park, who briefly left the podium after breaking into tears. “I won’t be playing for the national team anymore.” The 35-year-old right-hander said he was unsure about his status with the Phillies and needed to focus on securing a spot with the team. “As I’m going to the Phillies, I will do my best there to achieve my goal of becoming a starter,” Park said.
■BASEBALL
Uehara closes Orioles deal
Pitcher Koji Uehara finalized a US$10 million, two-year contract with the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, making him the first Japanese-born player in franchise history. The 33-year-old Uehara, who agreed to terms last week, completed the contract after passing a physical. He gets US$5 million a year and could make more in performance bonuses. If he makes 34 starts and pitches 200 innings in each season, he would earn US$16 million. Uehara comes to the Orioles after a 10-year run with the Yomiuri Giants of the Japanese Central League. He went 112-62 with a 3.01 ERA, with 56 complete games in 207 career starts. He had 1,376 strikeouts and issued only 206 walks in 276 career games for the Giants. His career average of eight strikeouts per nine innings would rank seventh among qualifying active Major League Baseball pitchers. Uehara was the rookie of the year in 1999, and was Japan pitcher of the year in 1999 and 2002.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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