■FOOTBALL
Rams cut Torry Holt
Seven-times Pro Bowl wide receiver Torry Holt was cut on Friday after 10 seasons with the St Louis Rams as the team continued to reshape its roster after a miserable 2-14 season. The Rams, whose offense ranked 27th in the 32-team league, released tackle Orlando Pace on Tuesday and cut tight end Anthony Becht on Thursday to open the way for younger players. Holt, a first-round draft pick in 1999 and the sixth choice overall, helped St Louis win the Super Bowl against Tennessee in his rookie season and two years later played in the NFL championship against New England. Last season Holt caught 64 passes for 796 yards, his lowest totals since his rookie season.
■HOCKEY
NHL punishes McCormick
The NHL suspended Colorado Avalanche forward Cody McCormick for two games without pay on Friday for high-sticking incident in Thursday’s game against Minnesota. McCormick was assessed a double minor penalty for high sticking Minnesota forward Cal Clutterbuck at 11:47 of the second period of a game in Denver, which Colorado eventually won 2-1 in a shootout. He will be eligible to return on Tuesday when the Avalanche face the Wild in Minnesota.
■WRESTLING
FILA suspends Albania
Wrestling’s world governing body suspended its Albanian member federation on Friday because the government there has interfered in running the sport. The international federation, known as FILA, said the Albanian sports ministry had recognized a second, rival national wrestling organization without asking permission of the country’s Olympic officials. “It was decided that only a national federation formed by an elective assembly supervised by the Albanian National Olympic Committee and FILA could be recognized,” FILA said in a statement. During the suspension, Albanian wrestlers, judges and officials will not be allowed to take part in international competitions and the country will not be allowed to host international events.
■ATHLETICS
Javornik banned for doping
Slovenian distance runner Helena Javornik has been banned for two years by sport’s highest court after testing positive for EPO. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by the IAAF, which protested after the Slovenian national federation refused to sanction Javornick. The 42-year-old Javornik tested positive for EPO after running a half-marathon in Vienna in March last year. She denied doping and was supported by her national federation which said the sample result was below the level set by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It also questioned procedures at the testing laboratory in Vienna. Those arguments were rejected by CAS. The IAAF provisionally suspended Javornik last June. Her two-year ban was backdated to runs through next June.
■BIATHLON
Norway wins in Whistler
Lars Berger led Norway to a 1-2 finish in the men’s 10km individual sprint at a World Cup biathlon in Whistler, Canada, on Friday, and Helena Jonsson of Sweden captured gold in the women’s 7.5km event. Berger finished in 24 minutes, 6.5 seconds. World champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was second in 24:20.6 and Christoph Sumann of Austria was third in 24:46.0. Earlier on Friday, Jonsson shot a clean round in winning the women’s individual sprint in 19:43.6. The sprint event consists of athletes doing laps around a 2.5km track.
■SOCCER
Ronaldo to be rested
Ronaldo will not play today as Corinthians don’t want to rush his comeback. He was left off the roster to meet Santo Andre in the Sao Paulo state championship, the Globo Esporte Web site said on Friday. “We have to be careful,” Corinthians coach Mano Menezes said. “Now is not the time to run risks. We cannot let all the excitement get in the way of our plans. We must do things carefully, so that things don’t get out of hand.” After more than a year out with a knee injury, Ronaldo made his debut for Corinthians a week ago, playing 28 minutes. He played again last Sunday and started for the first time on Wednesday, scoring in a 2-1 win over Sao Caetano in the state championship. The all-time leading World Cup goalscorer with 15 goals is trying to come back after undergoing knee surgery for a third time.
■BOXING
Bute remains undefeated
Undefeated Canadian-based Romanian Lucian Bute kept his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title on Friday by stopping Colombia’s Fulgencio Zuniga in the fourth round. Bute improved to 24-0 with his 19th early stoppage, that came after 2 minutes, 25 seconds of the fourth round. Zuniga fell to 22-4, with one drawn. It was the third successful defense of the title for Bute since he took it from Colombia’s Alejandro Barrios in 2007 and the 12th fight in a row in Montreal for the southpaw, who turned 29 two weeks ago. Bute defended the crown twice last year, stopping American William Joppy in the 10th round and taking a unanimous decision over Mexican Librado Andrade despite being knocked down with two seconds remaining in the 12th round.
■SKI JUMPING
Olli wins in Lillehammer
Finland’s Harri Olli won the latest World Cup ski jump round at Lillehammer in Norway on Friday, as Austrian teenager Gregor Schlierenzauer edged closer to the overall title. Olli clinched his second win of the season with jumps of 135.5m and 142m, with Dimitry Vassiliev of Russia (137m and 133m) in second and Schlierenzauer (128.5m and 138m) in third. The 19-year-old Austrian ensured an 18th podium place, a World Cup record for one season. With just three rounds left, Schlierenzauer stands 242 points ahead of his only remaining rival Simon Ammann of Switzerland who was 14th on Friday.
■WEIGHTLIFTING
Belarus punishes Aramnau
Olympic weightlifting champion Andrei Aramnau of Belarus was handed a two-year suspended ban from competition on Friday after driving while intoxicated for the second time in less than three months. The 20-year-old, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics by breaking several world records in the 105kg weight class, was first caught in December, before he repeated the offense last month, just a day after receiving keys for a new apartment. Aramnau, who also faces criminal charges for being a repeat offender, was stripped of a presidential monthly stipend worth more than US$5,000.
■SNOWBOARDING
Schairer takes the lead
Markus Schairer of Austria won a snowboard cross on Friday to take the lead in the men’s overall standings, while Lindsey Jacobellis of the US won the women’s event. Schairer crossed the line before Nick Baumgartner of the US and Canada’s Francois Boivin to improve to 5,340 points — 640 points better than Austria’s Siegfried Grabner across all disciplines. Jacobellis beat Sandra Frei of Austria and Canada’s Dominique Maltais.
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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