■CRICKET
Trescothick returns home
Marcus Trescothick, whose England career was ended by his inability to travel abroad, has returned home from India following a recurrence of a stress-related condition, his county Somerset said on Thursday. Trescothick, 33, had been with Somerset playing in the Champions League tournament in what was his first trip to the sub-continent since stress resulted in him leaving England’s tour of India in 2006. Somerset director of cricket Brian Rose said: “As you are all aware, Marcus Trescothick has made a great effort to travel to India. Regrettably it has not worked out for him regarding his personal well-being and he has traveled back to England to rejoin his family. The club and all his teammates have fully appreciated this effort and personal commitment and look forward to further success on his behalf.”
■CRICKET
Clarke takes Twenty20 reins
Michael Clarke will take over as captain of Australia’s Twenty20 team from Ricky Ponting, Cricket Australia said yesterday. It follows Ponting’s decision last month to step down from international Twenty20 cricket and concentrate on leading Australia in Test and one-day cricket. Cameron White will be Clarke’s vice-captain, Cricket Australia (CA) said. “I’ve learnt a lot from Ricky Ponting over the last few years and I’ll continue to learn from him,” Clarke said.
■SOCCER
Colombia coach resigns
Colombia coach Eduardo Lara resigned on Thursday after the team failed to reach the World Cup finals for the third time in succession. “I’m retiring as coach of the senior national team and will continue my work with the Federation’s junior divisions,” Lara told reporters. Colombian Football Federation (FCF) president Luis Bedoya confirmed the post of national coach was vacant. There is a lobby in Colombia to appoint a foreign coach. “The [FCF] president will take the necessary decisions concerning the person they want to bring in [as new coach]. I’m leaving,” Lara said. He was at the helm for 10 matches, winning four and losing five.
■SOCCER
Ecuador seeking new coach
Sixto Vizuete is no longer coach of Ecuador following a 1-0 loss to Chile on Wednesday, which ended their hope of qualifying for the World Cup. Luis Chiriboga, the head of the Ecuador Football Federation, said on Thursday that Vizuete’s contract was to expire at the end of the World Cup, or once the team was eliminated in qualifying. A candidate being mentioned to replace Vizuete was Argentine Edgrado Bauza, who coached Liga de Quito to the Copa Libertadores title last year.
■SOCCER
Yeung pledges to spend big
Birmingham City’s new owner Carson Yeung has pledged to spend up to £40 million (US$64.96 million) on players in the January transfer window to help the Premier League strugglers avoid relegation. The Hong Kong businessman backed manager Alex McLeish and spoke of turning City into a European force. “My first plan is to support the club for about £20 million to £40 million for players and wages in January,” Yeung said on Thursday. “In the short term I just care about January. But in the future there will be more money. Longer term we believe there is a major opportunity to build Birmingham’s fan base in China and to generate new sources of revenue for the club. But for this to happen, our first priority must be to establish Birmingham as a Premier League club,” he said.
■OLYMPICS
Vancouver medals unveiled
The medals at the Vancouver Olympics will feature Aboriginal artwork and no two will be alike. The gold, silver and bronze medals for next year’s Winter Games were displayed by British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell at a news conference on Thursday. The circular medals will weigh about 0.5kg — the heaviest in Olympic and Paralympic history. The medals are based on two large artworks of an orca whale and raven by Canadian designer Corrine Hunt. Ore for the metals came from mines in Canada, Alaska and Chile. The medals’ undulating surfaces represent the sea and mountains of Canada’s west coast. “We needed to draw from our environment and all those things that make up this amazing place where we live,” Hunt said. The unveiling was presented by three-time speedskating medalist Nathalie Lambert. “These medals, these beautiful pieces of art, are brought to life by the passion of the athletes,” Lambert said.
■MOTOGP
Rossi posts best time
Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi held the edge over Casey Stoner with the best time in opening free practice at the Australian Grand Prix yesterday. Rossi, who leads his Fiat Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo by 18 points heading into the third-last MotoGP of the season, set the fastest time in the session with 1 minute, 31.032 seconds. The Italian six-time premier class world champion looked comfortable in completing 31 laps of the island circuit in dry conditions. His time was 0.135 seconds better than Australian Ducati racer Stoner, bidding for a hat-trick of wins in his home Grand Prix this weekend. Stoner, who returned to the championship at the last Portugal MotoGP after missing three races through illness, clocked his best time of 1 minute 31.167 seconds on the last of his 22 laps. Stoner is trailing Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa of Spain by three points in the chase for third place in the championship. Pedrosa, looking to make amends for his crash in last year’s race, posted the third best time of the first session and was 0.496 seconds down on Rossi’s pace.
■RALLYING
Pastrana to attempt record
Freestyle motocross star and rally car champion Travis Pastrana will attempt to break the world record for the longest jump in a rally car on New Year’s Eve, with the Queen Mary in the background. He’ll jump from a ramp on the Pine Street Pier in Long Beach, California, onto a ramp on a barge anchored in the harbor. “It ought to be a pretty cool thing. I just hope they get me back to the party after I land on the barge,” Pastrana, the wild man of action sports, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “Even more, I hope I’m not swimming.” The current record is 52.12m set by Pastrana’s Subaru teammate, Ken Block, in a rally car in November 2006. Pastrana, 26, wants to break that mark by more than 30m and said he’s aiming to clear approximately 76m of water between the pier and barge. Pastrana envisions an “old-school, Dukes of Hazzard-style jump.”
■BASKETBALL
Cavs await swine flu results
The Cleveland Cavaliers are waiting to get back swine flu test results on superstar LeBron James, who returned to practice on Thursday after taking two days off because of a virus. James is one of a half-dozen Cavalier players who are suffering from flu-like symptoms. Darnell Jackson and Coby Karl have also been tested for swine flu, which is a strain of influenza A. James, Jackson and Karl have all tested positive for influenza A.
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia yesterday advanced to the women’s doubles final at the Australian Open after defeating New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 6-3 in their semi-final. Hsieh has won nine Grand Slam doubles titles and has a shot at a 10th tomorrow, when the Latvian-Taiwanese duo are to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the championship match at the A$96.5 million (US$61 million) outdoor hard court tournament at Melbourne Park. Townsend and Siniakova eliminated Russian pair Diana Shnaider and Mirra Andreeva 6-7
Manchester City have reached do-or-die territory in the UEFA Champions League earlier than expected ahead of what Pep Guardiola has described as a “final” against Club Brugge today. City have disproved the suggestion a new format to Europe’s top club competition would remove any jeopardy for the top clubs as Guardiola stares down the barrel of failing to make the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in his career. The English champions have endured a torrid season both in their English Premier League title defense and on the continent. A run of one win in 13 games, which included Champions League
Things are somewhat out of control at the Australian Open this year, and that has only a little to do with the results on the courts. Yes, there were some upsets, including Madison Keys eliminating No. 2 Iga Swiatek in the women’s singles semi-finals on Thursday. It also was the first time since 1990 that three teenagers beat top-10 men’s seeds at a Grand Slam tennis tournament. The loser of one of those matches, Daniil Medvedev, got fined US$76,000 for behaving badly. Last year’s women’s singles runner-up exited in the first round. However, the real fuss is happening elsewhere. The rowdy fans, for one
The CTBC Brothers from Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) on Friday announced they reached an agreement with the team’s shortstop Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇) to extend his contract by 10 years in a deal that could worth up to NT $147.88 million (US$4.5 million). Including a NT$10 million incentive bonus, the 24-year- old’s new contract stipulates that his monthly salary will be NT$660,000 starting this year, increasing to NT$1.2 million from the fifth year of the deal. Chiang’s new agreement also comes with a caveat in the form of a “player option” where he would have the choice to become a free
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