■ GOLF
Wi, Kuchar share lead
Charlie Wi carded a two-under-par 69 to share the BMW Championship second round lead with Matt Kuchar on Friday, but squandered a chance to have the top of the leaderboard to himself with a late triple-bogey. Cruising through an unblemished back nine with three birdies, the South Korean’s round went from brilliant to ordinary in a hurry with the seven at the par-four 16th. Wi hit back with another birdie at the 17th to reach the midway point at six-under 136 and remain on track for what would be a maiden career USPGA Tour title. It was a missed opportunity for Wi to overhaul ailing FedEx Cup leader Kuchar, who was barely able to make it around the Cog Hill layout because of illness and labored to a one-over 72. Tiger Woods’s hopes of qualifying for the season-ending Tour Championship continued to dim as the world No. 1 slipped further out of contention with a one-over 72.
■ GOLF
Hamilton one stroke back
Former British Open champion Todd Hamilton set up the chance of another European Tour victory when the American moved within a stroke of the Dutch Open second-round lead on Friday. A three-under 67 at a soaking Hilversumche course gave him a seven-under 133 halfway total, one adrift of joint leaders Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium and India’s Shiv Kapur. A stroke behind Hamilton is USPGA champion Martin Kaymer of Germany. Kaymer’s Ryder Cup teammates Francesco Molinari and Ross Fisher are seven shots behind joint leaders Colsaerts and Kapur, who are chasing maiden tour wins. A lost ball on the sixth damaged Colsaerts cause as he carded a 70 to follow the blistering 62 that earned him the first-round lead. Kapur, trying to follow mentor Jeev Milkha Singh by winning in Europe, returned a 68.
■ RUGBY UNION
Argentina set to join SANZAR
Argentina, set to play in a revamped Four Nations from 2012, have moved a step closer to joining the tournament’s governing body SANZAR, former Pumas captain Agustin Pichot said on Friday. The Argentine Rugby Union, whom Pichot represented at a meeting of SANZAR in Sydney that ended on Friday, wants to secure a permanent place in the southern hemisphere’s top competition. “Now, yes, there is only a little further to go to be officially part of SANZAR when everything is signed,” Pichot was quoted as saying on the union’s Web site. Pichot fought long and hard to obtain a place for the Pumas, who he led to the bronze medal at the 2007 World Cup in France, in a top annual international competition. They are the only team in the world’s top 10 not playing in such an event.
■BASEBALL
Santana out for season
New York Mets pitcher and three-times All-Star Johan Santana has been ruled out for the rest of the season to have shoulder surgery, the team said on Friday. The left-hander has not started since Sept. 2 against the Atlanta Braves when he came out after five outstanding innings because of a strained pectoral muscle. “An MRI at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan yesterday revealed that ... Santana has suffered a tear of the anterior capsule of the left shoulder,” the Mets said in a statement. The Mets said the 31-year-old would have surgery “in the near future” and was expected to resume throwing in the spring.
■ FIELD HOCKEY
Aussies claim fifth place
Australia defeated South Korea 2-1 on Friday to claim fifth place at the women’s World Cup. It was some consolation for the former champions, who failed to reach the semi-finals, having made the final in four of the past five World Cups. In other playoff games on Saturday, New Zealand defeated China 3-0 for seventh place and India beat South Africa 4-3 to claim ninth. Japan defeated Spain 2-1 on Thursday for 11th place. South Korea took a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute through Kim Young-ran. Australia leveled 10 minutes later, thanks to Casey Eastham, then Nicole Arrold scored the winner in the 68th minute. Krystal Forgesson, Clarissa Eshuis and Charlotte Harrison scored for New Zealand. It was the Kiwis best finish in a World Cup or Olympics. China failed to score for the third straight match.
■ CRICKET
Disgraced players fly home
The three Pakistan players questioned by British police over claims they were involved in a spot-fixing scandal returned home to protests by angry cricket-lovers yesterday. Test team captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammad Amir and Mohammad Asif landed in the eastern city of Lahore in time for the Muslim holiday of Eid, arriving at 4:20am on a Kuwait Airways flight from London. A few hundred protesters picketed the airport with banners and waved shoes as a sign of the players’ disgrace, but they did not get a chance to confront the accused three as the players were whisked away through a back exit.
■ CYCLING
Radioshack appeal to court
Lance Armstrong’s RadioShack team appealed to sport’s highest court on Friday after being left out of the Tour of Lombardy lineup. RadioShack said it wants the Court of Arbitration for Sport to rule on whether Italian organizer RCS Sport broke a contract agreed in January by not including the US team in its Oct. 16 event. “We just want to go to the race. We want that RCS fulfills its commitment,” team spokesman Philippe Maertens said. The Lombardy agreement was made when RadioShack informed RCS it would not be racing in the same organizer’s three-week Giro d’Italia in May, Maertens said. RadioShack, which claims to have learned of its exclusion this week through the media, has asked the court to issue a ruling “as soon as possible” and consider awarding it compensation.
■ SOCCER
Crazy penalty a Web hit
It’s been dubbed the craziest penalty in the history of soccer and has made an Internet hit out of a very embarrassed Moroccan goalkeeper. Khalid Askri thought he had saved a crucial spot-kick in a Moroccan Cup game playing for FAR Rabat against Moghreb Fes on Thursday when he pushed the ball away and turned to soak up the adulation of his fans. However, as he saluted the crowd, the ball span back and rolled over the line into the empty net. The goal stood and Fes qualified for the quarter-finals. “Khalid Askri thought he was a hero, but he’s just a zero,” said a report on the Chronofoot Web site.
■ SOCCER
Metz sign Chinese player
French second division side Metz on Friday awarded a professional contract to defender Yi Teng, making him the first Chinese player to turn professional after being trained in Europe. Yi arrived in France two and a half years ago and signed a one-year contract in the presence of Chinese Football Federation general secretary Wei Di.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
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