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Mike Tyson calls it quits after surrender
Anand too good for Carlsen
PCB to probe players’ fight
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Irfan Pathan has shoulder injury
Raikkonen wins, Narain bows
out
Sania fails to qualify
Bhupathi loses in doubles
Mixed luck for Armaan
Ludhiana, Jalandhar win softball titles
Chandigarh emerge winners
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Mike Tyson calls it quits after surrender
Washington, June 12 “I cannot do this. I am not going to embarass the sport anymore. This is just my ending. That is it. It is finished.” Tyson’s controversial 20-year career saw him become the undisputed heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990 and fall into disgrace with rape and assault convictions and a one-year ban for biting Evander Holyfield’s ears. “I just do not have it in me,” Tyson said. “I am just finished with this. I am no good anymore. I do not think I have the stomach for this anymore. I do not have anything to fight for anymore.” Tyson’s final moments in boxing came late in a wild sixth round, in which Tyson head-butted McBride and trapped his foe’s left arm, arousing fears that he might break it the way he nearly once did South African Francois Botha’s arm. “I was desperate to win,” Tyson admitted. “Man I would have done anything.” Referee Joe Cortez took two points from Tyson for the head-butt, which opened a gash under McBride’s left eye. The Irish journeyman rallied and pinned Tyson on the ropes before shoving him onto his rear as round six ended. Tyson stayed seated for a few moments, then hesitatingly rose and walked to his corner, never more to return, his attempted comeback crushed. “I did not want to get up. I was tired,” Tyson said. “It was not in my heart. I was doing it, but I did not want to go forward. I just did not have the desire to continue fighting. “I felt like I was 120 years old. I feel like Rip Van Winkle right now.” In many ways, Tyson admitted that his boxing career had been over since the night in Tokyo when Buster Douglas knocked him out in the 10th round to take away the undisputed crown. McBride simply finished the job Douglas started. “My career has been over since 1990,” Tyson said. “I am not interested in fighting anymore. If I cannot beat him, I cannot beat (anyone). I do not believe I can beat Father Time. I do not believe I have the heart to do this anymore.” “I just do not have this in my gut anymore. I am not interested in getting beat up. It is difficult to fight when your heart just is not in it.” Tyson’s career ended 50-6 after his third loss in his final four fights. The man who warned McBride he would “gut him like a fish” admitted “I do not have the guts to fight anymore.” McBride rose to 33-4 with one drawn, winning for the eighth time in a row. “This win was for the pride of Ireland,” McBride said. “I proved everyone wrong.” Tyson said he would have fought again had he won, in part because he owes federal tax money that would have been repaid after a few more planned fights. “When I get some money, I will pay them,” Tyson said. “If I do not, I will not.” Tyson, who would turn 39 on June 30, made his farewell in his first fight since last July’s fourth-round knockout loss to Britain’s Danny Williams. Two judges had Tyson leading 57-55 after six rounds while the third had McBride ahead by the same margin.
— AFP |
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Laila wins WBC women’s title
Washington, June 12 Muhammad Ali got into the ring, hugged his daughter and gave her tender kisses after she stopped the outclassed Toughill at 1:59 of the third round. Toughill took about 20 consecutive punches in her corner before referee Joseph Cooper stepped in to stop the fight. Laila, generally recognised as the top woman in boxing, improved to 21-0 by winning the super middleweight fight against a fighter with far less experience. “It is wonderful anytime my dad is there,” Laila said. “It lights a fire in me.” Laila had promised to give Toughill a beating, and she did just that in the fight on the undercard of the Mike Tyson-Kevin McBride fight.
— AP |
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Anand too good for Carlsen
Leon (Spain), June 12 It turned out to be a one-sided affair as Anand gave little hope but no chance to his 14-year-old opponent and squeezed out victories in the first and third games while drawing the remaining two in the four-game match. In the final, the Indian ace would face FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan, who beat Spaniard Alexei Shirov in the other semifinal. Interestingly enough, both finalists scored victories in near identical fashion. On Friday, Kasimdzhanov had given a similar treatment to Shirov, who went down in the first and third game and drew the remaining like Carlsen. However, Kasimdzhanov had won his games with black pieces while Anand scored splendidly with his white. Carlsen had backed the Petroff defence in the first game and was in for a surprise as Anand did not employ the in-vogue variation. Anand played the opening like a book, exchanged pieces at will after Carlsen sacrificed a pawn and reached a won endgame almost in a jiffy. The final position was a picturesque site as Anand sacrificed his rook for a knight to march his pawn to glory. The game lasted just 30 moves. The second game also lasted the same number of moves and Carlsen got his first draw against Anand in that. Continuing with his rhythm, Anand played fast once again after opting for the Marshall gambit and always had sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn in the opening along with his usual lead in time. It was the decisive third game that gave Anand an unassailable 2.5-0.5 lead. Carlsen restored faith in his new-found love for Petroff and was simply outplayed from an innocuous-looking position. Anand first pocketed a pawn in the rook and minor piece endgame and later another to force matters after trading the rooks. The only grace for Carlsen was that this time he could last 71 moves. The fourth game was inconsequential but was nevertheless played and this time Carlsen came up with his best show in the match. The Sicilian Taimanov by Anand prompted the Norwegian to go for a set-up akin to the English attack and after established theoretical manoeuvres, the players arrived at another balanced rook and minor piece endgame, where the draw was a just result in 39 moves. After the match, Anand praised Carlsen for his talent, but pointed out that he still needed a lot of experience. He said the start of the match was the turning point. “Once you win the first game, then it is very difficult for your rival to come back. The first game set the tone for the match,” Anand said. — PTI |
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PCB to probe players’ fight
Islamabad, June 12 PCB Director Operations Abbas Zaidi said Board chief Shaharyar would have another round of discussion with captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, vice-captain Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi and other players regarding the incident, in which Afridi had clashed with Younis on the first day of the Barbados Test. “The chairman believes that there is need to take more steps to ensure such incidents did not recur in the future. Specially since the team is now back home,” Zaidi said. “A minor probe will be carried out into the incident, as part of which Shaharyar will hold further talks with the captain and other players, and find out their views on the incident,” he was quoted as saying by local daily ‘The News’ today. Zaidi said team manager Saleem Altaf had briefed PCB’s ad hoc committee members on the incident on Friday and also told them about the proceedings of the tour disciplinary committee, held to deal with the episode. He, however, did not say if the probe could result in any sort of disciplinary action against the players. “I cannot comment on if action disciplinary action will be taken. But I think the matter has already been dealt with swiftly by the chairman and team management while the team was in Barbados,” Zaidi said. “Now that they are back in Pakistan, the idea basically is to give a message to the players that such incidents should not happen in the future and the steps to take steps to avoid them.” Sources in the board said the ad hoc committee extensively discussed the incident on Friday and there were differing views on it. The sources said Younis Khan’s statement that the incident had shaken up the younger players in the side and was a contributing factor to the defeat in Barbados was also discussed in detail. They said Younis himself had indicated to the team management that the board should further probe into the matter and take some sort of action to discourage any defiant acts by any player with the captain. The ad hoc committee, however, expressed overall satisfaction over the performance of the team in the West Indies, where it swept the one-day series 3-0 and drew the two-match Test series 1-1.
— PTI |
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Irfan Pathan has shoulder injury
London, June 12 “Alan Richardson has bowled well all season but he has worked hard for that and Irfan Pathan has a shoulder injury, he could be struggling to play next week,” Hutton said after the match. Pathan, who had scored 68 in the Middlesex’s first innings, was not required to bat in the second innings yesterday. The paceman could not pick any wickets. Hutton said he was in no position to declare and try to force a result on the fourth and final day yesterday, which ended with Middlesex at 353 for six in their second innings. Earlier, replying to Middlesex’s first innings score of 437, Surrey had made 460 in their first innings. Both sides would share 12 points each from the match. “With the pressure on in the morning the game was in the balance. We had to bat well and to get to lunch with two down was a good effort,” he said. “We felt on this pitch we were not in a position to bowl them out.” For Surrey, India’s off-spinner Harbhajan Singh captured 1-37 in the second innings. He had bagged 2-87 in the first innings. Harbhajan would be with Surrey for another six weeks as they attempted to make upwards move before he would depart for international one-day duty and he might even return to the county in mid-August if a proposed India tour of Zimbabwe failed to materialise. Surrey coach Steve Rixon was all praise of the offie: “Harbhajan has to be classified as one of the great off-spin bowlers in the modern game and I am sure he will run through sides for us,” Rixon said. “May be he is trying too hard and paying the penalty for that, but I have no doubt that he will do the business,” he added.
— PTI |
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Raikkonen wins, Narain bows out Montreal, June 12 Raikkonen’s third win in four races left him 22 points adrift of the 23-year-old Renault driver with 11 races remaining. Ferrari’s seven times world champion Michael Schumacher took second place with Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello third in the struggling champions’ best race of the year so far. Meanwhile, Narain Karthikeyan’s bad run continued when he was forced to retire in the 29th lap. Earlier in the seventh lap, the 28-year-old Indian rookie was lucky to survive a spin and he rejoined the race in last place.
— Reuters, PTI
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Pakistan hold India 1-1
Karachi, June 12 Strangely, the team management rewarded the Mohun Bagun striker for the goal by controversially replacing him. The second match of this historic series will be played at Peshawar on June 16 while the series will conclude in June 18 at Lahore. “I think it was a good result for both teams and sets up the series nicely. Naturally, the players from both the sides were a bit tensed but I expect much improved play in the remaining two games,” Pakistan captain Mohammad Essa told reporters. On the other hand, India captain Shanmugam Venkatesh was left to rue missed opportunities. “We missed a couple of scoring opportunities but I am overall satisfied with the way we played. Naturally, I would like to see more chances being converted in the next two games.” In front of a full house of nearly 20,000 die-hard football fans, India, ranked 135th, and Pakistan, ranked 177th in FIFA rankings, started cautiously and watchfully as neither side appeared keen to go one-down in the first series between the two countries in 57 years.
— PTI |
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Federer beats Safin for title
Halle, June 12 Federer extended his three-year winning streak on grass to 29 matches but is still well short of Bjorn Borg’s record of 41 over five years from 1976 to 1980. Second seed Safin had beaten the Swiss in their last meeting, saving a match point in a five-set thriller in this year’s Australian Open semifinal. They had never previously met on grass. Safin, who has been complaining of a troublesome left knee since the Indian Wells Pacific Life Open in March, was upset by controversial line calls during the match but did well to take the second set tiebreak 8-6. Federer broke in the third game of the third set, however, and that was enough to give him victory in a high-tempo match which thrilled the spectators packed into the 12,500-seater Gerry Weber stadium. Roddick wins crown
London: Andy Roddick won his third successive Stella Artois title with a tight 7-6, 7-6 victory over towering Ivo Karlovic on Sunday. The American joined John McEnroe and Lleyton Hewitt as the only players to win three titles in a row at the Wimbledon warm-up event following a disciplined performance at Queen’s Club. Playing his first ATP-level final, Karlovic, at 6 feet and 10 inches the tallest man in professional tennis, showed no sign of nerves, but was outplayed on the big points by his more experienced opponent. Meanwhile, in the Edgbaston International women’s singles final, Maria
Sharapova of Russia beat Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro 6-2, 4-6,
6-1.— Reuters |
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Sania fails to qualify
New Delhi, June 12 Sania, who lost to Jalena Jankovic in the second round of the DFS Classic last week, could not find a place in the main draw of the Tier II grasscourt event as she suffered a 1-6, 7-6 (6), 5-7 defeat against Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand, ranked 64th. Sania had five match points, two while she was at 5-2 in the second and three more at 5-2 in the decider, but her opponent came back strongly to turn the tables on her, according to information received here. The Thai girl reached the second round of the qualifying event ahead of the main tournament, to be played from June 13 to 18 at the Devonshire Park. The Indian, whose WTA rankings had slipped to 75th from 70th following her first round exit at the French Open, was here to tune up for Wimbledon by participating in the grasscourt championships.
— PTI |
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Bhupathi loses in doubles
New Delhi, June 12 Bhupathi and Woodbridge were trailing 5-7 against the Swiss pair of Yves Allegro and Roger Federer in their semifinal match in the grasscourt event, being played as a tune-up to Wimbledon. Both pairs had reached the last four stage after walkovers by their respective opponents in the quarterfinals. Allegro and Federer set up a title clash with Joaschim Jonathan of Sweden and Marat Safin of Russia, who reached the final after they got a walkover from Jiri Novak and Petr Pala of the Czech Republic.
— PTI |
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Jones flops in Mexico sprint
Monterrey (Mexico), June 12 Jones clocked 11.40 seconds, more than seven-tenths of a second off her personal best of 10.65 seconds, to trail former training partner Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas and two other Americans in her final tune-up before the US championships at Carson, California.
NEW YORK: Four-time world champion Allen Johnson has surprised Olympic gold medallist Liu Xiang of China in an early season 110 metres hurdles showdown at the New York grand prix. The 1996 Olympic champion clocked 13.03 seconds for the fastest time in the world this year. Fellow American Dominique Arnold finished second in 13.05 seconds, with Liu third in 13.11 after a false start. Sydney Olympic champion Maurice Greene showed that he was in form for the US championships later this month by claiming the 100 metres in 10.08 seconds.
— Reuters |
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Mixed luck for Armaan
Pattaya (Thailand), June 12 The challenge of the 15-year-old, driving for Korea’s E-Rain, in round five got over in no time as he failed to control the car on the chicane in the second lap itself and after bouncing over the kerbs, spun and came to a standstill. Armaan, who created history last month in Malaysia by becoming the first rookie driver to win a race, overcommitted himself and later admitted that it was entirely his mistake. “I made a mistake on the chicane by hitting too hard on the kerbs. The car was airborne and spun and just stopped,” he told reporters. Team Meritus claimed all the three podium spots, with Hamed Al Fardan Baharin taking the chequered flag with a time of 20:56:860. Michael Tony Patrizi of Australia and Charlie-Ro Charlez of Malaysia finished second and third, respectively. The second session was slightly better for the Indian, but once again, a small mistake cost him podium finish. After the participants were forced to restart as the race was stopped in the very first lap after local hope Robert Boughey of Team Meritus crashed on the first chicane, Armaan passed Patrizi on the first corner, but could only maintain the position for just two laps before surrendering the initiative. The Indian overlooked the approaching Patrizi and in an effort to close in on Fardan, ran a bit wide on the first corner on only lap four, allowing the Australian to pass him on the ensuing straight. Armaan’s team-mate and championship leader Salman Rashid Al Khalifa, who had also crashed out of the first race, led from start to finish to complete his third win in six rounds and maintain his position on the leaderboard with 87 points. Fardan and Patrizi took the second and third spot, respectively. The two mistakes also cost Armaan valuable position on the leaderboard as he slipped to fourth on the overall championship list with 60 points and Charlie (94) took sole lead in the Rookie category and was leading the Indian by 12 points. The Malaysian, who finished fifth in round six, also took the second spot in the overall standing with 65 points while Fardan pipped Armaan for third with 61. Armaan blamed himself for the final outcome of the day. “It was entirely my mistake in the first race and in the second I went a bit too wide and he (Patrizi) made the most of it,” he said. “I am very disappointed with the final outcome because I had led everyone over the two-day practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, but could not get the results when it mattered,” Armaan said.
—PTI |
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Ludhiana, Jalandhar win softball titles
Sangrur, June 12
Deepak (4), Amit (3), Gurmangat (3), Jaspreet (3) and Sumit (2) scored for Ludhiana while Balbir (3), Sukhpal (2), Arun (2) and Amandeep (2) scored for the losers. Sangrur got the third place by defeating Amritsar 7-6. In the girls final, Jalandhar defeated Ludhiana 16-9. Ludhiana girls, who upset holders Gurdaspur yesterday, failed to repeat their performance. Holders Gurdaspur got the third place by crushing Hoshiarpur 10-0. |
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Chandigarh
emerge winners Patiala, June 12 Chasing Chandigarh’s first innings total of 247, the hosts, at one stage, were going steady with just two wickets falling for 100-odd runs. However, Patiala’s middle order collapsed leaving Chandigarh winners by virtue of their 83-run first innings lead. Chandigarh accumulated five points from the contest while Patiala bagged three. The hosts now play their next match at the same venue against Ludhiana on June 14 and 15. Brief scores: Chandigarh: (1st innings): 242 all out Patiala: (1st innings): 169 all out (Shiv Karan Gill 72, Harikrishan Mandora 44, Vipul Sharma 5 for 31, Akashdeep 2 for 27, Asim Gupta 2 for 29) Chandigarh (2nd innings): 36 for no loss.
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Leon (Spain), June 12
