Off the wire
Posted on Saturday, May 17, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/225970/
BASKETBALL Arthur’s eligibility questioned A television report that Kansas basketball star Darrell Arthur might have been ineligible to play at his Dallas high school has fueled speculation about whether he should have ever played for the national champion Jayhawks. A former math teacher at South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas told WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth that Arthur’s grades were improperly altered to show he passed math when he hadn’t. The 6-9 Kansas sophomore was instrumental in leading Kansas to its national championship, finishing second in scoring at 12. 8 points a game and second in rebounding. He had 20 points and 10 rebounds in Kansas’ national title victory against Memphis. Arthur has applied for early entry into the NBA Draft but did not sign with an agent, so he could return to Kansas. WFAA said Arthur’s math teacher, Winford Ashmore, showed it documents to prove that Arthur’s grades were changed three times. Ashmore said that during Arthur’s junior season in 2004-2005, he did not receive any grades during his fall semester but that his grade was changed to a 70 in September 2005 without explanation. He also said that during Arthur’s freshman year, he told school officials that Arthur would fail his class despite their request to pass him. Days later, Arthur was dropped from Ashmore’s class without the teacher’s permission, WFAA said, and later was given a grade of 70. The station also reported that Arthur failed math in the spring of 2003 with a grade of 64. But school records showed that in January 2005, then-Principal Donald Moten allowed the failing grade to be changed to a 72. New South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley will open her first season without the team’s leading scorer. Staley says Jordan Jones had decided to leave. The freshman led South Carolina last season with 13. 1 points a game and shot nearly 40 percent on threepointers. The school did not say if Jones is going to another team. The Gamecocks hired Staley this month after the three-time Olympic gold medalist left Temple after eight seasons.
Guard Rebecca Gray is transferring from North Carolina to Kentucky. Gray averaged 5. 2 points in 30 games as a freshman last season, leading the team in three-point percentage and free-throw percentage. Gray, of Georgetown, Ky., was named Kentucky Miss Basketball in her senior season at Scott County High, where she scored 2, 907 points. Gray will have to sit out next season.
Former NBA star Dennis Rodman, 46, was charged with domestic violence for allegedly hitting his girlfriend, Gina Peterson, at a hotel April 30. Los Angeles City Attorney spokesman Nick Velasquez said Rodman was charged Wednesday with spousal battery, brandishing a deadly weapon, and one count of dissuading a witness. The charges were misdemeanors. Police say she suffered injuries to her arm.
TRACK & FIELD Amputee runner wins appeal Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius won his appeal to try for a berth in the Olympics using the carbon-fiber prosthetic. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned a ban on the 21-year-old South African runner by the International Association of Athletics Federations, which said studies found the prosthetic blades gave him an unfair advantage. “The panel was not persuaded that there was sufficient evidence of any metabolic advantage,” the Lausanne, Switzerland-based court said in a ruling on its Web site. Pistorius needs to shave at least 0. 39 seconds from his best time of 46. 34 seconds before July 20 to reach the Olympic qualifying standard for the 400-meter sprint at the Beijing Games in August, his agent Peet van Zyl said. Pistorius would need to improve his best time by 0. 79 seconds if another South African qualifies with a time of 45. 55 seconds or faster, he added. Pistorius was born without his fibula, the smaller of the two bones in the lower legs, and both limbs were amputated below the knees when he was 11 months old. As a teenager, he competed in sports including rugby and wrestling. He took up running to recover from a rugby injury and has broken more than 20 Paralympic world records. The judgment only applies to Pistorius and could be overturned if further tests prove his blades give him an advantage, according to the court, the highest appeals panel in international sports.
Olympic gold medalist Tim Montgomery’s once-celebrated life continued its long downward spiral Friday in White Plains, N. Y., when a federal judge, Kenneth Karas, sentenced the former “world’s fastest man” to 46 months in prison for dealing in bad checks. The judge also warned Montgomery, 33, that the evidence against him “does not appear to be flimsy” in an ongoing case in Virginia, where he is accused of selling heroin. A conviction there would carry a minimum mandatory five-year sentence. Montgomery won medals in two Olympics and set a record in the 100-meter dash that was later erased because of doping. In 2006, Montgomery was charged in the check scheme, which prosecutors said involved plans to deposit $ 5 million in stolen, altered or counterfeit checks over three years at several banks. He pleaded guilty in April 2007. Four months later, according to the Virginia indictment, Montgomery was dealing heroin. He allegedly met four times with a confidential informant and sold a total of 111 grams of heroin for $ 8, 450. He has pleaded not guilty. Besides the prison time, Karas imposed five years of supervision after his release and ordered him to pay back $ 375, 000 to a bank he had cheated.
TENNIS Serena out, Venus loses Serena Williams withdrew from her quarterfinal match at the Italian Open in Rome on Friday because of a back problem, and older sister Venus Williams was beaten by defending champion Jelena Jankovic. Jankovic will next play second-seeded Maria Sharapova, who rallied past 2005 runner-up Patty Schnyder 6-7 (3 ), 7-5, 6-2 to reach the semifinal with her 300 th victory. Serena Williams’ back froze suddenly while she was warming up on a practice court for her match with French qualifier Alize Cornet, 18. Serena Williams has a 23-2 record and three titles this year. Jankovic beat Venus Williams 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, with the American committing 57 unforced errors to the Serb’s 24. Jankovic improved to 4-3 in her career against Venus Williams, who dropped to 12-6 this year. Cornet will meet sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze, who held off Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 3-6, 6-1. Defending champion Roger Federer cruised into the semifinals of the Hamburg (Germany ) Masters by defeating Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3. Novak Djokovic also made the final four, downing Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-3. Djokovic will face Rafael Nadal, who defeated Carlos Moya 6-1, 6-3. Nadal and Djokovic will play for the No. 2 ranking. If Nadal loses, Djokovic would replace him. The Spaniard has been ranked second for a record 147 consecutive weeks. Federer, seeking his fifth title in Hamburg, plays unseeded Andreas Seppi in the other semifinal. Seppi reached his first semifinal of the year by defeating Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
HORSE RACING Eight Belles’ steroid test negative A steroids test for filly Eight Belles has come back negative. The Kentucky Horse Racing Authority announced Friday that test results showed no traces of steroids in the filly, who was euthanized moments after finishing second to Big Brown in the Kentucky Derby on May 3 after breaking ankles in both of her front legs. An autopsy on Eight Belles completed earlier this week showed she had no diseases or pre-existing bone abnormalities before her breakdown.
HOCKEY World finalists set Rick Nash scored the go-ahead goal to put defending champion Canada in the title game of the World Hockey Championships with a 5-4 victory over Sweden on Friday night in Quebec City. On Sunday, Canada will face Russia, which beat Finland 4-0. Nash’s goal broke a 3-3 tie in the second period, and Mike Green added a goal on the power play with seven seconds left in the period. Dany Heatley, Ryan Getzlaf and Jamal Meyers also scored for Canada. SWIMMING Coughlin sets American record Natalie Coughlin broke her own American record in the women’s 100 freestyle while finishing second at the Santa Clara (Calif, ) Grand Prix on Friday. Coughlin finished in 53. 39 seconds, bettering her record of 53. 40 set March 2, 2007. Australia’s Cate Campbell, 15, won in 53. 30 to set a U. S. Open record. Coughlin had won the event seven consecutive years.