IN BRIEF (Page 20)

Soccer

Davids out for three months with broken leg

AMSTERDAM: Ajax Amsterdam midfielder Edgar Davids will be sidelined for three months with a broken leg, his club said.

Davids broke his shinbone in the first half of a friendly match against Go Ahead Eagles Deventer on Saturday.

The match was abandoned after 33 minutes because of crowd violence in the stadium of the second-division team.

Magpie Barton sidelined for early draw

NEWCASTLE: New Newcastle signing Joey Barton, 24, could miss several opening rounds of the Premier League season after he suffered a suspected broken metatarsal in a 1-1 friendly draw with third-division Carlisle United.

Barton, who made his England debut last February, signed from Manchester City for 5.8 million pounds ($11.89 million) in June.

Pele: Kaka to stay with Ronaldo at Milan

CAPE TOWN: Pele thinks Real Madrid target Kaka will stay at AC Milan and continue his great partnership with fellow Brazilian Ronaldo.

"At Milan, Kaka seems happy, Why would he change now?" Pele told Gazzetta dello Sport. "Ronaldo's only problem is physical. He must train constantly. I believe that the presence of Ronaldo is very useful not only for Milan but also Kaka."

Motor racing

Australia loses first GP of F1 calendar to Bahrain

MELBOURNE: The Australian Formula One Grand Prix has lost its place as the first race on the 2008 Formula One calendar to Bahrain.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation announced yesterday that the March 13-16 Albert Park event would be the second race on the calendar and would drop back to a 1530 local time start (0530GMT) to cater for European television audiences.

Bahrain will stage the first race of the season, a spokesman for the Melbourne race organisers said.

Baseball

Duncan homers twice as Yankees bomb Tampa Bay

NEW YORK: Shelley Duncan homered twice, including a three-run drive that capped a 10-run fourth inning in the surging New York Yankees' 21-4 rout of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Sunday.

Alex Rodriguez hit his major league-leading 34th homer and No. 498 of his career. Hideki Matsui, Bobby Abreu and Robinson Cano also homered as the Yankees hit six home runs in a game for the first time in two years.

New York had 25 hits, reaching 20 for the second straight game. Matsui tied his regular-season high with five hits, and every Yankees starter had a hit, a run and an RBI. Rodriguez pushed his big league-leading RBIs total to 99 in 97 games.

Motorcycling

Australia's Stoner cruises to US victory

MONTEREY, California: Australia's world championship leader Casey Stoner led from the end of the first lap and was never challenged en route to claiming his sixth MotoGP win this season at the US Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Ducati rider, 21, who was the pole-sitter and was fastest in all three practice sessions, extended his lead in the standings to 44 points over Valentino Rossi after clocking victory in 44 minutes 20.325 seconds at the Laguna Seca Raceway.

Compatriot Chris Vermeulen finished second on his Suzuki in 44:30.190. Marco Melandri of Italy, who rode with a severely sprained ankle, finished third for Honda in 44:45.966.

Five-time world champion Rossi placed fourth for Yamaha in 44:50.989.

(China Daily 07/24/2007 page20)