IN BRIEF (Page 20)

SOCCER

Maradona to advise top Argentine club Boca Juniors

BUENOS AIRES: Argentine soccer star of the 1980s and 1990s Diego Maradona will work as an honorary advisor to soccer giant Boca Juniors, the club's new president Pedro Pompillo told domestic radio on Monday.

"He will work with both professional and amateur soccer," Pompillo said. "It will be an ad honorem post, meaning he has told me he does not want to change money for this work."

Maradona, 47, was a leading goalscorer in the 1986 World Cup won by Argentina in Mexico and an enthusiastic supporter of Boca, the team for which he played his last professional football around 10 years ago.

Soccer to take page out of rugby's book on fair play

ROME: Football league bosses in Italy want clubs to adopt the same attitude of fair play that is prevalent in rugby.

The Lega Calcio, the body that represents professional clubs, wants teams to form guards of honor after matches to applaud their opponents from the field of play.

They took their inspiration from Fiorentina which formed a guard of honor on Sunday following its 2-0 home loss to Inter Milan.

That move has been roundly applauded with AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti saying: "That was a great gesture that should be repeated on every field of play. It's a form of respect, loyalty and the right way to behave."

Baseball

Washington acquires OF Dukes from Tampa Bay

NEW YORK: The Washington Nationals have acquired outfielder Elijah Dukes from the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league left-hander Glenn Gibson, baseball website mlb.com reported on Monday.

Dukes, 23, a temperamental right-handed power hitter who has had problems on and off the field, finished the 2007 season hitting .190 with 10 homers and 21 runs batted in 184 at-bats.

Gibson, 20, was 4-3 with a 3.10 earned run average last season for Class A Vermont of the New York-Penn League.

Dukes began the season in center field for the Rays, but a series of domestic problems prompted Tampa to send Dukes to the minors.

Skiing

Reichelt leads Austrian super-G podium sweep

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado: Austria's Hannes Reichelt won a World Cup men's super-G race here on Monday with compatriots Mario Scheiber second and Christoph Gruber third.

Reichelt was first down the mountain and won the event, postponed from Saturday due to poor weather conditions, in 1min 19.87secs with Scheiber only .02 behind and Gruber completing the podium sweep in 1:20.08.

It was the first such sweep for the Austrians since last year's downhill at Garmisch.

Reichelt, 27, also won the super-G at Beaver Creek in 2005, the last time there was a podium sweep by the Austrians in the event.

NHL

Nichol suspended five games for high-sticking

NEW YORK: Nashville Predators forward Scott Nichol has been suspended five games for high-sticking Montreal defenseman Patrice Brisebois, the NHL said on Monday.

Nichol was assessed a double minor at 16:40 of the second period during the Predators' 5-4 victory over the Canadiens on Saturday.

Nichol, who was suspended nine games for an incident in 2006, is now considered a "repeat offender" under the terms of the NHL's labor agreement. He will forfeit around $46,000 in salary during the suspension.

(China Daily 12/05/2007 page20)