WEIGHTLIFTING: The Australian Olympic Committee yesterday called for an independent investigation into allegations that a weightlifter demanded cash to compete at a qualifying event. Reports said that Daniel Koum, 26, insisted on a $5,000 cash payment to perform at an event in Samoa – an allegation the athlete denies. Had any Australian male athlete failed to compete in Samoa it would have made it impossible for the team to finish among the top five nations, meaning Australia would have been unable to send a male lifter to the London Olympics.
BASKETBALL – NBA FINAL: LeBron James scored 32 points and Chris Bosh had 16 points on his return to the starting line-up as Miami Heat beat Oklahoma City 100-96 to level the NBA finals at one game apiece. Forward Bosh, starting his first game since the middle of May, also grabbed 15 boards while team guard Dwyane Wade rebounded from a poor performance in game one to finish with 24 points and five assists in Thursday’s wire-to-wire win.
TENNIS: Newly-crowned French Open champion Rafael Nadal’s start to the grasscourt season at Halle was cut short when the top seed crashed out in the quarter-final to Philipp Kohlschreiber. The German, ranked 28 in the world and defending champion, notched up his first-ever victory over Nadal in nine encounters, winning 6-3, 6-4. “I said it was going to be tough,” Nadal said. “He plays well on this court. You just have to congratulate him. He played very aggressive.”
GOLF – US OPEN: Tiger Woods made his best start to a US Open in a decade on Thursday, firing a one-under 69 on San Francisco’s brutal Olympic Club course to send out a stark warning to the rest of the field. That early morning broadside put the 36-year-old former world No.1 into equal second place, three strokes behind surprise first round leader, 27-year-old US qualifier Michael Thompson. The confident manner Woods opened the tournament will boost his hopes of winning a record-equalling fourth US Open title tomorrow, four years after he won the last of his 14 majors at nearby Pebble Beach.
ATHLETICS: A female Indian athlete who has been charged with raping her live-in partner has defended herself against claims that she is actually a man. Pinki Pramanik (picture), who won a 4x400m relay gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games, was arrested late Thursday. Police said her partner had accused her of repeated rape and of being male, and that Pramanik had refused to take a medical exami-nation at a government hospital.