Swimming: Teenage swim sensation Ye Shiwen and fellow London Olympic gold medallist Jiao Liuyang headline China’s team for next month’s inaugural Aquatic Super Series in Perth, organisers said. Ye, who scored a medley double at the London Games, will rekindle her rivalry with Australia’s Alicia Coutts at the meet on January 18-19 which also features swimmers from South Africa. Coutts, Australia’s best performer in the pool in London with five medals, took silver behind Ye in the Olympic 200m individual medley final.
Ryder Cup: Speculation is mounting that 63-year-old Tom Watson will be named today to lead America’s Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles in 2014. If true, the five-time Open champion would become their oldest-ever captain. Sam Snead was 57 when he did the job in 1969. The United States, though, have lost five of the last six matches and their only success on European soil in the last 31 years came in 1993 – with Watson in charge.
Puma shake-up: German sportswear giant Puma said its chief executive Franz Koch is to step down at the end of March as part of a wider management shake-up at the company. “Franz Koch will remain CEO of Puma until the end of March, and work in close collaboration with the new chairman of the administrative board, Jean-Francois Palus,” a statement said. Puma is in the throes of a massive restructuring and cost-cutting programme, which weighed on earnings in the third quarter and will also hit full-year profits, the company warned in October.
Baseball: The New York Yankees have dipped into Boston’s former talent pool once again, signing Kevin Youkilis to a one-year $12 million contract, the New York Daily News reported. Youkilis, 33, will join New York as their starting third baseman. He rep-laces all-star Alex Rodriguez who is out until at least mid-season due to left hip surgery.
Olympics: Austria’s Olympic Committee will back any bid by Vienna to host the 2024 or 2028 Olympic games, its president Karl Stoss said yesterday. Vienna mayor Michael Haeupl was quoted this week as saying he planned to hold a referendum in March on the candidacy. “This is news to us, but basically we support any sort of Olympic initiative, as long as it has a realistic chance of success and has the financial means for the candidacy and the necessary infrastructure require-ments,” Stoss said.
Rugby Union: British and Irish Lions coach Warren Gatland yesterday named a trio of assistants – Rob Howley, Andy Farrell and Graham Rowntree – for next year’s tour to Australia. England forwards specialist Rowntree and backs coach Howley, of Wales, were part of the 2009 Lions coaching team in South Africa. England’s ex-Rugby League star Farrell will tour with the Lions for the first time. Howley worked as Wales’s interim head coach for their opening autumn Tests against Argentina and Samoa last month.
Golf: The Japanese tour will expand its partnership with OneAsia by co-sanctioning the regional circuit’s first two events next year, officials said. The Thailand Open and the Indonesia PGA Championship, both in March, will also be sanctioned by the Japan Tour Golf Organisation, OneAsia said, calling it “an important step for professional golf in Asia”. “This is a significant development for OneAsia,” OneAsia commissioner and chairman Sang Y. Chun said. “Since our launch in 2009 our objective has been to build a circuit that brings together the whole of the Asia-Pacific region.”