SACHSENRING: Australian world championship leader Casey Stoner, of Honda, claimed pole position for Sunday’s German Grand Prix here after registering the quickest time in qualifying on Friday. It will be the sixth time this season that Stoner has started from the front of the grid, as he chases his fifth win. Stoner’s time of 1min 21.681sec was 0.252sec quicker than Spain’s Dani Pedrosa, also of Honda. Jorge Lorenzo, the defending world champion and the winner at Mugello two weeks ago, was third fastest, edging Marco Simoncelli, the fastest in Friday’s free practice sessions, into fourth. It was quite a turnaround in fortunes for Stoner, who had lagged behind in Friday practice after suffering a crash in a treacherous morning run. He said: “I’m very happy with the outcome. I wasn’t too confident on the quick part of the track where I crashed but we have recovered a lot of time since Friday.” (Agencies)
5 N Koreans fail dope test at WWC
FRANKFURT:Five North Korea players have tested positive for steroids at the women’s World Cup, soccer’s biggest doping scandal at a major tournament in 17 years. FIFA President Sepp Blatter said Saturday that after two players were caught during the tournament this month, FIFA tested the rest of the North Korean squad and found three more positive results. “This is a shock,” Blatter said at a news conference. “We are confronted with a very, very bad case of doping and it hurts.” FIFA annually spends some $30 million on 35,000 doping tests. Despite the cases at the women’s World Cup, “doping really is a marginal, fringe phenomenon in football,” Blatter said. (Agencies)