Sports Chronology 2008

Continued from yesterday....

** Sept. 12 - Russian tennis star Nikolay Davydenko was cleared by the ATP after a yearlong investigation into suspicious betting patterns on a match he lost to a low-ranked opponent. The ATP found no evidence of wrongdoing by Davydenko, opponent Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina or anyone else associated with their match in Sopot, Poland, on Aug. 2, 2007.

** Sept. 13 - New Zealand win a fourth successive Tri-Nations rugby title and retain the Bledisloe Cup by defeating Australia 28-24 in Brisbane.

** Oct. 12 - Evans Cheruiyot of Kenya won his first major marathon in Chicago, while Lidiya Grigoryeva, the 2007 Boston champion, won the women's race by more than two minutes.

** Oct. 17 - Sachin Tendulkar broke Brian Lara record for most test runs en route to his 50th half century, and became the first player to pass 12,000 runs on the first day of the second test against Australia at Mohali.

** Oct. 19 - Karim Darwish wins an all-Egyptian men's squash World Open against another first-time finalist, Ramy Ashour, while women's No. 1 Nicol David of Malaysia wins her final against England's Vicky Botwright, who was playing her farewell match.

** Oct. 25 - Sergei Fedorov scored twice for Washington, giving him 475 goals for his career to set a record for Russian-born players. Fedorov, who also holds the Russian records for assists (678) and points (1,153), broke the goal-scoring tie with Alexander Mogilny (473), who retired in 2006.

** Oct. 26 - In Sydney, Australia, Robert Hurley of Australia broke the short-course world record in the 50-meter backstroke at a World Cup meet, finishing in 23.24 seconds to take 0.03 seconds off the previous mark set by Thomas Rupprath of Germany.

** Nov. 2 - Britain's Lewis Hamilton becomes the youngest - and first black - Formula One world champion when he makes a pass on the last corner of the last lap to finish fifth in the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix and beat home race winner Felipe Massa by one point in the final standings. Ferrari claimed its seventh constructors' title in nine years.

** Nov. 2 - Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena of France won a record fifth consecutive world rally championship with a third-place finish at Rally Japan and a rally to spare.

** Nov. 2 - Paula Radcliffe defended her title at the New York City Marathon to become the second woman to win the race three times. Radcliffe pulled away from Ludmila Petrova in the 22nd mile to win comfortably in 2:23:56. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race for the second time in three years, passing Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco with about 2 kilometers to go and finishing in 2:08:43.

** Nov. 4 - Diego Maradona became coach of Argentina with little coaching experience and many skeptics among his countrymen. He replaced Alfio Basile, who resigned last month. Maradona won his first and last assignment of 2008, 1-0 against Scotland.

** Nov. 16 - Novak Djokovic claimed the Masters Cup with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Nikolay Davydenko to end a six-month title drought.

** Nov. 16 - Jimmie Johnson locked up his third consecutive NASCAR championship with a solid 15th-place run in the final race of the season, beating Carl Edwards by 69 points to join Cale Yarborough as the only drivers in NASCAR history to win three straight titles.

** Nov. 22 - South Africa inflicts on England its worst home rugby defeat at Twickenham, an easy 42-6 pasting to finish its unbeaten European tour.

** Dec. 6 - Coralie Balmy of France broke the women's 200-meter freestyle short-course world record at the French swimming championships. Balmy finished in 1:53.18, breaking the previous record of 1:53.29 set by Lisbeth Lenton of Australia in Sydney in November 2005. Earlier, Amaury Leveaux broke the 50 butterfly short-course world record. He finished in 22.29 seconds, beating the previous mark of 22.50 set by Matt Jaukovic of Australia at a World Cup in Sydney in October.

** Dec. 7 - Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena of France complete their world champion season by winning the Wales Rally, their 11th title of the year and 48th of their career, and securing Citroen the manufacturers' crown.

** Dec. 7 - Alain Bernard set a world record in the short-course 100-meter freestyle at the French swimming championships. He finished in 45.69 seconds, beating the previous mark of 45.83 seconds set by Stefan Nystrand of Sweden in November 2007 in Berlin.

** Dec. 11 - Four world records were broken at the European short-course championships, with the Italian men's 200-meter medley relay team setting two on its way to winning gold. Mirco Di Tora, Alessandro Terrin, Marco Belotti and Filippo Magnini finished in 1:32.91, 0.85 seconds faster than the world record set by the Russian team earlier in the day. In Thursday's first heat, the Italians broke the world record of 1:34.06 set by Germany in Helsinki, Finland in 2006. The Russians broke that mark in the following heat. Amaury Leveaux of France set a world record in the semifinals of the 50 freestyle, finishing in 20.48 seconds to beat the mark of 20.64 set by Roland Schoeman of South Africa on Sept. 6 in Germiston, South Africa.

** Dec. 12 - Three world records were set at the European short-course championships, with Amaury Leveaux of France breaking his second in as many days. Alessia Filippi of Italy set a world record in the 800 freestyle, along with the Netherland's 200-meter relay team. The 23-year-old Leveaux won his 100 freestyle semifinal in 45.12 seconds, shaving 0.57 seconds off the mark set five days ago by Olympic champion and teammate Alain Bernard. Filippi won in 8:04.53, more than three seconds faster than the mark set last year by Kate Ziegler of the United States. Hinkelien Schreuder, Inge Dekker, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Marleen Veldhuis finished in 1:33.80, 1.02 seconds faster than the record set last year by the Netherlands in Debrecen, Hungary.

** Dec. 13 - Nikolay Skvortsov of Russia, Amaury Leveaux of France and Sanja Jovanovic of Croatia set world records at the European short-course championships. Skvortsov won the 200-meter butterfly in 1:50.60, breaking the 2002 mark set by Franck Esposito of France by 0.13 seconds. Leveaux won the 100 freestyle in 44.94 to become the first swimmer under the 45-second mark, breaking his own mark set a day earlier. Jovanovic broke her own world record in the 50-meter backstroke by 0.14 seconds, clocking 26.23 seconds in the final.

** Dec. 14 - Six more world records were set at the European short-course championships, bringing the total to 16 at the four-day event. Amaury Leveaux set his fourth world record in Rijeka and fifth in nine days by winning a heat of the men's 50-meter butterfly in 22.18 seconds. The 23-year-old Frenchman, who broke the record he set Dec. 6, later won the race for his fourth gold medal at the meet. Leveaux was also part of the French team that set a record in the 4x50 freestyle relay, first in 1:22.38 in a heat, and later in 1:20.77 in the final. His teammates were Frederick Bousquet, Alain Bernard and Fabien Gilot. Earlier at the championships, Leveaux broke the record in the 50 free and twice in the 100 free. Stanislav Donets of Russia set a world record in men's 100 backstroke in 49.32, Mireira Belmonte Garcia of Spain did the same in the women's 400 individual medley in 4:25.06, and Federica Pellegrini of Italy in the women's 200 freestyle 1:51.85.

** Dec. 23 - India, thanks to the fourth-highest total in test history in Chennai, won the two-test series against England 1-0 after the second test in Mohali ended in a draw.

AP