Hector Macho Camacho Dies

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico AP

Former championship boxer Hector ''Macho'' Camacho died Saturday at the hospital in Puerto Rico where he has been unconscious since he was shot in the face in an attack in his hometown.
Camacho went into cardiac arrest in the pre-dawn hours and he was then taken off life support and died shortly thereafter, said Dr. Ernesto Torres, the director of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan.

Camacho's mother, Maria Matias, said Friday night that she had supported removing him from life support after his three sons had arrived from the U.S. mainland and had a chance to see their father for the last time. They managed to visit him before he died, said former pro boxer Victor ''Luvi'' Callejas, a longtime friend.
''The family is destroyed,'' Callejas said outside the hospital.
Doctors had declared Camacho brain dead on Thursday. Matias had said she decided it was time for doctors to disconnect life support over the objections of the boxer's eldest son, Hector Jr., because there was no chance of recovery.
''I lost my son three days ago. He's alive only because of a machine,'' she said Friday night. ''My son is not alive. My son is only alive for the people who love him,'' she added.
Torres said that none of the boxer's organs could be donated because of the time between when he was declared brain dead and his death after going into cardiac arrest for the second time since the shooting.
Callejas lamented the inability to donate the organs. ''It's unfortunate that five more lives could not have been saved,'' he said. ''This could have been avoided.''
Camacho was shot as he sat in a car with a friend, 49-year-old Adrian Mojica Moreno, who was killed in the attack. Police spokesman Alex Diaz said officers found nine small bags of cocaine in the friend's pocket and a 10th bag open inside the car.
Police reported no arrests and said investigators continued to look for potential witnesses. Capt. Rafael Rosa told reporters they were following several leads, but declined to say whether police had identified any suspects. He said very few witnesses were cooperating.
Hector Camacho Jr. decried the violence that grips Puerto Rico, a U.S. island territory of nearly 4 million people that reported a record 1,117 homicides last year.

''Death, jail, drugs, killings,'' he said. ''That's what the streets are now.''
Camacho's sisters have said they would like to fly Camacho's body to New York and bury him there. Camacho grew up mostly in Harlem, earning the nickname the ''Harlem Heckler.''

Rex Ryan In Tears After Loss

According to ESPN New York's Rich Cimini, several Jets players indicated their head coach actually cried during his postgame address in the locker room following the team's 28-7 loss to Seattle. A fiery and emotional Ryan reportedly implored his team to "believe" in one another with their playoff hopes seemingly fading away. Gang Green is currently mired in a three-game losing streak and is just 3-9 over its last 12 regular season contests. New York squandered yet another opportunity to halt its skid and get back on the winning track against the Seahawks this past Sunday.  Fresh off a bye week, Mark Sanchez and the offensive unit produced just 185 total yards, with the team's only points coming off defensive end Muhammad Wilkerson's 21-yard fumble return for a touchdown. Sanchez tossed a costly red-zone interception to Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and lost a key fourth-quarter fumble that ultimately sealed the Jets' fate.  No wonder Ryan was weeping after what he deemed a "brutal loss" at Century Link Field in Seattle. Famed for his braggadocios behavior, Ryan showed a more vulnerable side this past Sunday, apparently trying to light a fire under a team that is definitely not living up to its preseason hype. The Jets return to the gridiron next week to face the St. Louis Rams before preparing for a Thanksgiving Night matchup.by rick laughland

Doug Martin Rushes For 251 Yards

Martin rushed for a franchise-record 251 yards and four touchdowns and Ahmad Black intercepted a Carson Palmer pass after Oakland had cut an 18-point deficit to three late in the fourth quarter as the Bucs beat the Raiders 42-32 on Sunday.

Martin, who was born in Oakland and went to high school in nearby Stockton, had a memorable return home for the Bucs (4-4) by scoring on runs of 1, 45, 67 and 70 yards in front of more than 60 friends and family members.

''Everybody was there. It was awesome,'' he said. ''It's surreal right now. I'm just doing my job out there. I'm honored.''

Martin, the 31st pick in April out of Boise State, became the first back since at least 1940 to score on three TD runs of at least 45 yards in one game, according to STATS LLC

He finished 45 yards shy of tying Adrian Peterson's single game record of 296 set in his rookie season in 2007 and joined Denver's Mike Anderson as the only backs with at least 250 yards rushing and four TDs in a single game
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Martin had 214 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns last week in Minnesota to cap a month in which he was the NFL's top offensive rookie.A/P

L.A.Lakers Off To 0-3 Start

 

Los Angeles Lakers are off to their first 0-3 start in 34 years after a thrashing from the Los Angeles Clippers, whose younger stars are shining a whole lot brighter so far.

So, Kobe Bryant, when is it time to push the panic button on this grand experiment?
''Now,'' he said.
Chris Paul had 18 points and 15 assists, Jamal Crawford scored 21 points and the Clippers beat the Lakers 105-95 Friday night to keep their Staples Center co-tenants winless.
Bryant later said he was only joking about that panic button, but it's tough not to worry about a team that still hasn't walked off any court together with a victory.

Bryant scored 40 points and Dwight Howard had 13 points and eight rebounds while battling constant foul trouble for the Lakers, who are 0-3 for just the fourth time in franchise history. Steve Nash sat out with a bruised left leg for the Lakers, who have followed up their 0-8 preseason with three losses in four days.

''We need a win, obviously,'' Lakers coach Mike Brown said. ''I'm not trying to fool anyone here. That's part of the reason Kobe played the minutes he played, which is too many.''
Bryant logged 43 minutes on his bruised foot. While soaking it in ice after the game, he said it ''felt like it's about to fall off.''A/P

NYC Marathon Will Go On Says Mayor

Michael Bloomberg came under fire Friday for pressing ahead with this weekend's New York Marathon in a city still reeling from Superstorm Sandy, with some New Yorkers saying that holding the race would be insensitive and divert police, generators and other resources when many are still suffering.

Joan Wacks, whose Staten Island waterfront condo was swamped with 4 feet of water, predicted authorities will still be recovering bodies when the estimated 40,000 runners from around the world hit the streets for the 26.2-mile race Sunday, and she called the mayor "tone deaf."

"He is clueless without a paddle to the reality of what everyone else is dealing with," she said. "If there are any resources being put toward the marathon, that's wrong. I'm sorry, that's wrong."
At a news conference, Bloomberg defended his decision as a way to raise money for the stricken city and boost morale less than a week after Sandy flooded neighbourhoods, knocked out power to hundreds of thousands homes and businesses and killed at least 39 people.

"New York has to show we are here and we are going to recover ... to give people something to cheer about in what has been a dismal week for a lot of people," he said.
He noted that his predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, went ahead with the New York Marathon two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"If you go back to 9-11, Rudy made the right decision in those days to run the marathon and pull people together," Bloomberg said. He said the marathon's organizers are "running this race to help New York City, and the donations from all the runners in the club will be a great help for our relief efforts."

One of the world's pre-eminent road races, the New York Marathon generates an estimated $340 million into the city.
The course runs from the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on hard-hit Staten Island to Central Park, sending runners through all five boroughs. The course will not be changed, since there was little damage along the route.A/P

Man Runs Marathon in Flip Flops

Keith Levasseur ran Saturday's Baltimore Marathon in 2:46:58 while wearing flip flops. Levasseur will file paperwork with the Guinness Book of World Records to have the feat acknowledged as a world record for a marathon in flip flops.

Levasseur, a member of Maryland's Howard County Striders, ran his marathon PR of 2:38 at last year's Marine Corps Marathon. Before the Baltimore Marathon, he said his goal was to go sub-3:00 in flip flops.

"I had every intention of sticking to the race plan of finishing a little under 3:00, so my initial pace starting out was 6:40-6:50 [per mile]," Levasseur told Runner's World Newswire. "After a few miles, I decided I go with whatever pace I could comfortably run, even if it was faster than my target pace. I know there are some decent hills later in the race and I didn't know how I would be doing from a time perspective at that point, so I gave myself some wiggle room by letting go on the downhills and cruising in the low 6:00's."


Levasseur said that fellow racers as well as spectators noticed his footwear. Runners, he said, "were supportive of the effort and after a 'you're crazy' comment or two, they wished me luck. I heard a number of spectators saying, 'Hey, that's the flip flop guy!' as I passed."

A little past halfway, Levasseur started to get a hot spot on the top of his right foot. (The farthest he had gone in training in flip flops was 14 miles.) "I knew that what would normally result in a blister wasn't happening because there wasn't any room due to the snugness of the strap," Levasseur said. "Instead I figured it would just rub away the skin, which is what it essentially did.

"I knew it was all about maintaining a very efficient and balanced stride," he said. "There were times when I my feet and ankles would get tired from maintaining a more rigid stride than I might otherwise have and I would start landing more on the outside of the my foot and cause my heel to slip off the sandal. It only happened a few times and when it did, it would refocus my concentration on my stride and posture."

Levasseur said other challenges were cobblestones and railroad tracks, as well as uphills "since all the uphills were run more like stair stepping instead of fluid running."

The rules Levasseur had worked out with Guinness for record purposes required that he cover the entire course in flip flops; if one came off, Levasseur was to go back to it, put it back on, and then resume running. "They never fell off," Levasseur said. "There were times I would have to drive the front of my foot into the ground to re-secure the fit if they started to slide off. There were also a few times my heel would slip to the side, though they never touched the ground."

By the following day, Levasseur said, the balls of his feet were "quite sore," in part because "with the minimal padding and inability to place my foot like I normally do, I had to slap the front of my foot quite a bit, especially on the downhills." Levasseur said his ankles and quadriceps were also more sore than usual because of his altered gait.

"Many friends have asked if I'll do it again and my answer has been a resounding 'no,'" Levasseur said. "If someone breaks the record, I will simply congratulate them."by scott douglas

BMX cyclist dies in car crash

BMX cyclist Kyle Bennett was killed in an automobile accident in eastern Texas. He was 33.

A statement from USA Cycling says the single-vehicle crash happened early Sunday in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston.

Bennett was a three-time BMX world champion and won an automatic spot the first U.S. BMX Olympic team in 2008.

In the statement, USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson said Bennett was a pioneer in Olympic BMX cycling and an inspiration to those who knew him.
Bennett is survived by his fiance and a young daughter.A/P