French driver Stephane Peterhansel increased his lead in the Dakar Rally on Friday after placing third in the ninth stage between Sabha and Zilla in Libya.
Peterhansel of Mitsubishi was one minute behind stage winner Ari Vatanen of Finland in a Nissan with Frenchman Jean-Pierre Fontenay of Mitsubishi second seven seconds behind.
PHOTO: AFP
It was the Finn's first stage success since his last appearance in the event in 1996.
PHOTO: AP
Peterhansel increased his overall lead on Hiroshi Masuoka to 16 minutes and 52 seconds after the Japanese Mitsubishi driver suffered six punctures during the day. Belgian Gregoire De Mevius is third for BMW at one hour, nine minutes and 50 seconds.
In the motorbike section, Richard Sainct won on a KTM to take a one-minute-10-seconds overall lead ahead of Italian KTM rider Fabrizio Meoni, who was second.
Spanish rider Joan Nani Roma, sitting third at the starting line, withdrew for the third straight year after a crash in which he hurt his back.
Meanwhile, Japanese driver Kenjiro Shinozuka was still recovering in a hospital in Tunis after surviving an horrific crash in the eighth stage Thursday.
Shinozuka, who won the race in 1997, was flown to the Tunisian capital after overturning his Nissan pick-up in the Libyan desert.
It was originally feared the 54-year-old had suffered brain damage and chest injuries but scans showed he had escaped with fractured bones to his cheeks and nose.
Race organizers said on Friday that Shinozuka's condition was "reassuring"and that he had woken up after undergoing surgery on his face.
"Shinozuka is no longer under breathing assistance and is slowly waking up," said a statement from the race organizers.
"His life is no longer in danger but he is suffering from major injuries."
One of the doctors treating him said Shinozuka would remain under supervision in the Tunis hospital before being flown to Paris.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier