■ Local
Soccer event scheduled
Soccer lovers will be descending on Hsinchuang this weekend for the annual O'Ginny's Challenge Cup, an 11 a-side tournament with three Taipei teams and a guest side from Hsinchu. The Red Lions, Animals and Dragons will team up with Chia Chien Football Club from Hsinchu for the four-team event on Sunday. All games are 40 minutes and FIFA rules apply. The winning team will be decided on points and in the case of a tie at the end then the winner will be decided by goal difference, goals scored, then the result of the top two teams when they played each other. The TUV Taipei Animals is an English-speaking club that has been playing in Taiwan since 1986 and plays in various local and small international competitions. The Chu Chien Football Club based in Hsinchu is a Chinese-speaking team that consists of local businessmen and university students. Formed in 2002, it was originally a seven-a-side team but now has some 30 players. The tournament at Hsinchuang Football Stadium in Hsinchuang City, will start at 11am and finish around 4.30pm.
■ Golf
Garcia doubtful in Oz
Sergio Garcia injured his hamstring kicking an Australian Rules football at a charity event and was in doubt for the US$1.68 million Johnnie Walker Classic starting today at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club. The 23-year-old Spaniard withdrew from a Pro-Am at Lake Karrinyup yesterday, citing a strained hamstring. He was one of six golfers who joined six players from the Australian Football League in a kicking competition at Perth on Tuesday. ``We're guessing it was kicking the football yesterday, but it never hurt when I was doing it,'' Garcia was quoted saying. ``I didn't feel a twinge or anything like that.''
■ Sailing
NZ `dances round rules'?
American-based yacht designer Bruce Farr mounted a fresh attack on Team New Zealand's double ``hula'' hull after America's Cup challenger and defender revealed their boats at unveiling ceremonies. ``I think it is an atrocity that this has been allowed by the measurers to get through the rules,'' Farr said. Farr, who designed the yachts for the San Francisco-based syndicate Oracle that was beaten by Alinghi in the challenger final, previously said New Zealand's hula was so called because it was an attempt ``to dance around the rules. ... It was never anticipated or intended by the rules,'' he said. ``If you look carefully through the rules there are plenty which indicate it is not supposed to be there.''
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