■ Cricket
Pakistan enters last test
Pakistan batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq stood firm against Bangladesh as the third and final test of the series heads towards a tight finish Saturday on the fourth day. Inzamam was unbeaten on 127 going into the break, his 18th test century bringing Pakistan to 250 for eight and 11 runs away from of a 3-0 series whitewash over Bangladesh. Resuming at the overnight score of 148 for six -- chasing 261 for victory -- Pakistan lost the wickets of Saqlain Mushtaq (11) and Shabbir Ahmad (13) with still 56 runs required for victory. However, Inzamam, who notched up 18 fours and a six in front of his hometown crowd, found a useful ally in tail-ender Umer Gul, who entered the break unbeaten on five.
■ Rugby
Union official resigns
A former South African rugby union official who resigned last week has detailed incidents of biting by a Springbok player and secret taping of an Australian training session, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Saturday. The newspaper said the information was contained in a 12,000-word document handed to the South African Rugby Union by the team's former media manager, Mark Keohane, who resigned last Tuesday over claims of racism in the South African team. The document says South African officials knew that one of their players had bitten Wallabies hooker Brendan Cannon during last month's Brisbane test. The document also allegedly exposes the Springboks' secret taping of an Australian training session before the Cape Town test this year, the Herald reported. Keohane, who resigned from his Springboks position this week, also documented numerous incidents of racism within the South African team camp, according to the Herald.
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