■ Skiing
Palander beats conditions
Finland's Kalle Palander conquered rain, snow, sleet and deteriorating course conditions to win an irregular World Cup giant slalom on Saturday. Leading after the opening leg, Palander twisted his way down the soggy Kuonisbaergli course in a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 32.15 seconds, for his second giant slalom victory of the season. He also replaced Bode Miller of the US atop the the discipline standings. "This was a very difficult victory, I really had to fight for it," Palander said after his first win in Switzerland. "It's all the more beautiful because I took the leader's red bib. It's a beautiful color. I never thought I would be wearing it. Last year I was really frustrated in the giant slalom and almost gave it up." Italy's Massimiliano Blardone was runner-up in 2:32.89 for his second career podium finish.
■ Weightlifting
Shang stripped of medals
Chinese weightlifter Shang Shichun has been stripped of three gold medals she won last November at the world championships in Vancouver after failing a urine drug test -- a decision she is appealing, state media reported yesterday. Shang, who broke three world records in the women's 75kg division at the World Weightlifting Championships in November, was among 11 athletes worldwide whose results have been disqualified, the Xinhua News Agency and Beijing Morning Post reported. Results posted on the Web site of the Budapest-based International Weightlifting Federation also showed that Shang's results had been thrown out. Chinese weightlifting officials were conducting their own investigation and promised to cooperate fully with the nation's Olympics committee and the IWF, the Beijing Morning Post said. The reports didn't specify what drug was found in her tests. Shang says the tests weren't carried out properly, adding she noticed at the time that the bags that held the sampling instruments weren't sealed, Xinhua reported.
■ Snowboarding
Clark wins halfpipe title
Olympic gold medalist Kelly Clark won the women's halfpipe title Saturday in the Chevrolet US Snowboard Grand Prix, and Andy Finch took the men's event. Clark had a top score of 41.50 out of 50 points. Lindsey Jacobellis was second at 33.20, and Tricia Byrnes came in third at 32.4. Finch finished with 45.5 points. Ross Powers was second at 45.1, and J.J. Thomas was third at 43.4.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with