■ Cycling
Armstrong keeps pace
Lance Armstrong kept up with the pace in the third stage of the Tour of Murcia cycling race in Yelca, Spain on Friday, finishing among the pack in the same time as winner Max van Heeswijk of the Netherlands. Van Heeswijk, a US Postal Service teammate of Armstrong's, completed the 156km route which began and ended in this southeastern town in 3 hours, 32 minutes, 23 seconds, followed by German Erik Zabel of the T-Mobile team. Armstrong, preparing to win a sixth consecutive Tour of France title this year, stayed second in the overall standings, 29 seconds behind leader Jose Ivan Gutierrez of Spain. Armstrong's Tour de France rival Jan Ullrich of Germany also finished among the pack, and was 61st overall, 9:10 behind Gutierrez. Saturday's second-to-last stage is the toughest of the tour's five, a 169km route which includes three mountain climbs.
■ Diving
Huang, Richter on top
China's Qiang Huang won the men's 3m springboard and Austrian Anja Richter the women's 10m platform at a diving grand prix in Rostock, Germany on Friday. The Chinese swept four of the six podium places on the opening day of the three-day event, the second grand prix of the season. Qiang was awarded 493.50 points, followed by countryman Shauyun Tang with 464.18 and Germany's Andreas Wels at 432.60. Richter scored 355.56 and edged China's Dongjin Jia at 345.42 and Na Lin with 338.43. "We saw high-class finals with extreme difficult programs, especially from the Chinese," German coach Lutz Buschkow said.
■ Boxing
Phillips wastes no time
Verno Phillips stopped Julio Garcia with a second left in the first round of their junior middleweight bout at Pala Casino in Pala, California on Friday night. Phillips, who improved to 37-9-1 with his 19th knockout, floored Garcia twice before referee Jack Reiss halted the scheduled 12-round fight. Both fighters weighed in at 153 1/2 pounds. Phillips is ranked No. 3 in the world by the International Boxing Federation. Garcia is 25-3-2. In an earlier 10-round bout, Carlos Quintana of Puerto Rico stopped Edwin Cassiani of Miami in the third round. Quintana is 16-0 with 12 knockouts, and Cassiani is 26-4.
■ Baseball
Selig has zero tolerance
Commissioner Bud Selig hopes major league baseball can institute a zero-tolerance policy on steroid use similar to one that covers players with minor league contracts. Selig recently sent a directive to all 30 teams, telling them to decline comment on steroids and the federal grand jury that indicted the trainer of San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds. "There's been enough comment," he said. "We know what we have to do and we're going to do it." Selig, attending Anaheim's game against San Diego, sought to put baseball's focus back on the field. He said baseball could set an attendance mark this season, based on preseason ticket sales.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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