■ Ski Jumping
Norwegians dominate
Roar Ljokelsoy led a Norwegian 1-2 finish in a World Cup ski jumping competition in Lillehammer, Norway, Friday. Ljokelsoy had rides of 136.5m and 134.5m for 291.8 points. His first jump improved Lillehammer's Olympic hill record, set by Germany's Martin Schmitt in 1997, by half a meter. It was Ljokelsoy's sixth win of the season, and the 12th by a jumper from Norway's rejuvenated team. Bjorn Einar Romoren, winner of the last two World Cups, tied for second with double Olympic champion Simon Ammann of Switzerland. They were 8.4 points behind the winner. Both jumped 135m and 133m. Tommy Ingebrigtsen, another Norwegian, finished fourth. The last World Cup of the season is on Sunday at Holmenkollen in Oslo.
■ Auto racing
China gears up for F1
China has begun selling tickets to its first-ever Formula One race. The race is scheduled at the Shanghai International Circuit on Sept. 24-26. Tickets went on sale Friday from "various channels," the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. Mao Xiaohan, general manager of the SIC Co Ltd, said the circuit had been designed to have a capacity of 200,000. But only 150,000 tickets were being sold, Xinhua said. "This is the first time for us to stage a F1 race. Considering security, we will sell no more than 150,000 tickets," Mao said.
■ Auto racing
Drew Henson is a Cowboy
Quarterback Drew Henson will get his chance to play in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas acquired Henson from the Houston Texans on Friday for a third-round pick in the 2005 draft. Henson then agreed to an eight-year deal with the Cowboys, his agent, Tom Condon said. Henson was selected in the sixth round by the Texans in last year's draft. Houston, which already has David Carr at quarterback, planned all along to deal the former University of Michigan starter.
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