■ Athletics
Ironman Australia is run
Australian Chris McCormack and Canadian Lisa Bentley each won their fourth consecutive Ironman Australia triathlon titles yesterday in Forster, Australia. McCormack broke away from Australian Luke Bell on the final run leg to win in 8 hours, 25 minutes and 44 seconds. Bell was second in 8:31.17 and Mitch Anderson of Australia third in 8:37.51. McCormack equaled the record of Finland's Pauli Kiuru, who won four straight Australian men's titles between 1991 and 1994. Bentley became the first woman to take out four Forster titles in a row and also joined Australian Louise Bonham as the only four-time female winners. Fifth off the bike, Bentley used her running strength to work through the field and cross the line in 9:13.22. Australian Melissa Ashton, making her debut over the ironman distance, took second in 9:25.41 and countrywoman Belinda Granger was third in 9:27.19. The race consisted of a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and a full marathon -- 42.2km.
■ Cycling
Armstrong goes to court
Lance Armstrong is seeking at least US$125,000 from a former personal assistant who contends he found a banned substance in the cycling champion's apartment last year. In court documents filed Friday, Armstrong called Mike Anderson's claim "below the level of tabloid journalism." Armstrong, in Europe preparing for a bid at a seventh straight Tour de France title, has maintained he does not take illegal drugs. The cancer survivor frequently notes he is one of the most drug-tested athletes in the world. Armstrong asked a judge for the monetary award for legal fees, inconvenience, harassment and other expenses related to the litigation.
■ Baseball
Starbucks plays Ichiro card
Starbucks will debut a limited-edition card featuring Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki commemorating his single-season record of 262 hits last year. The card will be available Monday at Starbucks locations in Washington, Oregon and Japan. Some of the proceeds from the card sales will go to charities, including the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation and the Make-A-Wish Foundation in Japan.
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