Virada Nirapathpongporn is a rookie. She sounds like a veteran.
"I'm back where I belong again," the 24-year-old Nirapathpongporn said Friday after taking the second-round lead at the LPGA Corning Classic. "I have been here before on the leaderboard and winning golf tournaments. I just have to go out with the belief in myself, believe in all the work that I've done, keep on moving forward."
The former Duke star, who won the 2002 NCAA title and 2003 US Women's Amateur, shot a 5-under 67 for a two-round total of 133, one shot better than Brandie Burton (68) and first-round co-leader Nancy Scranton (69).
PHOTO: AP
Given her college and amateur success, Nirapathpongporn certainly is accustomed to being in the lead. But after an accident two months ago -- a resistance tube she used for stretching exercises snapped off a doorknob and struck her right eye, causing internal bleeding -- she was elated to be playing so well so quickly.
"I just learned a lot, not to take anything for granted," said Nirapathpongporn, who has three top-20 finishes this year. "If I ever have a chance, I take it. The injury taught me that. There's no holding back."
Darron Stiles grabbed a two-stroke lead with a 6-under 64 in the second round of the St. Jude Classic while winds gusted to 20mph for a second straight day.
Stiles turned in eight birdies with a double-bogey for a 133 total through 36 holes, giving him only his second lead on the US PGA Tour and his first by himself. He shared the first-round lead here in 2003 with Jay Haas and Richard Johnson.
French golfer Adrien Mork carded the first official 59 in the history of the European Tour during the Moroccan Classic Challenge Tour event on Friday.
"It feels like a dream to have done this. I do not think I fully realize yet what I have done. I feel great, but quite numb," Mork said.
The 26-year-old Mork's 12-under-par round gave him a 36-hole total of 122, 20 under par on the Golf du Soleil course in Agadir. He shot 63 in the first round.
His total beat by three strokes the record shared by Tiger Woods and Frankie Minoza of the Philippines as the lowest 36-hole aggregate on any of the European, Challenge and Senior Tours. It also beat Ernie Els' low 36-hole record of 18-under at the Heineken Classic in Melbourne in 2004.
WOODS OUT
Still coping with the death of his father, Tiger Woods decided on Friday to skip the Memorial Tournament for the first time, meaning he will be coming off the longest layoff in his career when he goes to the US Open.
Woods had until Friday to enter next week's Memorial, and tournament officials held out hope until the final minute.
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