Even after shooting the low round of the day in the LPGA Corning Classic, Jeong Jang was surprised.
"I think I'm leading," Jang said.
Indeed, she was.
PHOTO: AP
Jang shot a 6-under 66 Saturday to take the third-round lead. She was at 15-under 201, three shots ahead of Brandie Burton (70), first-round co-leader Nancy Scranton (70), and Thai rookie Virada Nirapathpongporn (71), who began the day one shot ahead.
Hee-Won Han (69) was another shot behind, and 2002 Corning champion Laura Diaz (67), rookie Morgan Pressel (68), and Kris Tamulis (69) were tied at 10-under 206. Meena Lee (70), who shared the first-round lead, was among five players at 207, and 1988 Corning champ Sherri Turner was in a group of four at 208.
Jang was nearly flawless from tee to green, missing only one fairway and making 16-of-18 greens in regulation. The lone fairway she missed came at 18, and it led to her only bogey of the day.
"Every single hole I hit it really good," she said. "It makes it easy. That's what I needed."
Jang had one victory in her first six years on tour, but it came in a major -- last year's British Open. She also was in a three-way tie for the lead heading into the final round of the Office Depot Championship last year and tied for sixth.
"I like to be leading," said Jang, who led the tour in 2005 with 331 birdies. "But I'm going to be a little nervous."
Ditto for Virada. She began the day with a bogey and never mustered a charge as she did in shooting 66 and 67 over the first two rounds. Two birdies on the back nine kept her close, though.
"I kept plugging away and finally got my rhythm. I wasn't real comfortable on the front," Virada said. "The nerves. I'm glad I got to do this today (begin the round in the lead), not tomorrow."
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