■ Athletics
Hurdler accepts suspension
US teenage hurdler Cordera Jenkins accepted a deferred three-month suspension after testing positive for marijuana, the US Anti-Doping Agency said on Friday. The 18-year-old Jenkins will be allowed an immediate return to competition because he completed an anti-doping educational program, USADA said. Jenkins tested positive on June 22 at the US junior outdoor championships in Indianapolis and was stripped of his win in the 110m hurdles at the event.
■ Champ Car
Da Matta still in hospital
Champ Car driver Cristiano da Matta remained in intensive care with a serious head injury on Friday, a day after his race car collided with a deer that wandered onto the track during a test session at Road America. Champ Car series spokesman Eric Mauk said the Brazilian driver was in the intensive care unit at Theda Clark Memorial Hospital in Neenah, where he was airlifted to and had surgery to remove a ruptured blood vessel in his head. Road America media director Julie Sebranek said she had never heard of a similar incident at the track. "The race track has been here for 50 years. It's highly, highly unusual," Sebranek said on Friday. A 2.4m chain link fence topped with barbed wire circles the 250-hectare property, which is surrounded by wooded terrain and farm fields. "It's just a freak thing and we just maintain the property as we do on a daily basis," she said.
■ Golf
Woods, Quigley out in front
Tiger Woods got off to a quick start to share the lead on Friday when darkness stopped play in the second round of the US$4.8 million dollar Buick Open. The world No. 1 carded seven birdies without a bogey through 15 holes, moving to 13-under. He had four birdies on the front nine, then three in a row from the 12th before a par on his final hole of the day. Brett Quigley was in the clubhouse at 13-under 131, signing for a six-under 66 that included a birdie at 18. Woods and a host of players were due to return to the Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club yesterday morning to finish the second round before third-round play started. Jeff Sluman and Bo Van Pelt, forced to work overtime Friday because of Thursday's suspended first round, were both two back. Two-time defending champion Vijay Singh was also in contention. Singh completed 10 holes at two-under to move to 10-under for the tournament. A total of 11 golfers were within three shots of the lead.
■ Athletics
Gatlin insisted on running
Justin Gatlin insisted on running at the national championships in June even after officials asked him to withdraw over his positive drug test, a person with knowledge of the meeting said on Friday. Because only the "A" sample result was available from the April test, USA Track and Field (USATF) had no authority to bar Gatlin from competing. Results of the backup "B" sample are required before a doping test is considered positive. Gatlin professed his innocence to USATF officials when they suggested that he drop out of the meet, said the source, who asked not to be identified. The 100m co-world record-holder went on to win the national 100m title. Gatlin tied Asafa Powell's world-record mark of 9.77 seconds three weeks after his fateful drug test. Gatlin and USATF learned of the positive test just days before the US championships began on June 21 in Indianapolis.
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