■ South Asian Games
Four athletes fail drug tests
Four competitors from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan tested positive for banned performance-enhancing drugs at last month's South Asian Games. The competitors involved were Pakistani boxers Nauman Karim and Mohamed Lassi, Sri Lankan 100m silver medalist Jani Chathurangani Silva and a Nepalese athlete whose name was not released, Sri Lanka's National Olympic Committee president Hemasiri Fernando said yesterday. They all had positive tests for using banned drugs at the conclusion of the eight-nation games held from Aug. 14 to Aug. 29, Fernando said.
■ Basketball
Nowitzki guru to face court
The tax evasion case of Dirk Nowitzki's coach and mentor will go to court on Oct. 9, according to the NBA All-Star's hometown newspaper. The Wuerzburg Main Post reported on Thursday that Nowitzki is not expected to appear at the trial of Holger Geschwinder, who works with the Dallas Mavericks player in the offseason. Geschwinder is accused of sharing in the millions that Nowitzki has earned and failing to declare it. He discovered Nowitzki as a teenager and the two have followed a step-by-step plan to turn him into a top player. The 60-year-old German maintains that he isn't paid by his protege.
■ Golf
Spectators hurt at Ryder Cup
Three people were injured in accidents caused by high wind on Thursday, police said. The Garda Siochana, Ireland's national police force, said a tree on the main avenue of The K Club was blown over, injuring a woman. Two men were injured when a temporary wall was knocked down at one of the bus terminals ferrying fans to distant parking lots. Police said none of the people sustained critical injuries. "Immediate action was taken to remove any remaining spectators from the site. The site has been secured and is subject to safety inspections," the Garda Siochana said. The accidents happened about four hours after the Ryder Cup's opening ceremonies.
■ Basketball
Russia defeats vaunted US
Russia stunned the two-time defending champion United States 75-68 in the semifinals of the women's world basketball championship on Thursday and will play Australia in the final. The Americans' defeat ended their world championship winning streak, dating to the 1994 bronze-medal game, at 26, and snapped their string of victories in the Olympics and world championships at 51. Australia, bronze medalists in the previous two championships, advanced to its first final by beating host Brazil 88-76. Australia, bronze medalists in the previous two championships, advanced to its first final by beating host Brazil 88-76.
■ Figure Skating
Skaters refuse to drop coach
Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy refused to drop their controversial coach on Thursday despite threats from the German figure skating federation. The federation warned the former European Championship silver medalists that their contracts would be terminated and they would be shut out of international competitions if Ingo Steuer continued as their coach. Steuer was dropped by the Germans because of alleged ties to the secret police in former East Germany. "It is just as hard as it sounds," said the pair's lawyer, Karla Vogt-Roeller. "The athletes won't accept it like that." Steuer caused a flap when he won a court injunction to coach at the Turin Olympics in February.
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