■ Soccer
Reyes withdraws from squad
Real Madrid forward Jose Antonio Reyes has withdrawn from Spain's squad to play Sweden and Argentina due to a torn muscle in his right thigh. Tests on Tuesday confirmed the injury, suffered in a 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid on Sunday. Reyes, who is on loan from Arsenal this season, was chosen for Spain's 18-man squad for the European Championship qualifier against Sweden on Saturday and the friendly with Argentina four days later. Coach Luis Aragones replaced Reyes with 21-year-old Sevilla midfielder Antonio Puerta, who has yet to play for Spain.
■ Fencing
Joppich wins second foil title
Peter Joppich of Germany won his second foil title at the fencing world championships in Turin, Italy, on Tuesday. Joppich, who also won in 2003, beat Andrea Baldini of Italy 15-14 in the final. Stefano Barrera of Italy and Lei Sheng of China shared bronze. Defending champion Salvatore Sanzo of Italy was eliminated before the quarterfinals by Yusuke Fukuda of Japan. In women's epee, two-time Olympic champion Timea Nagy of Hungaria beat Irina Embrich of Estonia 15-11. The 36-year-old Nagy took time off after the Athens Olympic to have her second child. In the semi-finals, she rallied from a 4-0 deficit to beat Athens silver medalist Laura Flessel-Colovic of France 15-12. Emese Szasz of Hungary earned a bronze with Flessel-Colovic, who won her second and last individual title in 1999.
■ Rugby Union
Will Twickenham be ready?
England arranged a clash with the All Blacks and went to court to guarantee its best players were available for the rugby match celebrating the new south stand at Twickenham next month. One problem: The stand might not be ready. The grand opening is scheduled for Nov. 5 but just in case, England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) has made plans to seat ticket-holders in other parts of Twickenham. Delays in recent weeks will also push the south stand's budget past ?105 million (US$198 million). "Fingers crossed we are still on track to complete the bowl in time," RFU chief executive Francis Baron said on Tuesday. "As with all projects problems emerge but I am confident it will be ready. We are working with the safety authorities as we go to iron out any problems, so once the work is completed the safety certificate should be a formality."
■ Weightlifting
China racks up medals
Li Hongli and Qiu Hongmei each claimed titles on Tuesday and hiked China's gold medal tally to 14 at the World Weightlifting Championships. Li won the snatch in the men's 77kg class with a lift of 167kg while Qiu took the women's overall 58kg title with a hoist of 237kg. Turkey's Olympic champion Taner Sagir took the men's overall 77kg title with a lift of 361kg, wresting the crown from defending champion Li, who settled for silver with 359. Armenia's Ara Khachatryan took bronze with 357kg. In the snatch, Li held off Sagir, who lifted 166kg. Russia won a pair of medals in the men's 77kg class clean and jerk with Oleg Perepetchenov taking gold with a lift of 198kg, 1kg more than silver medalist and compatriot Vladislav Lukanin. Sagir won the bronze with 195kg. Russia also won the women's 58kg snatch when Svetlana Tsaurkaeva lifted 108kg, beating Qiu, who hoisted 107kg. Thailand's Wandee Kameaim won the clean and jerk with a lift of 130kg and finished third in the snatch (100kg) and overall (230kg). The competition continues through Sunday.
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