In the final round of qualifiers for the 2007 Asian Cup, Syria defeated Taiwan 3-0 in Damascus, leaving the Taiwanese without a goal in six matches.
Uzbekistan clinched one of two remaining places in the finals yesterday with a 2-0 victory over Qatar, leaving Kuwait and Bahrain, who were to play later last night, to fight it out for the final slot.
Despite the loss, Qatar ended top of Group F.
PHOTO: AFP
It ended any hope Hong Kong had of making the finals. They played out a meaningless 2-0 win against Bangladesh.
Defending champions Japan enjoyed a 3-1 victory over Saudi Arabia in Sapporo, ensuring it ended top of Group A.
Despite having qualified for the finals, the pressure was on China to finish what has been an indifferent campaign on a positive note and secure a win to appease the country's demanding fans and media.
But Zhu Guanghu's men again failed to deliver, eking out a 1-1 draw at home to Iraq, with Ahmed Salah canceling out Han Peng's first half goal.
South Korea traveled to Iran without their Iranian-American assistant coach Afshin Ghotbi, who was refused a visa.
Iran won 2-0. Both teams have already qualified for finals.
In other games, Jordan were taking on Oman and United Arab Emirates were to face Pakistan.
Singapore were unable to play their match against Palestine when the visitors failed to turn up due to the deteriorating situation in Gaza. The Palestinians face a possible sanction.
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