■ Volleyball
Dog bites Thai athlete
Thailand's Phongsathon Maliwan was bitten on the leg by a stray dog as he walked from the team's living quarters to have dinner in the Athletes' Village on Tuesday. It was not certain that he would make the team's next match against Egypt. Phongsathon was among dozens of Thai volleyball, soccer and track and field athletes who were forced to move out of the village later on Tuesday to live in a nearby apartment block. Some of the rooms in the village were overbooked, so the Thai athlete exodus made way for those from overseas.
■ Volleyball
Journeyman US athlete
It doesn't matter where Andy Hein calls home these days. He's not there much.
For the record, Hein is a native of Carol Stream, Illinois, but graduated last year from Pepperdine University and lives in Mission Viejo, California. The 23-year-old volleyball player is competing for the United States at the World University Games, just weeks after playing in Rio de Janeiro at the Pan American Games, where the US won a silver medal behind the hosts. ``I've clocked up about 30,000 miles [48,280km] in the past few weeks,'' Hein said yesterday at a US practice session at Thammasat University.
■ Walking
Jiang Quiyan defends title
China's Jiang Quiyan was awarded the first gold medal at the World University Games yesterday when she successfully defended the 20km walk title she won at Izmir, Turkey in 2005. Jiang set the University Games record of 1 hour, 33.13 seconds in Turkey, and finished more than two minutes slower yesterday but still took the gold in 1:35.22. Olimpiada Ivanova of Russia holds the world record in the event -- 1:25.41 set at the world championships in Helsinki, Finland, in August 2005.
■ Organization
Safe sex promoted
A Thai government health official said yesterday that 20,000 condoms have been made available to athletes for use during the World University Games. "This is not supporting sex, because we never think that the athlete will have sex in the sport village," Thawat Suntarajan said. "But we have to accept the truth that there someone want have fun at the sex service places. If 20,000 is not enough my department will supply more." There are between 9,000 and 10,000 athletes and officials in Bangkok for the games, which end on Aug. 18.
■ Organization
Neutral anthem selected
Athletes who win gold at the World University Games won't get to hear their national anthems when they receive their medals. The official International University Sports Federation anthem, Gaudeamus Igitur, replaces the national anthems at the medal ceremonies of all Universiades. It is an ancient student song from the middle 18th century, but the exact origin and name of the composer are unknown. The words are in Latin.
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