■ Marathon route altered
The route for the Beijing marathon has been changed because China's Communist Party is holding a major meeting this week, race organizers said. The race is on Sunday, the last day of the party's 17th congress, which is held once every five years. While the marathon date and route were set a year ago, the date for the congress was announced only in late August. Marathon organizers said on their Web site the change was "due to the fact that a major national event will be held at the Great Hall of the People and Tiananmen Square on Oct. 21." Now, instead of starting in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, the race will start and finish at the National Olympic Sports Center in the northwest part of the capital.
■ Athletics
Ndambuki wins in Denver
Jonathan Ndambuki battled freezing rain and wind to win the Denver Marathon on Sunday by 13 seconds over fellow Kenyan Charles Kiplagat with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 34 seconds. The temperature was 1?C when the race began. "You cannot move very fast. It was tough," Ndambuki said. "I even started freezing a little." The countrymen traded the lead until Ndambuki broke away in the 37th kilometer. Martha Tenorio of Boulder won the women's race in 2:46:41. Temperatures below 2?C for most of the race and rain kept runners from achieving their best times, Ndambuki said. Kiplagat wasn't prepared for the Colorado cold having just flown in from Kenya on Saturday. "Wow," he said, cradling himself in a warming blanket. "It's too cold. It's chilly. You know I come from a hot place."
■ Athletics
Blind triathlete excels
Aaron Scheidies became the first blind triathlete to finish an Olympic-distance triathlon in under two hours on Sunday, finishing the US Open Triathlon in Dallas, Texas, in 1 hour, 58 minutes, 8 seconds. The 25-year-old Scheidies and guide Ben Collins crossed the finish line 48th overall, about 14 minutes behind winner and Australian Olympian Greg Bennett. The field of about 1,100 included 41 professional triathletes. "I'm ecstatic," Scheidies said. "Not necessarily because of what I did, but I wanted to prove to general society that people with disabilities can do things better than able-bodied individuals." Scheidies, who lives in Seattle, suffers from juvenile macular degeneration, a condition in which the central vision slowly deteriorates. Only 10 percent of his sight remains.
■ swimming
Russia win World Trophy
Russia repeated as champion in the second edition of the synchronized swimming World Trophy in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. After three days of competition, Russia took the title with a total of 296.333 points at the Maria Lenk aquatic complex. Spain was second with 295.000 and the US third with 291.334. The Russians secured the title by winning the free combination event on Sunday. They had already won the duet on Friday -- with Anastasia Ermakova and Anastasia Davydova -- and finished second to Spain in the team competition on Saturday. "We had to concentrate after what happened on the second day. We managed to do it, and we appeared very strong for the free combination," Davydova said after the medal ceremony. The US were second to Russia in the free combination and duet competitions, and third in the team event. The Russians won the first World Trophy last year in Moscow.
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