■ CYCLING
Greipel wins Aussie Tour
German rider Andre Greipel won his fourth stage of the Tour Down Under yesterday to take the overall race title by 15 seconds over Australian Allan Davis. Greipel led by four seconds going into the 88km final stage around Adelaide's East End. But Davis, who trailed by four seconds going into yesterday's last stage of the six-day race, won a first intermediate sprint to reduce the margin to one second. Greipel was unhappy about the tactics of one of Davis' teammates at the first sprint and then dominated the second sprint and the finish. The German rider's four stage wins equals the Tour Down Under record set by Australian Robbie McEwen in the 2002 race. The race marked its 10th anniversary by having ProTour international status for the first time.
■ BOXING
Chris John retains title
Indonesia's long-reigning World Boxing Association featherweight champion Chris John retained his title on Saturday, stopping Roinet Caballero of Panama in the seventh round. Fighting before a packed home crowd at Jakarta's Senayan Indoor Tennis Stadium, 28-year-old John dominated the scheduled 12-round bout. American referee Raul Caiz Jr stopped the fight after Caballero's trainer threw in the towel at the start of the eighth round, giving John a win by technical knockout. It was Caballero's first fight outside Panama, and possibly the toughest bout of his career. "Thanks for the blessing from God, Jesus and Mother Mary," said John, who won the featherweight belt in September 23, 2003. The victory extended John's record to 40-0-1.
■ RALLYING
Loeb extends lead
Four-time world champion Sebastien Loeb won four of six stages in the Monte Carlo Rally on Saturday to extend his lead in the season-opening race. The Frenchman leads by 2 minutes, 10.6 seconds over Mikko Hirvonen of Finland, who has become Loeb's main title rival since Marcus Gronholm's retirement. Loeb's teammate, Daniel Sordo of Spain, won the opening stage of the third leg to consolidate second spot. But the Citroen driver had to retire in the 11th stage because of turbo problems. Chris Atkinson of Australia, driving a Subaru, managed to beat Loeb in the 13th stage, climbing up to third place and trailing Hirvonen by 52 seconds.
■ ATHLETICS
Yamauchi wins Osaka race
England's Mara Yamauchi won the Osaka international women's marathon yesterday, knocking three seconds off her personal best. The 34-year-old caught crossed the finishing line in two hours, 25 minutes and 10 seconds. It was her 10th full marathon. Japan's Tomo Morimoto came in second in 2:25:34, followed by Julia Mumbi of Kenya in 2:26:00. "When I ran in the world championships in Osaka last year, I spurted too much and slowed down later, so I tried to keep running strongly until the end this time," said Yamauchi, who is married to a Japanese national. "When I saw the Osaka castle, I also saw a big group was following me, so I felt like I was seeing a nightmare, but I didn't give up. I'd like to thank the spectators who supported me despite snow falling and cold conditions. "It was my personal best by three seconds. I wanted to run a little bit faster, but a victory is a victory. I'm really happy about my first marathon victory," she said.
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