■ ATHLETICS
Hurdling record broken
Susanna Kallur broke an 18-year-old world record in the women's 60m indoor hurdles on Sunday, clocking 7.68 seconds to lower the mark by 0.01 seconds at the Karlsruhe international athletics meet. The 26-year old Swede broke the record set on Feb. 4, 1990, by Russia's Ludmila Narozhilenko -- who later changed her name to Ludmila Engquist. Kallur, the European outdoors champion just missed the mark with a 7.72 effort a week ago in Stuttgart. "The record is unbelievable, I'm speechless," Kallur said. "I don't know how I will celebrate. I don't know how much money I will earn for the record either."
■ CYCLING
Gilbert wins in Mallorca
Belgium's Philippe Gilbert held off a threatening pack of sprinters with a late attack to claim victory in the first stage of the Tour of Mallorca on Sunday. Gilbert, of the Francaise des Jeux team, finished a few meters ahead of the bunch after distancing his pursuers around 1km from the finish line of the 100km stage, which finished in Palma, Mallorca. Australian Graeme Brown, of Rabobank, finished second ahead of Germany's Robert Forster. Belgian Gert Steegmans, of Quick Step, finished fourth. "I pulled away at a little over one kilometer to go and saw straight away that I had a chance," said Gilbert, a one-day race specialist whose speciality is launching attacks just before the finish line.
■ RUGBY
Tindall injures liver, lungs
England center Mike Tindall was left with a 2.5cm tear in his liver, a punctured lung and serious internal bleeding after his side's opening Six Nations match against Wales on Feb. 2 in London. The 29-year-old was carried off struggling to breathe at Twickenham and admits the injury was far more serious than he first imagined. "I didn't realize it at the time but I had a big tear in my liver," he told the Mail on Sunday. "It was more than an inch wide and an inch deep and my condition was compounded by air released between the lungs and ribs from the hole in my lung," he said. Tindall was injured in a tackle by Wales player Mark Jones, falling awkwardly on to the boot of the Welsh winger.
■ SKIING
Fischbacher, Suter share win
Andrea Fischbacher and Fabienne Suter shared a victory in Sestriere, Italy, on Sunday in a super-G that was shaped by varying wind and several crashes. It was the first World Cup victory for both racers. The Austrian and Swiss skiers had the same time of 1 minute, 21.06 seconds on the Kandahar Banchetta course. Germany's Maria Riesch finished third, 0.24 behind, to maintain her lead in the super-G standings. A light headwind picked up just as the favorites came down. Lindsey Vonn, Saturday's downhill winner, finished 16th and dropped down into a tie for the overall World Cup lead with Nicole Hosp, who placed 14th.
■ SUMO
Mongolian beats compatriot
Grand champion Asashoryu of Mongolia beat compatriot Tokitenku on Sunday to win a one-day sumo tournament in Tokyo, Japan. Asashoryu overpowered Miyabiyama in the semi-finals before facing Tokitenku in the final at Ryogoku Kokugikan. Asashoryu lost to compatriot Hakuho on the final day of the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament last month in his return to sumo after serving a two-tournament suspension for playing in a charity soccer tournament in Mongolia. Asashoryu became the first wrestler to win the event three times in a row.
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