South Korean Shin Ji-yai and Japan’s Yuri Fudoh were halfway leaders on 10 under par after shooting 68 in windy conditions at the women’s British Open here on Friday.
Shin, who plays on the Korean Tour, and Fudoh, the leading light on the Japanese circuit, highlighted their rounds with eagles at the long 10th.
Shin, 20, hit her four iron second to two feet, while Fudoh followed a seven wood approach with a seven-foot putt.
The Asian pair led by one from US player Juli Inkster, who followed her 65 with a 70, while just three shots off the lead was the defending champion and world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa.
With a handful of birdies in a 68, the Mexican stood on seven-under-par, and she warned her rivals.
“I like my chances. It was very hard with the wind today, but I played well and I’m feeling very good for the weekend,” she said.
One player relieved to make the cut was Annika Sorenstam, playing in her 57th and final major.
The former world No. 1, who has 10 majors among 88 worldwide career wins, made it by one shot on even par after a second successive 72.
The Swede seemed to be heading for an early exit when she dropped three shots in a row from the fifth, but a similar run of birdies from the ninth repaired the damage.
Sorenstam, the 2003 champion, has only missed the cut four times in majors, and she admitted: “It’s disappointing, because I wanted to come here and enjoy it and not be worried about playing at the weekend.”
Fudoh, 31, had Englishman Pete Coleman, the long-time caddie to Bernhard Langer, at her side, and it proved to be a good team.
“But it’s only two rounds, there’s a long way to go,” insisted Fudoh, who is aiming to join Chako Higuchi (1977 LPGA Championship) as a women’s major winner.
American Laura Diaz made her mark by equaling an LPGA record with three eagles in a 72 for six-under-par. The third LPGA She holed from three feet at the par-five first, from 30-feet at the long 10th and then holed a 65-yard wedge shot for a two at the par-four 11th.
Cristie Kerr, the American who won last year’s US Women’s Open, carded the low round of the day, and moved to within two of the lead on eight-under after a 65.
France’s Gwladys Nocera also showed better second day form. The European No. 1 had half a dozen birdies in a 69 to stand on two-under-par.
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng (曾雅妮) and Candie Kung (龔怡萍) were joint 13th in a group of six at five-under-par.
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