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GOLF
R&A changes club rules
Golf’s rulemaker, the Royal & Ancient, announced changes on Tuesday to clubs that will make the rough more challenging and offset some of the latest technological advances. The R&A said research it and the US Golf Association carried out showed that grooves on modern clubs “can allow players to generate almost as much spin from the rough as is available from the fairway, resulting in a reduction in the value of accuracy.” “Our research has involved input from both governing bodies, including substantial laboratory work and player testing, at all levels around the world,” said Stephen Otto, research and testing director at the R&A. The new rules will limit the grooves on club faces and will affect all clubs, with the exception of drivers and putters, with the new regulations limiting groove volume and groove edge sharpness.
■RUGBY
All Blacks recalls Toeava
Versatile back Isaia Toeava has replaced fullback Leon MacDonald in New Zealand’s squad to meet South Africa in rugby’s Tri-Nations series. MacDonald was ruled out because of the lingering effects of concussion and Toeava recalled for the first time this season. The Auckland Blues player last played for New Zealand at last year’s World Cup. “Isaia is currently at fullback for Auckland and has played there previously at the international and the Super 14 level,” All Blacks coach Graham Henry said. “He’s also got the ability to play elsewhere in the backline which is helpful when we are a long way from home.”
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CRICKET
ICC to meet over clash
The International Cricket Council (ICC) was to hold a board meeting yesterday to discuss problems regarding the proposed schedule for the inaugural Twenty20 Champions League. Tournament organizers have suggested starting the tournament on Sept. 29, but that is the reserve day for the final of the international teams’ Champions Trophy in Pakistan. Any delay to the final — from bad weather, for instance — could lead to a clash between the events. “All our directors are committed to the principle of the primacy of ICC events and every one of them wants the ICC Champions Trophy to be a successful, premium-quality tournament,” ICC president David Morgan said.
■SOCCER
Referees accept pay deal
The Scottish Premier League season will start as planned this weekend after the country’s referees lifted their threat to go on strike over pay. The referees’ union was reportedly asking for £1,000 (US$1,950) per match, compared with the £575 last season. That would be comparable to the amount paid by similar sized leagues in Scandinavia and elsewhere, but the Scottish Premier League angered the Scottish Senior Football Referees Association by offering just a 3 percent rise. But officials agreed on Tuesday to increase the payment by around 40 percent to £800.
■SOCCER
Captains told to help refs
Soccer captains will have an added responsibility in England when the new season starts later this month: helping referees to prevent bad behavior by players. The Football Association on Tuesday launched its “Respect” campaign, a program aimed at improving the behavior of players at all levels of soccer in England. Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said examples of bad behavior by players — including Chelsea’s Ashley Cole turning his back on a referee and Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano refusing to accept he had been red-carded — were behind the program.
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