■ENGLAND
Preston shock Wolves
Wolverhampton’s dominance of the Championship was shaken on Saturday as Preston stunned the leaders 3-1 at Molineux. Mick McCarthy’s team are now four points clear of second placed Reading, who hammered Watford 4-0 on Friday, following their meltdown to play-off chasing North End. The hosts squandered the lead given to them in the 20th minute when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake pounced on a mistake by Preston goalkeeper Andy Lonergan. Preston equalized four minutes later through former Wolves striker Stephen Elliott and defender Sean St Ledger nudged the visitors ahead four minutes before the interval. Elliott, who left Wolves in September, sealed Preston’s best win of the season when he slotted home in the 61st minute to hand McCarthy’s men only their second defeat in 14 matches. “Preston gifted us one goal and we gifted them three,” McCarthy said. “When we cock up, we do it big style.”
■GULF CUP
Kuwait send Iraq packing
Asian Cup champions Iraq drew 1-1 with Kuwait on Saturday to confirm their shock exit from the eight-nation Gulf Cup where they finished at the bottom of Group A with just a single point. Iraq had already lost 4-0 to hosts Oman and 3-1 against Bahrain and had no hope of making the semi-finals leaving just pride at stake against the nine-time winners. Kuwait made it to the semi-finals as runners-up behind Oman who finished the group on top with seven points from three matches. Oman beat Bahrain 2-0. Badr al Maymani scored from a 15th minute free-kick with Fawzi Basheer adding the second after the interval.
■FRANCE
Wintry weather hits games
Wintry weather meant three league matches were postponed on Saturday following a week-long controversy over the kick-off time of 8pm on a weekend where temperatures plunged below freezing. Nancy versus Nice and Le Mans against Lille were called off on Saturday while Valenciennes versus Caen was postponed on Friday. Half of the 10 second division matches were postponed and nine of 10 in the third-flight were cancelled as low temperatures caused havoc with the schedules. Valenciennes coach Antoine Kombouare said the 8pm kick-off time on Friday was the reason the match had to be called off. “Perhaps we could have played at 3pm,” Kombouare had said. Football League president Frederic Thiriez said on Thursday, referring to Valenciennes: “Certain people have discovered it’s cold in winter. What amateurism.” The Auxerre versus Marseille fixture started as scheduled but not before the visiting club’s president Pape Diouf told Auxerre president Jean-Claude Hamel that he did not want to play on a frozen pitch. “You can’t play on this pitch. If you want the three points, I give them to you,” Diouf told Hamel in front of TV cameras. Marseille went on to win 2-0.
■PORTUGAL
Sporting sink Maritimo
Simon Vukcevic and Liedson scored to lead Sporting to a 2-0 victory over Maritimo on Saturday. Montenegro forward Vukcevic opened in the 11th minute before Brazilian striker Liedson confirmed the victory in the 82nd after pouncing to score from a rebound. Sporting, unbeaten in six with only one goal conceded in that span, head the Liga Sagres with 29 points from 14 games. FC Porto, which had 27 points from 13 games, were looking to reclaim top spot yesterday with a victory against Trofense. In Saturday’s other match, Guimaraes and Amadora drew 0-0.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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