■ICE HOCKEY
Wolves beat league leaders
The Taipei Wolves downed the league’s top team at the Taipei Arena on Saturday, with two goals from Adrian Nolan and a monster blast from Cullen Revel helping the Wolves over the Taipei Rhinos 4-3. Later the Hsinchu Raptors’ brothers Andy and Eric Shen racked up a combined 8 points to give their team an 8-6 win over the Sababa Bears. On Sunday the Taichung Lions clinched a playoff spot by beating the Taipei Tigers 4-3, with the winning goal coming from Xiao Guo with four minutes left in the game. Later the Rhinos avenged their loss the night before by edging the Bears 4-3, leaving the Bears pointless for the weekend.
■SOCCER
Gerrard appeals to UEFA
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard on Sunday appealed to UEFA to make sure the club do not have to play on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. The club has asked European soccer’s governing body not to schedule its Champions League quarter-final, second leg for April 15. The date will mark 20 years since 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, which was hosting the club’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest. Gerrard, who lost a cousin at Hillsborough, wrote on the club’s Web site: “We hope that UEFA show some common sense.”
■SOCCER
Gascoigne talks about rehab
England soccer legend Paul Gascoigne said his heart stopped three times while he was in rehab for drink addiction last year, in an interview broadcast yesterday. Rumors that he had died were closer to the truth than most people realized, he said, telling Sky News television: “My heart failed on us a few times.” Gascoigne also spoke candidly about his attack on his ex-wife Cheryl, saying: “If you are sitting in a restaurant and somebody calls your mum a whore, which she did, and for no reason, I don’t like that — and yes, I got hold of her arms and I did put my head against her head. I didn’t headbutt her but I threw her to the floor, and I was disgusted with myself for what I did.”
■BADMINTON
Lee takes revenge on Lin
Malaysian world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei took his long awaited revenge over world and Olympic Champion Lin Dan with a 21-16, 21-16 victory in the final of the Swiss Open Super Series in Basel, Switzerland, on Sunday. It was their 15th head-to-head in individual events, as opposed to team competitions, but lifted Lee only to 4-11 after a frustrating 18-month spell against his big rival. The women’s title went to China’s rising force Wang Yihan.
■SKI JUMPING
Austrian clinches Cup title
Gregor Schlierenzauer won a ski flying meet in Vikersund, Norway, on Sunday and clinched the overall World Cup ski jumping title. The Austrian took a big lead by soaring 207.5m in the opening round. The other jumpers were not even close to the 200m mark. In the second round, Schlierenzauer hit 192m for a total of 386.4 points. Schlierenzauer failed to win an individual gold medal at last month’s Nordic World Ski Championships in the Czech Republic. Simon Ammann of Switzerland, the 2006 world champion and a former Olympic gold medalist, finished second with 379.7 points after jumps of 191 and 202.5m. With two events left, Schlierenzauer leads the overall standings with 1,938 points. Ammann is second with 1,676 points. Defending overall champion Thomas Morgenstern of Austria wound up 23rd and is sixth in the overall standings.
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