Johan Edfors of Sweden extended his lead at the inaugural Black Mountain Masters after yesterday’s second round, with Filipino legend Frankie Minoza hot on his heels.
The big-hitting Edfors carded 68 for a two-day total of 132, 12-under, at Black Mountain Golf Club, widening his overnight lead to three strokes in the Asian Tour event.
However, fellow Swede Jesper Parnevik missed the cut after a disappointing 77.
But Minoza, 49 and boasting 16 professional titles across Asia and Japan, rolled back the years to fire 68 for a share of second place on 135, alongside Australian Darren Beck, who shot a 66 thanks to two eagles. Another Australian, Jason King, returned his second consecutive 68 to lie one stroke back, while Thai Chapchai Nirat and South Korean teenager Noh Seung-yul go into the weekend rounds five off the pace after a 68 and 71 respectively.
Edfors, a three-time winner in Europe, was disappointed to drop his first shot of the tournament at his last hole, after five earlier birdies.
“I played pretty solid and took advantage of the par-fives. It was a solid round, despite what happened on the last,” said Edfors, 33, who was happy that he was able to keep his small army of Swedish fans thrilled. “It’s nice that they are out here cheering for me. It feels like you’re in Sweden.”
Minoza, who plans to attend the Champions (Seniors) Tour Qualifying School in the US later this year, faded on his inward nine, dropping two straight bogeys to spoil a card that included four birdies and an eagle.
The 30-year-old Beck, who enjoyed an impressive rookie season last year, moved up the leaderboard with two eagles and another birdie on his front nine.
Three more birdies took him to eight-under for the day, but he topped his drive on the 16th hole into a bush, which led to a costly double-bogey.
“It is pretty embarrassing as you have the TV cameras, who don’t follow you all day and then they’re there to catch that,” Beck said.
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