Ecuador’s Luis Bolanos struck a 10-minute hat-trick to give Internacional a 3-0 home win over Coritiba and a share of top place in the Brazilian Championship.
Inter are equal on 17 points with Atletico Mineiro, who lost their unbeaten record in a 4-2 upset by promoted Barueri, although they have an inferior goal difference.
Internacional rested several key players for tomorrow’s second leg of the Copa Brasil against Corinthians, in which they are 2-0 down.
Bolanos, formerly with last year’s Libertadores Cup winners LDU of Ecuador, opened the scoring against Coritiba 18 minutes into the second half of Sunday’s match after beating three defenders.
Six minutes later, he tapped in the second after an incursion from the right by Alecsandro and completed his hat-trick with a low shot.
Corinthians also rested players, including Ronaldo, and lost 1-0 away to Atletico Paranaense.
Palmeiras, in their first match since coach Vandeleri Luxemburgo was sacked at the weekend, drew 1-1 at home with Santos in a regional “Classic.”
They went ahead through striker Obina, playing in place of Keirrison whose removal from the squad during transfer talks with Barcelona sparked the row between Luxemburgo and the Palmeiras management that led to the coach’s sacking.
Substitute Robson equalized for the visitors nine minutes from time.
Former Monaco coach Ricardo Gomes made a winning debut in charge of title holders Sao Paulo, whose 2-0 home victory over Nautico on Saturday was only their second in eight matches.
Brazil midfielder Hernanes, returning to the team as captain after being dropped by sacked coach Muricy Ramalho, scored one goal and laid on the other for Jean Roth.
Adriano’s Flamengo drew 0-0 with Fluminense at the Maracana in a Rio de Janeiro derby.
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