■GOLF
Lickliter II gains lead
American Frank Lickliter II fired a seven-under-par 63 to grab a one-stroke lead over Australian Greg Chalmers after the third round of the Milwaukee Championships on Saturday. Lickliter, whose last PGA Tour win came in 2003, carded eight birdies in his sizzling round to move to an 11-under par 199 at the Brown Deer Park Golf Course in Milwaukee, one better than overnight leader Chalmers, who shot a 69.
■ATHLETICS
Grandpa quits marathons
Japanese marathon runner Keizo Yamada has hung up his sneakers at the grand old age of 81 — although he could be tempted back to run the odd halfmarathon. Yamada, who represented Japan at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and won the Boston Marathon the following year, said the time was right for him to “scale back” on his running. “I’m not getting any younger, so I won’t run any more 42km races,” he told yesterday’s Sports Hochi newspaper, adding that he still jogs 20km daily. “I will carry on running for fun to stay in shape,” Yamada said. Dubbed “Iron Man,” Yamada ran three marathons this year, including his 19th appearance in Boston, and completed the Tokyo Marathon in a time of five hours, 34 minutes and 50 seconds.
■BOXING
Gatti may have killed self
An autopsy indicates former boxing champion Arturo Gatti could have committed suicide, been accidentally killed or murdered, the Jornal do Comercio newspaper said on Saturday. Jornal do Comercio said it obtained a copy of the coroner’s initial findings. Police have said from the beginning they were certain Gatti’s 23-year-old wife strangled the boxer with her purse strap as he drunkenly slept on July 11, but the autopsy report raises some doubts.
■DIVING
Champions defend title
Olympic champions Qin Kai and Wang Feng of China successfully defended their world championship title in 3m synchronized diving on Saturday. Qin and Wang compiled 467.94 points in the six-dive final. Troy Dumais and Kristian Ipsen of the US won the silver medal with 445.59 points, and Alexandre Despatie and Reuben Ross of Canada were third with 428.64. The Chinese pair qualified for the final in only fourth position during preliminaries. “We had some troubles in the beginning because of the sun and wind in the morning, but then we rested and performed better,” Qin said. Meanwhile, Paola Espinosa of Mexico upset Olympic champion Chen Ruolin for the gold medal in women’s 10m platform diving at the world championships on Saturday. Espinosa scored 428.25 points through five dives from the highest diving board. Chen took the silver medal with 417.60 points and Kang Li of China was third with 410.35.
■RUGBY UNION
Samoans routs Papuans
Manu Samoa completed their rout of Papua New Guinea with a 73-12 victory in the second leg of their home-and-away tie to cement their berth in the 2011 rugby World Cup to be played in New Zealand. The win over the Oceania champions in Port Moresby on Saturday gave the Samoans a 188-19 win on aggregate after they won the first match at home the previous weekend 115-7. Samoa join defending World Champions South Africa in Pool D at the World Cup along with Wales and Fiji, with the group to be completed by the winner of Africa’s qualifying final between Tunisia and Namibia in November.
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