■JUDO
No gold for Japan
Japan suffered an embarrassing world championship wipeout on Sunday when for the first time in 59 years their highly regarded men’s team failed to win a title. Their last hope, double world champion Yasuyuki Muneta, missed out on a medal when he suffered a third round loss to Mongolia’s Gankhuyag Dorjpalam in their over-100kg bout. The defeat completed a miserable downward spiral for Japan’s men’s team who until 1973 won all golds on offer at the world championships. France’s Teddy Riner went on to retain his title in the division, beating Cuba’s Oscar Bryson for gold. Uzbekistan’s Abdullo Tangriev and Lithuania’s Marius Paskevicius both took bronze medals. In the men’s under-100kg category, Kazakhstan’s Maxim Rakov took gold by scoring an ippon success over Dutchman Henk Grol with Japan at least picking up a bronze consolation through Takamasa Anai. Japan’s Maki Tsukada picked up a bronze in the women’s over-78kg division with the title going to Olympic champion Tong Wen of China, who beat Karina Bryant of Britain in the final by ippon.
■FORMULA ONE
FIA probes Alonso ‘incident’
Formula One’s governing body is investigating “alleged incidents” from a previous race, believed to be an accident at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix that helped Fernando Alonso secure victory for Renault. Brazilian TV station Globo reported on Sunday that Nelson Piquet Jr was ordered to crash into a wall at the night race so that teammate Alonso could take advantage of an early pit stop. Piquet Jr crashed heavily on the 13th lap and Alonso’s gamble to run a short 12-lap strategy before pitting paid off as the Spanish driver went on to score an unlikely victory. The FIA would not confirm that it was investigating that particular incident, only “alleged incidents at a previous Formula One world championship event.”
■MOTOGP
Lorenzo back in title chase
Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo claimed his third win of the season at the Indianapolis MotoGP on Sunday after championship leader Valentino Rossi and pole sitter Dani Pedrosa crashed. Lorenzo, winner of two of the first four races, crossed first at the famed Brickyard, 9.43 seconds clear of San Marino’s Alex De Angelis to jump back into the title chase as Yamaha team mate Rossi failed to finish for the first time this season. Rossi began the day with a 50-point advantage over Lorenzo but saw his lead slashed to 25 points with five races to run. The Italian rider’s involvement came to end on lap 9 when he hit the ground while battling Lorenzo for the lead.
■CRICKET
Owners angry over IMG split
High-profile owners of team franchises in the Indian Premier League have reacted furiously to the Indian cricket board’s decision to snap ties with event management company IMG, reports said yesterday. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday terminated its contract with the International Management Group which helped it launch the lucrative Twenty20 league last year. Business tycoon Mukesh Ambani and Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, both owners of IPL franchisees, have shot off angry letters to the BCCI. “I am personally shocked at the unilateral decision of doing away with the services of IMG,” the Times of India quoted Ambani, who owns the Mumbai Indians team, as saying in his letter. “It is also worrying to me that such a significant decision in relation to IPL has been taken without even so much as consulting the franchises.”
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