■BOXING
Kameda demands rematch
Japanese boxer Daiki Kameda is demanding a rematch with World Boxing Association (WBA) flyweight champion Denkaosen Kaowichit after losing a close title bout to the Thai veteran, his manager said yesterday. Denkaosen won Tuesday’s match in Osaka on a 2-0 decision as two judges scored 115-113 in his favor while a third judge called it a 114-114 draw. “We were not convinced. We thought he [Kameda] was ahead by three points or so,” Noriyuki Igarashi, head of Kameda’s stable, told a news conference. Igarashi added that his side would submit a written request for a rematch and a video recording of the bout to the WBA. Alan Kim, who served as the WBA supervisor at the fight, said he would “strongly” propose that a rematch be held this year. There was no knockdown in the 12-round bout at the Osaka Central Gymnasium in Kameda’s hometown as the 33-year-old champion kept the 11th-ranked challenger at bay with his one-two combination. In the late rounds, he thwarted Kameda’s attacks with crafty clinching.
■BASEBALL
Valentine fans protest exit
Bobby Valentine, the only baseball manager to lead teams to championship games in the US and Japan, is ending his second stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines with fans protesting the decision not to renew his contract. Valentine, who has a street, a beer and a burger named after him in Japan, on Tuesday night thanked Marines fans in a tearful farewell. He helmed the team to victory in the 2005 Japan Series, five years after taking the New York Mets to the World Series. Banners criticizing team officials have filled the stands since Lotte Group, owner of South Korea’s largest department-store chain, announced before the season it wasn’t renewing Valentine’s contract. More than 100,000 fans signed a petition asking for him to be brought back, the second time he has left amid protests. He was fired in 1995 after one season, despite leading the Marines to its first winning record in 10 years. Valentine returned for a second stint with the Marines in 2004 and a year later led the team to its first title in 31 years. This year, he’s remained popular through a losing season as the team headed for a fifth-place finish, with fans waving “Bobby” flags and buying souvenir merchandise.
■CYCLING
Comardo accepts ban
The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said cyclist Mitch Comardo has accepted a two-year suspension from the sport after testing positive for several prohibited substances. USADA said on Tuesday that a urine sample collected out of competition from Comardo on Aug. 24 contained the estrogen blocker Tamoxifen and its metabolite 4-hydroxytamoxifen, hormone antagonists and modulators, the fertility drug human chorionic gonadotropin, and an anabolic agent.
■FOOTBALL
Favre draws most viewers
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre’s match-up on Monday against his former team the Green Bay Packers was the most watched sports event ever on cable television in the US, network ESPN said. Favre’s first game against the team he anchored for 16 years ended in a 30-23 win for the Vikings and was watched in 15,136,000 homes with an estimated 21,839,000 viewers, the network said in a statement. The game, in which Favre became the only quarterback to defeat all 32 NFL teams, beat the previous cable viewership record, ESPN’s Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys Monday Night Football broadcast of Sept. 15 last year, which was watched in 12,953,000 homes.
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