■CRICKET
Cook beats S African record
Stephen Cook scored a South African first-class record 390 runs in a four-day national championship match that ended on Sunday. The 26-year-old Highveld Lions opener batted for 838 minutes over three days, faced 648 balls and struck 53 fours and one six against Eastern Cape Warriors in East London before being trapped leg before by Johan Botha. A son of former South Africa Test batsman Jimmy, Cook reached 100 off 226 balls, 200 off 411 and 300 off 569 as the Lions ended the final day on 690-9 off 224 overs in their first innings of a drawn match. Cook surpassed Barry Richards, who made 356 for South Australia against Western Australia in the 1970-71 season, while the previous domestic best of 337 not out was struck by Daryll Cullinan 16 seasons ago.
■ATHLETICS
Wang Jing caught doping
Up-and-coming Chinese sprinter Wang Jing, winner of the women’s 100m at the China National Games, has been stripped of her title after failing a doping test, organizers said yesterday. “The violation of doping regulations by Wang Jing again shows that there are still a small number of athletes using banned substances as they seek personal rewards,” the National Games organizing committee said on its Web site. The 21-year-old Wang’s positive test would serve as an incentive to clean up illegal drugs use in sports nationwide, the committee said.
■BASEBALL
Cliff Lee to open Game 1
Phillies left-hander Cliff Lee will start Game 1 of the World Series against the Yankees. Lee has been dominant in the post-season, going 2-0 with an 0.74 ERA in three starts. Manager Charlie Manuel made the announcement on Sunday. Lee will take the mound on Wednesday night at New York. The Yankees beat the Angels 5-2 on Sunday night to win the AL championship series in six games. Manuel hasn’t set the rest of his rotation. Pedro Martinez and Cole Hamels are the candidates to pitch Game 2. By pitching the opener, Lee could get three starts if needed. Manuel said he would consider using his ace on three days’ rest. Lee was the American League Cy Young Award winner last year with Cleveland. He joined the Phillies in a trade and went 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA in 12 starts.
■BASKETBALL
Wildemond dies at half-time
American basketball player Kevin Wildemond died during the half-time interval of Sunday’s meeting between his club Ovarense and Academica in the central Portuguese town of Leiria, his team announced. “At the interval, the player was sitting down in the dressing room ... He was listening to the coach when he fell down,” club official Jose Eduardo told the Lusa news agency. “He was suffering from convulsions and was immediately attended to by a doctor, who carried out cardiac massage, but he died.” Wildemond was taken to the Santo Andre hospital in Leiria, but staff there were unable to revive him. The match was abandoned and an autopsy was to be carried out on Wildemond’s body yesterday.
■SWIMMING
Deibler breaks record
Germany’s Steffen Deibler on Sunday set a new world record in the men’s 50m shortcourse butterfly, timing 22.06 seconds in a meeting at Aachen in western Germany, media reports said. Deibler smashed last year’s mark of 22.18 set by Frenchman Amaury Leveaux.
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