■FORMULA ONE
Hamilton takes pole
Lewis Hamilton placed his McLaren on pole position for the floodlit first Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Saturday to leave new champion Jenson Button and other rivals reeling in his wake. Formula One’s outgoing world champion grabbed the 17th pole of his 52-race career to knock Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel into second place at the glittering new Yas Marina circuit that was to host yesterday’s season-ender. Briton Hamilton was nearly 0.7 seconds quicker than Vettel in final qualifying and, despite his car being 4.5kg lighter on fuel than the German, should run away with the sport’s first day-to-night race. Fellow Briton Button, who clinched the title in Brazil with a race to spare, will line up fifth after complaining of juddering when he hit the brakes in the final session. While both titles have been decided already in favor of Button and Brawn GP, McLaren are only a point ahead of Ferrari in third place in the constructors’ standings with significant prize money at stake. Hamilton can count on the KERS energy recovery system he said offered an advantage of three to four tenths of a second a lap at such a circuit and that the Red Bulls and Brawns lack. “I think both of us were a little surprised by the gap,” said Vettel, whose Australian teammate Mark Webber qualified in third place. Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, fighting Vettel for second place overall, starts fourth for Brawn.
■RUGBY LEAGUE
Kangaroos trump Lions
Australia revived their Four Nations hopes with a 26-16 win over England here at the DW Stadium on Saturday in a match where both sides dominated for a half each. The Kangaroos, badly in need of a win after a 20-20 draw with New Zealand first time out, seemed set to repeat last year’s World Cup humbling of England as they raced into a 26-0 half-time lead. Australia scored five tries, with captain Darren Lockyer, Billy Slater, who touched down twice, Greg Inglis and Brett Morris all crossing England’s try-line. But England hit back in the second-half with tries from Sam Burgess, Gareth Ellis and Lee Smith although the home side were unable to catch up.
■CYCLING
No France for Landis
American cyclist Floyd Landis has told a New Zealand newspaper it is unlikely he will compete again in the Tour de France. Landis, 34, who is in New Zealand to ride the six-day, nine-stage Tour of Southland, told the Herald on Sunday newspaper that politics in cycling would likely prevent him contesting the world’s premier cycling road race. Landis won the 2006 Tour de France, but was disqualified and banned for two years when doping tests revealed abnormally elevated testosterone levels. He returned at the Tour of California in February. “I don’t think it’s a possibility next year, or ever, for that matter,” Landis said.
■BOXING
Perez dethrones Agbeko
Colombia’s Yonnhy Perez seized the International Boxing Federation bantamweight title on Saturday, dethroning Ghana’s Joseph Agbeko with a unanimous 12-round decision. Perez emerged from the action-packed bout still unbeaten, improving to 20-0 with 14 wins inside the distance. He was credited with a knockdown late in the 10th round, sending Agbeko to the canvas when Agbeko had turned away to complain to referee Robert Byrd about a headbutt. “I didn’t see whether it was a headbutt or a punch, therefore I had to rule it was from a punch,” Byrd said. Two of the ringside judges scored the bout 117-110 for Perez, while a third saw it 116-111.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with