An early three-goal salvo gave Hull City three vital points in securing a 3-2 win over Everton in the English Premier League on Wednesday.
Stephen Hunt snatched the opener after nine minutes and Andy Dawson netted a free-kick in the 20th minute, before Dean Marney grabbed a third just before the half-hour mark to leave Everton, themselves too close to the drop zone for comfort, shell shocked.
After the break, the Merseysiders fought their way back into the contest and a comical own-goal by Kamil Zayatte four minutes after the restart gave David Moyes’ men a sliver of hope.
PHOTO: AFP
Louis Saha converted a spot-kick which Zayatte conceded by fouling the French striker midway through the second period, but the Tigers then battened down the hatches and held on for a win that takes them to 15 points, level with the Toffees.
Everton now have just one win in their last 10 games, while Hull boss Phil Brown’s gamble of resting experienced veteran Jimmy Bullard owing to a minor knee problem paid off.
Everton had won a League Cup encounter between the sides 4-0 at the KC Stadium earlier this season, but were a pale shadow of themselves by comparison.
Also on Wednesday, Fulham saw off Blackburn Rovers 3-0 as the Londoners moved into the top half of the table with goals from Erik Nevland just before the interval and a second-half brace from Clint Dempsey.
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