■GOLF
Martin goes two shots clear
Early Race to Dubai leader Pablo Martin moved to the top of the South African Open leaderboard with a four-under 68 in Friday’s second round at Pearl Valley Golf Estates. The Spaniard’s round moved him to 11-under for a two-stroke lead over Denmark’s Anders Hansen at the tournament’s halfway mark. Martin’s round started on the 10th tee early on Friday morning and he went on to make seven birdies, while playing partner Hansen scored a 69, with three birdies on each nine. Martin’s fellow Spaniard Alejandro Canizares lay third with his 67 taking him to eight-under. Louis Oosthuizen, who missed Wednesday’s pro-am through illness, was tied fourth at seven-under after scoring 69.
■ICE HOCKEY
Fire leaves Wild in a spin
The Minnesota Wild were left scurrying ahead of their game in Ottawa yesterday to replace hockey equipment burned in a fire on Friday. No one was injured when a van carrying some of the team’s equipment caught fire destroying goaltending gear, skates and players’ kit bags. The fire occurred following the team’s afternoon practice at a suburban Ottawa area rink. “There was a fire in an equipment van in the parking lot at Scotiabank Place this afternoon. No one was injured, but some of the Minnesota Wild’s hockey equipment was damaged,” a team spokesman said.
■BASKETBALL
Jennings fined for tweet
Brandon Jennings, the leading scorer for the Milwaukee Bucks, was fined US$7,500 by the NBA on Friday for tweeting too soon after a game. The rookie playmaker, who averages team highs of 20.7 points and six assists a game, posted a message on his account at the social networking Web site Twitter after a 108-101 double-overtime triumph over Portland last Saturday. “Back to 500. Yess!!! ‘500’ means where doing good. Way to Play Hard Guys,” was the message posted by Jennings. NBA rules state that players cannot tweet during games, but also bans the practice for 45 minutes before games start or before players have spoken with reporters after games.
■RUGBY UNION
Thomas announces he’s gay
Wales rugby great Gareth Thomas publicly announced he’s gay yesterday. Thomas, who retired from international rugby two years ago but still plays for Cardiff Blues, told the Daily Mail he doesn’t want to be known as “a gay rugby player.” “I’ve been through all sorts of emotions with this, tears, anger and absolute despair,” the 35-year-old said. “I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to let people know and, to be honest, I feel anxious about people’s reactions and the effect it might have on my family. “ Thomas said he knew he was gay when he was 16 or 17, but didn’t accept it. He made his debut for Wales in 1995, and by the time he retired as captain at his fourth World Cup in 2007, the utility back was Wales’ most capped player with 100 Tests and their leading try-scorer with 40.
■SKIING
Svindal wins Super-G in Italy
Norway’s reigning World Cup overall champion Aksel Lund Svindal won the men’s Super-G race in Val Gardena, Italy, on Friday. Svindal clocked 1 minute, 38.35 seconds to finish ahead of Swiss Carlo Janka by 0.12 seconds, with Italy’s Patrick Staudacher 0.17 seconds behind. It was Svindal’s 13th World Cup success and his fifth in the discipline, taking him third in the overall standings. Janka takes the overall World Cup lead with 540 points.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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