Carlos Sainz won the 12th stage of the Dakar Rally by 52 seconds over Nasser al-Attiyah, boosting his lead to more than five minutes against his Volkswagen teammate and main rival on Thursday.
Sainz completed the 476km stage in west central Argentina from San Juan south to San Rafael in 3 hours, 30 minutes, 29 seconds. The Spaniard led Qatar’s al-Attiyah by 5:20 overall.
Their US teammate Mark Miller was third in the stage and third overall, 28:12 behind Sainz, in another podium sweep by VW.
PHOTO: EPA
In motorbikes, Chile’s Francisco Lopez Contardo won the stage on an Aprilia, his third this year.
David Fretigne of France was second on a Yamaha, 40 seconds behind, and Pal Anders Ullevalseter of Norway was third on his KTM, 1:13 back.
France’s Cyril Despres finished a cautious eighth, more than 17 minutes off the pace, but kept his whopping overall lead and seems certain of victory when the rally ends today in Buenos Aires.
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
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