■YACHTING
America’s Cup race canceled
The opening race of the America’s Cup was canceled on Wednesday due to rough waters, two days after it was postponed due to weak winds. Race director Harold Bennett said the waves of more than 2m in the race area some 40km off the Spanish city of Valencia would be unsafe for the giant multihulls fielded by US team Oracle and defending Swiss champion Alinghi. The race — 20 nautical miles (37km) upwind and 20 back — is now set to be held today. Unlike on Monday when both teams agreed with Bennett’s decision to cancel the race, this time around Alinghi backed the move while Oracle, whose boat is thought to have an edge in strong winds, opposed it.
■SOCCER
Argentina beat Jamaica
Martin Palermo and Ignacio Canuto scored late goals to give Argentina a 2-1 win over Jamaica in an international friendly on Wednesday. Jamaica opened the scoring with a header by Ryan Johnson early in the second half. Palermo equalized seven minutes from time and Canuto, who came on as a substitute in the final minutes, scored the winner in injury time. Boca Juniors forward Palermo was one of the few players in the match expected to play a role in South Africa. Argentine coach Diego Maradona only fielded home-based players.
■SOCCER
Palop leads Sevilla to final
Sevilla lost 1-0 away to Getafe but hung on to qualify for the King’s Cup final 2-1 on aggregate on Wednesday, thanks to the heroics of their goalkeeper Andres Palop. The 36-year-old Sevilla captain held his side together and was only beaten once as Getafe completely dominated at the Coliseum. Getafe made a spirited effort to overturn the deficit hitting the crossbar early on. Sevilla were barely in the game and their coach Manolo Jimenez was sent to the stands for protesting a decision. The home side’s pressure finally paid off when Robert Soldado’s header snuck inside the far post after 52 minutes. But Palop was in outstanding form and Sevilla hung on to win.
■SOCCER
Eight man Cologne lose
Cologne had three players sent off during a 2-0 defeat at second division Augsburg in their German Cup quarter-final on Wednesday. Bayern Munich scored five times in the second half in a 6-2 win over SpVgg Fuerth, another tier two team, while Schalke 04 beat third division VfL Osnabrueck 1-0 away. Cologne were quickly in trouble when Michael Thurk gave Augsburg a third-minute lead and a straight red card for Adil Chihi on the half hour for elbowing added to their worries. There was more trouble when Lukas Podolski, who came on as a substitute on the hour, was dismissed nine minutes later when he was booked for sarcastically applauding the referee and, immediately afterwards, for arguing again. Petit followed with five minutes left for a second bookable offence before Nando Rafael added a second for Augsburg. Bayern notched their 11th successive win thanks to a dramatic second-half revival. Thomas Mueller gave Bayern a fifth-minute lead but Christopher Noethe leveled five minutes later and Sami Allagui headed the underdogs ahead just before the break. Bayern hit back with three goals in seven minutes either side of the hour. Arjen Robben equalized from a penalty, then Franck Ribery curled in the third before setting up Philipp Lahm for the fourth. In the final 10 minutes, Mueller added a fifth and Allagui headed into his own goal.
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