■SOCCER
Da-an clinch CPL title
In the weekend’s championship decider, expat side Da-an FC clinched the Carnegies Premier League with a 7-1 victory over the Red Lions at Taipei’s Da Jia Riverside Park on Sunday. Needing to win by at least three clear goals to finish top, Da-an went into the half-time break 4-0 up thanks to goals from Nazario Mora, Alex Ramirez and two from Andy Rogers. The game looked set for a nervous finish when the Lions’ Tim Brown headed an early second-half goal, but Da-an quickly replied to kill off any hopes of an upset. In the Businessman’s League, Taipei City edged closer to the championship with a 2-0 win over Sanchung High School, Dan Calvert and Badou Njie grabbing the second-half goals. City now just need a point from their last two games or for second-placed Fritz to fail to take maximum points from their remaining four fixtures.
■CRICKET
Windies canter to win
West Indies cruised to a four-wicket victory in the one-day international in St Vincent on Sunday as Zimbabwe failed to successfully defend a modest victory target of 162, with West Indies completing the victory with 134 balls to spare, wrapping up the series 4-1. The result was secured when Denesh Ramdin pulled a delivery from Timycen Maruma through mid-wicket for four. “It’s been a long time since we last won a series, and it feels really, really good to have achieved this,” said Windies captain Chris Gayle, whose 63 from 41 balls set his side on course for victory. Charles Coventry struck top scored for Zimbabwe with 56. None of his teammates scored 20, and the visitors were dismissed for 161 from their 50 overs. Zimbabwe were undone by Darren Sammy’s three for 33 and Ravi Rampaul’s two for 24.
■SOCCER
Ex-head backs salary caps
English clubs must be prepared for salary capping, former Football League chairman Brian Mawhinney warned yesterday. The 60-year-old, who was succeeded by businessman Greg Clarke on Friday, believes that the financial model at league clubs outside of the Premier League is not sustainable. “The business model of professional football in this country doesn’t work, it’s broke and you see that reflected in the administrations and all the rest of it,” Mawhinney said. Speaking to the BBC, Mawhinney said a salary cap throughout the Football League from Championship (second division) to League Two (fourth division) would halt spiralling debts. “I have some clubs in the Football League who are paying up to 85 percent of their income in wages. I don’t care how great you are, you may be the best business entrepreneur the country has ever come up with but you cannot run a sustainable business with that sort of model,” he said.
■GOLF
Rain hits Puerto Rico Open
Americans Kevin Streelman and Chad Collins shared the lead during the third round at the weather-affected Puerto Rico Open on Sunday but play was not due to be completed until yesterday. Streelman had completed seven holes of his third round and Collins just five of his before darkness ended play. The pair were locked on 12-under par. Heavy rain on Thursday and Friday caused lengthy delays that forced the tournament into an extra day. Derek Lamely, Steve Wheatcroft and Kris Blanks are a shot back with Australia’s James Nitties, tied for sixth, two strokes behind the leaders.
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