■BOXING
Female fights ‘sicken’ champ
World heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko admitted on Sunday he is against women boxing at the Olympics, claiming the spectacle makes him sick. The International Olympic Committee announced last August that women’s boxing will be included on the list of events for London in 2012, but Klitschko said he will not be watching. “This sport is appropriate for men, but not for women,” the Ukrainian told Die Welt newspaper. “I hope that women will not take it badly, perhaps I am old or conservative, but I consider there are sports much more beautiful for women than boxing,” he said. “When I see two women face to face in a boxing ring, it makes me feel nausea. I am not really a fan of female boxing.”
■SOCCER
Bordeaux dig deep to win
Bordeaux bounced back from a goal down to beat 10-man Lille 3-1 on Sunday and re-establish their lead at the top of the French first division table. Laurent Blanc’s side lead the standings on goal difference from Montpellier, who defeated Valenciennes 2-1. Lyon, meanwhile, slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Marseille. Bordeaux fell behind in the 24th minute at the Stade Chaban-Delmas following an error from Michael Ciani. The center-back’s hesitant pass was intercepted by Florent Balmont and he set Eden Hazard free to fire through the legs of Cedric Carrasso to score. Ciani made amends five minutes before the change of ends with a crisp equalizing volley after Ricardo Costa’s defensive header fell to him 15m from goal. The game turned in the 65th minute when Costa dragged down Marouane Chamakh as he sought to capitalize on a rebound, prompting a red card for the defender and a penalty for Bordeaux. Jussie stroked his spotkick into the bottom-left corner. Yoann Gourcuff made the game safe 10 minutes later. Marseille opened the scoring in the 66th minute against Lyon through Charles Kabore, but the visitors were level 12 minutes later when Bafe Gomis headed in a free-kick by Kim Kallstrom. Taye Taiwo scored the winner for Marseille in the 80th minute.
■SOCCER
Schalke stumble in Hamburg
Schalke 04 were denied top spot in the Bundesliga when they were held 2-2 at Hamburg SV on Sunday after substitute Jonathan Pitroipa scored a late equalizer for the hosts. Needing a win to overtake leaders Bayern Munich, Schalke fell behind to an opportunist goal from Ruud van Nistelrooy five minutes before half-time, the Dutchman’s third in the Bundesliga since his move from Real Madrid. Kevin Kuranyi leveled just after the hour and Ivan Rakitic put Schalke ahead with a twice-taken penalty, only for Burkina Faso forward Pitroipa to level for sixth-placed Hamburg with 13 minutes left. Meanwhile, Theofanis Gekas scored a hat-trick and Adrian Ramos netted twice as bottom club Hertha Berlin rounded off the weekend with a stunning 5-1 win at defending champions VfL Wolfsburg.
■SOCCER
Fernandez new Israel coach
Former French international Luis Fernandez was on Sunday named Israel’s new national coach with the task of guiding the country to the Euro 2012 finals. “I am very happy to return to Israel,” said the 50-year-old Fernandez, who was coach of Israeli club side Betar Jerusalem in 2005-2006. “My objective is to qualify the team for the Euro 2012 finals. It’s a difficult mission but I believe it can be done,” he said. Fernandez coached Paris Saint Germain to the 1996 Cup Winners Cup, and was also in charge of Spanish sides Athletic Bilbao and Espanyol.
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