■FRANCE
Draw hits Montpellier hopes
Montpellier’s hopes of playing the Champions League next season suffered a blow when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Toulouse in Ligue 1 on Sunday. Montpellier opened the scoring in the first half courtesy of Alberto Costa but the visitors leveled in added time through Colin Kazim-Richards. The draw left Montpellier in fourth place on 59 points from 33 games, nine points adrift of leaders Olympique Marseille and four behind second-placed Auxerre. With five matches left, Montpellier face a struggle to finish second and qualify directly for the Champions League. They are now under pressure from Lille, in fifth place just a point behind after crushing Monaco 4-0. Monaco coach Guy Lacombe was ordered to the stands for throwing a water bottle. “I regret what I did, it was stupid, but I was just mad,” Lacombe told reporters. Saint-Etienne and Paris Saint-Germain played out a goalless draw.
■FRANCE
Police question Ribery
France international Franck Ribery has been quizzed by police investigating prostitution involving a minor. “He was questioned as a witness — for us the matter stops there,” Ribery’s lawyer, Sophie Bottai, said on Sunday. Earlier a judicial source had confirmed that French investigators had questioned two French national team soccer players as part of the inquiry. One of the players has admitted having a relationship with a prostitute but denied knowing that she was a minor, the source said on condition of anonymity. The two players, who were not identified, were questioned by investigators working for Paris examining magistrate Yves Dando, the source said. Bottai said Ribery was summoned by police to explain his relationship with one of his acquaintances who had connections with a call girl ring. “It was purely to do with this relationship [that he was quizzed by police],” she told RMC radio. No charges were brought against Ribery, Bottai said.
■BELGIUM
Anderlecht land title
Anderlecht won their 30th league title on Sunday thanks to a 2-1 win at FC Bruges. With four matches left in the first division play-offs Anderlecht have an unassailable lead of 14 points over second placed FC Bruges. Triumph for the club from the Belgian capital comes after two years of league domination by Standard Liege.
■RUSSIA
Nalchik win to extend lead
Spartak Nalchik extended their lead in the Russian Premier League with a narrow 1-0 home win over Samara on Sunday. The result lifted the side from the capital of Russia’s Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria up to 14 points from six matches, two points clear of reigning champions Rubin Kazan. CSKA Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg, both with a game in hand, share third spot on 11 points. Nalchik tested Samara from the start, forcing goalkeeper Nikolai Tsygan into several early saves but in the 27th minute he was unable to keep out Vladimir Kisenkov’s 40m freekick. Despite their domination the hosts failed to increase their advantage. Rubin Kazan climbed to second with a 1-0 win at Perm. Bibars Natho scored the only goal of the game in the 21st minute from just inside the box from Alexander Bukharov’s pass. CSKA Moscow missed their chance to go top after being held to a 1-1 draw by city rivals Lokomotiv. CSKA took the lead when Guilherme netted the opening goal six minutes into the match but Lokomotiv’s Oleg Kuzmin saved the day for his side firing home two minutes from time.
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