■CYCLING
Wiggins wins first stage
Neither the ash from an Icelandic volcano nor smoke from spectators’ cigarettes could stop Bradley Wiggins from enjoying his victory in the first stage of the Giro d’Italia in Amsterdam on Saturday. The British Team Sky rider took the opening time trial in Amsterdam on the first of three Dutch stages and was unperturbed by the possibility of a volcanic ash cloud hampering the route back to Italy today for the rest of the race. The cloud, which caused travel chaos last month, is back with a vengeance and has closed airports in Spain and forecasts say it could threaten Italian airspace in the coming days. “We’ll ride down,” Wiggins joked to a news conference. “We’d get a car. It was the last thing on my mind today.” The 30-year-old, a surprise fourth in last year’s Tour de France, won three Olympic golds in track cycling but has now committed to road racing and loves being close to the crowd. “Every couple of hundred yards [meters] I inhaled smoke from someone’s cigarette by the barriers and the smell of beer,” he said. “It’s an amazing feeling, it was a really beautiful prologue with the amount of people on the roads.”
■RALLYING
Finn win in New Zealand
Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala won the Rally of New Zealand yesterday after leader Sebastien Ogier spun and stalled his Citroen three corners before the finish. The Finn began the Whaanga Coast special stage 6.20 seconds behind the Frenchman, but edged ahead in the final sector to win his third World Rally Championship race. The win was Latvala’s first since the Rally of Italy almost a year ago and lifted him above teammate Mikko Hirvonen and Norway’s Petter Solberg into second place in the standings, 36 points behind French champion Sebastian Loeb.
■BADMINTON
Chinese make good start
China and Indonesia swept all before them with crushing opening day victories at the Thomas and Uber Cup team world championships in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. World and Olympic champion Lin Dan took just 20 minutes to thrash Peru’s Antonio De Vinatea 21-4, 21-6, leading his team to a 5-0 whitewash of the South Americans and a dream start to China’s defense of the men’s title. Third-ranked Jin Chen chalked up an equally emphatic win, dismissing Andreas Corpancho 21-9, 21-8, while world No. 10 Chen Long demolished Rodrigo Pachecho 21-11, 21-8. With doubles pairings Guo Zhendong and Chen Xu and Biao Chai and Zhang Nan also looking unstoppable, China threw down the gauntlet to nearest rivals Indonesia, who responded with impressive wins for the men’s and women’s teams.
■GOLF
Young Thai beats Filipino
Thailand saw another exciting new professional burst onto the scene on Saturday when Thanyakon Khrongpha beat Jay Bayron from the Philippines on the first play-off hole at the Kariza Indonesia Championship. Thanyakon, aged 20, won by holing a birdie putt on the par-five 18th at Gading Raya Golf Club near Jakarta to win and leave Bayron in second place for the third successive Mercedes-Benz Tour event. The Thai only turned professional in January, but played like an experienced campaigner by storming through on the final day with a six-under-par 66. He finished with a tournament total of 14-under-par 274. Bayron came in with a 67. Singapore’s Mardan Mamat and Danny Chia from Malaysia finished one stroke away from the play-off.
■BOXING
Margarito wins decision
Antonio Margarito won a unanimous decision over fellow-Mexican Roberto Garcia on Saturday in Margarito’s first fight after an absence of more than 15 months following a one-year suspension. Margartio outclassed Garcia, who absorbed most of the punishment and was knocked down by a right-left-right combination in the first round of the 10-round bout in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Margartio, who weighed in at 70kg, improved to 38-6 with 27 KOs. Garcia fell to 28-3 with 21 KOs. Margarito, a former welterweight champion, was suspended for a year after being caught with illegal hand wraps in a loss on Jan. 24 last year against Shane Mosley. Margarito, 32, was a winner on all three judges’ cards: 99-89, 100-88 and 99-90. Margarito used his longer arms to fend off the 30-year-old Garcia, who lacked the quickness needed to overcome his opponent’s reach advantage and boxing savvy.
■FOOTBALL
NFL drafts Chinese player
Ed Wang welcomes the expectations that come with being the first player of direct Chinese ancestry to be selected in the NFL draft. The offensive tackle from Virginia Tech University was taken in the fifth round by the Buffalo Bills last month. Now, he not only wants to establish himself in the NFL, but popularize American football across Asia. Wang has been preparing for this role for much of his life given the strict rules he abided by growing up in Virginia as the son of former members of China’s Olympic program. While he grumbles about the days he had to wake up at 7am to run sprints, he credits his parents for instilling him with discipline and the understanding that nothing in life comes easily.
■ICE HOCKEY
Denmark defeats Finland
Dennmark produced a sensational upset at the world ice hockey championships in Cologne, Germany, on Saturday, beating Finland 4-1 in their Group D showdown. Frans Nielsen scored a double and goalkeeper Frederik Andersen produced 36 saves to give Denmark a hard-fought win and three points. Finland, the 1995 world champions, looked a pale shadow of their normal selves, going two goals down early in the match. Nielsen opened the scoring two minutes, 20 seconds into the match, beating Finland’s goalie Pekka Rinne with a low wrist shot into the far post from the left face-off circle. Peter Regin added a goal three minutes later with a piece of good individual skill to make it 2-0 for the Danes before Petri Kontiola reduced the arrears at six minutes, 47 seconds, skating to Denmark’s net through the traffic to send the puck home.
■SOCCER
Title holders dumped
Mexico’s Apertura title holders Monterrey and Guadalajara, who made a record start to the second half of the season, were both dumped out of the Clausura quarter-finals on Saturday. Pachuca beat Monterrey 2-1 away in the second leg of their tie to advance 3-1 on aggregate. Monterrey won the Apertura in the first half of the season. Morelia upset Guadalajara, who won their opening eight matches of the Clausura, 1-0 away for a 5-2 aggregate victory. Monterrey took the game to Pachuca from the start at their Tecnologico ground and went ahead through Paraguayan midfielder Osvaldo Martinez after half an hour. Midfielder Edy Brambilla equalized with a header from a corner right after halftime following an error by goalkeeper Jonathan Orozco.
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