■BASEBALL
Chen signs for Pirates
Taiwanese player Chen Yung-chi has signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates of the US Major Leagues and has been assigned to its Double-A affiliate Altoona Curve, Chen’s agent Octagon Asia said yesterday. The 26-year-old slugger, who played in the Oakland Athletics minor league system from 2008, was released by the A’s Double-A affiliate Midland RockHounds earlier this month. Chen was signed by the Seattle Mariners in 2004 and played in its minor league organization until 2008. Chen, who plays mostly second and third base, is known for his speed and power, but what was once a promising career has been plagued by shoulder and knee injuries since 2007. He has never been called up to the Major Leagues. He last played for Taiwan’s national team in 2006, appearing in the Intercontinental Cup, the World Baseball Classic and at the Doha Asian Games that year. Chen also had the best year of his six-year minor league career in 2006, when he hit .324 with eight home runs in 110 games with the San Antonio Missions, the Mariners’ Double-A affiliate.
■SOCCER
Allegri handed Milan job
AC Milan named unheralded Massimiliano Allegri as their new coach on Friday, propelling the former Cagliari boss to the hot seat of one of Europe’s top clubs just two years after he was working in the third tier. Largely unknown outside Italy, Allegri cultivated an attractive brand of attacking soccer when leading unfashionable Sassuolo to promotion to Serie B in 2008. He was then plucked from obscurity by top-flight side Cagliari, where he continued his good work for two seasons. “Today is the first day. Now I will have time to think and a month available to prepare for the new season,” Allegri told Milan’s television channel after signing a two-year deal. “Coaching Milan represents a very important point of arrival in my career. I’m part of one of the strongest clubs in the world.”
■ICE HOCKEY
Oilers pick Taylor Hall
The Edmonton Oilers selected winger Taylor Hall of the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires with the first overall pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft on Friday. Edmonton’s choice to grab the speedy goal-scorer ended a season-long debate over who would be the first player selected, with many backing Plymouth Whalers center Tyler Seguin. “I was so shocked,” Hall said after he heard his name called at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. “I was shaking in my seat. I got up to the podium, or whatever it is, and I was shaking so much I couldn’t even put my jersey on.”
■GOLF
Rose opens four-shot lead
Briton Justin Rose had another five-birdie run at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut, and opened up a four-shot lead at the Travelers Championship on Friday. Rose started the day part of a four-way tie for the lead, but carded his first birdie of the round at the par-four 11th and went on to birdie the next four holes. Three more birdies on his back nine gave Rose a bogey-free round of eight-under 62 and a 36-hole total of 14-under 126.
■GOLF
Dredge leads in Munich
Ryder Cup aspirant Bradley Dredge led the BMW International Open in Munich after two eagles helped him shoot a five-under 67 in Friday’s second round. While the 36-year-old Briton was flying high, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia were down in the dumps after missing the cut. Dredge surged to a 13-under total of 131, one ahead of Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal (66).
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