ATHLETICS
Beijing to host in 2015
Beijing was confirmed as the host of the 2015 world athletics championships by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) council on Saturday. The decision was largely expected as Beijing was the sole candidate after London withdrew its bid earlier this month because of uncertainty over the future of the 2012 Olympic Stadium. “To help build up our sport and the culture of athletics in a country of 1.6 billion inhabitants is a great opportunity,” IAAF president Lamine Diack said.
BASKETBALL
Hornets, Raptors trade five
The New Orleans Hornets and the Toronto Raptors completed a five-player trade featuring former All Star Peja Stojakovic on Saturday. The Hornets acquired point guard Jarrett Jack, Australian center David Andersen and guard Marcus Banks from the Raptors in exchange for guard Jerryd Bayless and Serbian Stojakovic as well as cash considerations. Stojakovic is in his 13th season in the NBA, averaging double figures in scoring in all but one season with a career best of 24.2 points a game in 2003-2004 when he was selected as a second-team All-Star. In six games this season he has averaged 7.5 points.
FIGURE SKATING
Verner wins Cup of Russia
Tomas Verner of the Czech Republic won the Cup of Russia Grand Prix figure skating competition on Saturday, rising from third place after the first day. Patrick Chan of Canada and American Jeremy Abbott were ahead of Verner heading into Saturday’s free skate, but both fell repeatedly and neither managed a quadruple jump. Miki Ando of Japan gritted her way through serious back pain to win the women’s gold, soaring past four challengers who were ahead of her after the short program. They included her countrywoman Akiko Suzuki, who took silver and American Ashley Wagner, who finished third. In pairs, Russia’s Yuko Kavagut and Alexander Smirnov easily took the gold with tightly synchronized spins and long throws. Japan’s Narumi Takahashi and Mervin Tran took silver and Americans Amanda Evora and Mark Ladwig were third. Russians Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev won the ice dancing, followed by Nora Hoffman and Maxim Zavozin of Hungary and Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov.
TENNIS
‘Indian Express’ returns
Famed Indian doubles pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will team up again at the Australian Open in January, ending a nine-year separation on the circuit. The return of the duo, nicknamed the “Indian Express” was announced by Bhupathi on his Twitter page, sparking celebrations in India’s tennis fraternity. “So the Indian Express rolls again at the Aussie Open next year,” Bhupathi wrote on the -micro-blogging site. “Our first slam in nine years ... you heard it here first people.”
SPEEDSKATING
Jenny Wolf wins World Cup
Jenny Wolf of Germany earned her eighth straight speedskating World Cup victory by winning the 500m race on Saturday. Wolf won by nearly half a second, clocking 37.98 for her 54th career victory. Margot Boer of the Netherlands took second in 38.46 seconds and Olympic champion Lee Sang-hwa of South Korea had to settle for third in 38.56. Pekka Koskela of Finland won the men’s 500m in 34.90. Jilleane Rookard of the US won the 3,000m in 4:04.39 over Olympic champion Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic (4:05.83).
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