BASEBALL
CPBL picks draft players
Former US minor leaguer Chen Yung-chi was named the top pick by the Uni-President Lions in this year’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) draft in Taipei on Tuesday. Chen played with the Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates from 2004 to this year. The 27-year-old, who mainly handles the second baseman position, is recognized for his power hitting. Kuo Yen-wen, 22, who played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2007 to this year, was selected at No. 2 by the La New Bears. He is known for his strong defense and is capable of covering three infield positions — shortstop, second base and third base. The Sinon Bulls surprised everyone with their selection of the little-known amateur infielder Huang Chih-pei. At No. 4 and the last pick of the first round, the defending champion Brother Elephants picked 26-year-old Tseng Sung-wei, a right-hander with a 156kph fastball who spent three years with the Cleveland Indians from 2007 to this year before heading home. A record 88 players were selected in the draft of the four-team professional league, which was established in 1990.
FOOTBALL
Louisville beat S Mississippi
Justin Burke threw for a pair of touchdowns to lead Louisville to a 31-28 win over Southern Mississippi in college football’s Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl in St Petersburg, Florida, on Tuesday. Burke tossed scoring passes to 11 yards to Cameron Graham and 10 yards to Josh Chichester, while the Cardinals erased a 14-point first-half deficit, then went ahead in the final quarter. Jeremy Wright scored on a 95-yard kickoff return to make it 28-28 early in the fourth quarter.
GOLF
Woods has cortisone shot
Tiger Woods had a cortisone shot in his right ankle 10 days ago to relieve lingering soreness. By Tuesday, he was back to work in Orlando, Florida, hitting balls and filming a commercial. Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, said Woods had intended all along to have the shot after the Chevron World Challenge, which ended on Dec. 5. Woods has nearly two months off before his next tournament at Torrey Pines. At this year’s Masters, Woods revealed he ruptured the Achilles’ tendon in his right leg in December 2008 while recovering from knee surgery. Steinberg says it still causes soreness, prompting the cortisone shot. Steinberg spoke in response to Internet chatter that Woods had torn his Achilles while skiing. He said Woods has not skied in more than three years. Woods posted two tweets on Tuesday of photos from his EA Sports shoot at Isleworth, referring to one as a “tough day at the office.”
BASKETBALL
Houston asks for exception
In the wake of Yao Ming’s season-ending ankle injury, the Houston Rockets have asked the NBA for a disabled player salary cap exception. Yao has been sidelined since Nov. 10, and the Rockets said on Friday that the Chinese star had a stress fracture in his left ankle. Yao, who missed all of last season after reconstructive foot surgery, played in just five games this season before he was hurt again. If the league approves it, the disabled player exception would allow the Rockets to acquire a free agent or trade for a player without having to match salaries, up to the value of the mid-level exception of about US$5.75 million. The NBA granted the Rockets the same disabled player exception for Yao last year, and Houston used that money to sign Trevor Ariza.
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