HOCKEY
Russian breaks shot record
The Kontinental Hockey League says Russian defenseman Denis Kulyash has smashed the sports’ hardest shot record. Kulyash hit a 177.5kph shot at the KHL All-Star skills competition on Saturday, topping the record 170.42kph shot Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins registered last weekend during NHL All-Star festivities. Kulyash plays for Avangard Omsk in the Russian-based league.
FOOTBALL
Sanders makes Hall of Fame
Former Dallas Cowboy Deion Sanders and ex-St Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk were among seven nominees elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. Defensive end Richard Dent, who played the bulk of his career with the Chicago Bears, tight end Shannon Sharpe, formerly with the Denver Broncos and NFL Films founder Ed Sabol were also voted in, along with former Washington Redskin Chris Hanburger and the late Les Richter. Two-times Super Bowl winner Sanders played as a kick and punt returner, cornerback and wide receiver. He also played for the Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Washington Redskins and, after returning from a three-year retirement, the Baltimore Ravens. Faulk, who began his career with the Indianapolis Colts, was a two-time NFL MVP and a Super Bowl winner with the Rams at the end of the 1999 season.
SOCCER
Cologne floor Bayern
Bayern Munich’s title defense suffered a blow on Saturday when Milivoje Novakovic struck twice to inspire Cologne to a 3-2 comeback win. Bayern, who had not lost since the winter break, dropped from third place to fifth on 36 points, 15 behind leaders Borussia Dortmund who drew 0-0 with Schalke 04 on Friday. Second-placed Bayer Leverkusen also lost ground, slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Nuremberg but stayed three points ahead of the Bavarians. The champions had only themselves to blame after Mario Gomez and Hamit Altintop had put them in the driving seat. The hosts battled back after the break and cut the deficit through Christian Clemens 10 minutes after the restart. Novakovic headed the equalizer seven minutes later and raced clear to beat goalkeeper Thomas Kraft with a low shot in the 73rd minute. Claudio Pizarro threw Werder Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf a lifeline when he scored a stoppage-time equalizer in a 1-1 draw at Mainz, thus avoiding their third straight defeat. Hanover 96 enjoyed a 1-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg while VfB Stuttgart snatched a 3-2 victory at Borussia Moenchengladbach.
SOCCER
Matri sinks Cagliari
Juventus striker Alessandro Matri scored twice to give them a 3-1 win at Cagliari in Serie A on Saturday only five days after joining the Turin side on loan from their Sardinian opponents. Luca Toni headed a third goal to lift Juve out of their rut after the club failed to win their previous four games in all competitions. Victory lifted Juventus to seventh. Matri, despite being jeered by the home fans from the outset, needed only 20 minutes to score, wrong-footing goalkeeper Michael Agazzi after being picked out by Milo Krasic’s pass. Cagliari leveled six minutes after the restart when Robert Acquafresca side-footed home a cross at the far post. The hosts put Juve on the rack and looked more likely winners until Matri struck again in the 75th minute, volleying in a cross. Toni completed the win with a looping header from 15m. Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale had earlier scored his 100th Serie A goal for the club in a 2-0 win over Sampdoria.
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