RUGBY UNION
Race for Pacific Cup tightens
Fiji and Japan stormed back into contention in the Pacific Nations Cup yesterday with thrilling victories over first-round winners Samoa and Tonga to blow the tournament wide open. All four teams now have one win and a loss from their first two games meaning the honors will be decided in the third and final round, to be played in Lautoka, Fiji, on Wednesday. The hosts recovered from their surprise 45-21 hiding by Tonga in the first round to beat defending champions Samoa 36-18, while Japan, beaten first up by Samoa, held on for a narrow 28-27 win over Tonga. The match was sealed for Japan in the third quarter when they posted two converted tries to turn a 14-17 deficit at halftime into a 28-17 lead and they were then strong enough defensively to hold out the desperate Tongans. Fiji played with much more intensity against Samoa than they showed against Tonga, running in five tries with Nicky Little and Waisea Luveniyali landing two conversions each and Little also kicked a penalty. Tonga, with bonus points from both games so far, head the table with six points, while Fiji, Samoa and Japan have five each.
BASEBALL
Jeter, A-Rod decide to rest
New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and third baseman Alex Rodriguez have decided not to play in next week’s All-Star game to rest from injuries, the team said on Friday. Jeter, who is two hits away from reaching the milestone of 3,000 career hits, wants to protect a calf muscle injury that sidelined for three weeks, while A-Rod underwent tests on Friday for a sore right knee. Rodriguez was not written into the Yankees pre-game lineup for Friday’s scheduled game against the Tampa Bay Rays, while Jeter had been set to play before the contest was rained out. Following the decision to call off Friday’s game against the Rays, the Yankees announced that Rodriguez would also miss the Mid-Summer Classic.
FOOTBALL
Court rules for owners
A US federal appeals court ruled on Friday to throw out a judge’s order lifting the NFL’s lockout, while owners and players worked on reaching a new labor deal to start this year’s season on time. The US 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St Louis, Missouri, ruled on an April 25 decision by US District Judge Susan Nelson, who had put the lockout on hold after NFL players had said the work stoppage was causing them irreparable harm. “We conclude that the injunction did not conform to the provisions of the Norris-LaGuardia Act ... and we therefore vacate the district court’s order,” the appellate court said in its 54-page ruling. The ruling came as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith met for a second straight day of negotiations in New York.
SOCCER
Fenerbahce chief faces jail
A Turkish prosecutor requested that a court jail the chairman of league champions Fenerbahce pending trial on charges of match-fixing on Friday, TV reports said, in an investigation which could result in the club being stripped of its title. The court was expected to rule on the request to imprison Aziz Yildirim later on Friday. If jailed, he will join 25 people already remanded in custody on charges of manipulation in 19 matches, which Turkey’s prime minister said has stained Turkey’s image. Broadcaster CNN Turk said Yildirim was accused of both match-fixing and of running an illegal group. Yildirim was one of 61 people detained in police raids launched across Turkey last Sunday.
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