BASEBALL
Taiwan thrashes Lithuania
Taiwan overwhelmed Lithuania in Taipei on Monday to improve their record to 3-1 at the first International Baseball Federation under-12 Baseball World Championship. Taiwan defeated the Eastern European team 18-0 in a game that lasted only four innings instead of the regulation six because of the 10-run rule. Taiwan head coach Wu Ying-tzu said he gave his team complete freedom to play as they saw fit beginning in the third inning, in which the home team rallied for 14 runs and the winning pitcher in Sunday’s victory over Japan hit another home run. Lithuania managed only one hit and one walk in four innings, but pulled off an interesting ploy by sending a girl to pinch hit in the bottom of the fourth. She earned big applause from the crowd despite striking out. Taiwan next face Brazil tomorrow and Hong Kong on Friday.
BASKETBALL
‘Jellybean’ to coach Sparks
Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, father of NBA standout Kobe Bryant, has been appointed head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, the Women’s National Basketball Association team said on Monday. Bryant senior, who previously served as Sparks head coach from August 2005 until the end of the 2006 season, will replace Jennifer Gillom in the role. “Joe’s familiarity with the Sparks organization puts us in the best possible position to compete going forward and should make for a seamless transition,” Sparks general manager Penny Toler said in a statement.
SOCCER
S Korean coach arrested
A South Korean coach has been arrested for allegedly taking cash to conceal a player’s involvement in the match-fixing scandal that has engulfed the country’s professional soccer league, according to a local media report yesterday. The head coach of K-League side Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, took 10 million won (US$9,451) from the parents of the player, promising to conceal his role in the worst scandal in the league’s 28-year history, the Yonhap news agency reported without identifying the name of the official. The player was among the 46 arrested last week in relation to the attempted fixing of 15 matches from June to October last year. The coach had also demanded money from the parents of other players, the report added.
BASEBALL
Funeral held for Rangers fan
A baseball fan who plunged 6m to his death while trying to catch a ball tossed into the stands by a Texas Rangers player was remembered by family and friends on Monday in Dallas. Shannon Stone, a 39-year old Texas fireman, died on Thursday at the Rangers’ ballpark while attending the game with his six-year-old son Cooper. He lost his footing and flipped over the railing while trying to catch the ball thrown into the outfield stands by Rangers’ Josh Hamilton. More than 1,000 people, including family, friends, fellow firemen, police officers, other emergency workers and Rangers team personnel, filled the First United Methodist Church for an hour-long funeral service.
SOCCER
Maradona uninjured in crash
Former Argentine soccer player and coach Diego Maradona was taken to hospital for routine checks after his car was involved in a road accident near Buenos Aires on Monday, local media reported. Maradona was taken to a hospital near his home in the city’s Ezeiza suburb and a medical official said he was “perfectly fine.” His girlfriend, Veronica Ojeda, was also undergoing routine tests.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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