AWARDS
Li pips Tseng to win award
Chinese tennis player Li Na has been named the US Sports Academy’s Female Athlete of the Month for last month, leaving Taiwanese golfer Yani Tseng in second place and Dallas Escobedo, a freshman softball ace for Arizona State University in the US, in third. Li became the first player from an Asian nation to win a Grand Slam title when she won the French Open on June 4. World No. 1 female golfer Tseng has defended her title for the 22nd consecutive week, an LPGA report released on Tuesday showed. Although she failed to achieve a career Grand Slam at the US Women’s Open last week, it had no effect on her ranking. The Male Athlete of the Month was Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki. PGA golfer Rory McIlroy came in second, with tennis ace Rafael Nadal third.
CRICKET
Scots hold out against Irish
Scotland upset the odds to beat World Cup giantkillers Ireland by five wickets in a one-day international at the Grange on Tuesday. It looked as if Ireland, who beat Test nation England at the World Cup in India earlier this year, were on course for a sixth successive victory over their Celtic rivals after piling up 320 for 8, featuring 113 from Middlesex’s Paul Stirling. However, with Kyle Coetzer having already made 89, Richie Berrington saw Scotland to the brink of success with six sixes in 23 balls during his 56. Josh Davey, who finished on 50 not out, won the match with a four as Scotland finished on a record one-day total of 323 for 5 with nine balls remaining. The match was part of a triangular series also featuring Sri Lanka, whose opening fixture against Ireland was washed out without a ball bowled on Monday. This series was scheduled to conclude with Scotland’s match against Sri Lanka yesterday.
RUGBY
Japan win Pacific Nations
Japan stunned hosts Fiji 24-13 to capture the Pacific Nations Cup for the first time in dramatic fashion yesterday, giving Asia’s top side a huge boost ahead of this year’s World Cup. The Brave Blossoms need a four-try bonus-point victory over the Fijians and got it when Yuta Imamura skipped over just before the buzzer to trigger wild Japanese celebrations. “Great courage from the boys,” Japan coach John Kirwan said. “They were very physical ... I’m very proud of them.” Japan finished level with Tonga on 10 points in the standings, but won the tournament by virtue of their 28-27 win over the Tongans at the weekend. Tonga beat Samoa 29-19 before Japan’s fireworks tore up the script. Fiji let themselves down with some poor discipline and finished the game with just 12 players on the pitch. All four teams were using the competition as a warm-up for this year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
SOCCER
Turkish teams get go-ahead
UEFA says Turkish clubs Fenerbahce and Trabzonspor can play in next season’s Champions League despite their involvement in a widespread match-fixing probe. UEFA says the investigation is “a complex case which is still evolving,” but “there is nothing according to the UEFA statutes or regulations” to refuse entry. However, UEFA warns that clubs can be kicked out of the Champions League or banned in future seasons “if it transpires (they) obtained qualification via manipulated or fixed matches.” Prosecutors have charged dozens of suspects, including league champion Fenerbahce’s president, over corruption allegations involving 19 games. Runner-up Trabzonspor is in tomorrow’s Champions League third qualifying round draw.
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