BASEBALL
Wang in rehab game
Taiwanese right-hander Wang Chien-ming is scheduled to start his next rehab game for the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs today, the Chiefs announced on Sunday, a game that could finally land him back in the Major Leagues. Wang is hoping to secure a roster spot with the Washington Nationals after having been sidelined for the past two years following surgery on his right shoulder in July 2009. His outing against the Buffalo Bisons will be his fifth minor league rehabilitation game and represents the highest level of competition he has faced to date. His first official rehab game was on June 27 with the Class-A Hagerstown Suns, which beat the Lakewood BlueClaws 5-2. He then threw four scoreless innings for the Class A-Advanced Potomac Nationals on July 2 and another 11 scoreless innings in two outings for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators. Wang is currently 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA in the minor leagues, according to the Chiefs’ Web site. If Wang performs well in his Triple-A outing, he could return to the big leagues by the end of this month at the earliest.
TCHOUKBALL
Taiwan bags three titles
Taiwan bagged several Tchoukball World Youth Championship titles in Traiskirchen, Austria, on Sunday, taking first place in the 12-year-old boys, 18-year-old boys and 18-year-old girls categories. Tchoukball, an indoor game involving a trampoline-like net, was developed by Swiss biologist Hermann Brandt in the 1970s with the aim of devising a game that would result in few injuries. The biennial tournament saw the inclusion of 24 national teams comprising 263 players from nine countries. In the final round of the 18-year-old girls category, a team from Datung High School in Pingtung County beat Italy to claim the first spot. San Min High School from New Taipei City defeated Italy to claim the 18-year-old boys title, while Fengtien Elementary School from Pingtung County overpowered the United Arab Enirates team to seize the 12-year-old boys’ title. Taiwan is the world’s top--ranking tchoukball country after five teams won the top titles at the Asia-Pacific Tchoukball Championship held in Singapore last year.
POOL
Ko claims Guinness title
Taiwan’s Ko Pin-yi defeated Shane Van Boening of the US 10-4, to claim the Guinness World Series of Pool Championship title in Jakarta on Sunday. The win was Ko’s second title in three years, his last victory coming at the 2009 Philippine Open Pool Championship WPA World Tour 10-Ball Challenge. Ko pocketed US$41,000 for winning the championship, the single largest pay day of his career. In the final against Van Boening, Ko quickly fell behind by two racks, but recovered to tie the match after four frames. He pulled away after that. He was also helped by van Boening’s failure to pocket any balls on his last three breaks in the match.
ICE HOCKEY
Sakic hits hole-in-one
Former NHL All-Star Joe Sakic made a US$1 million hole-in-one during a celebrity golf tournament on Sunday. Canadian Sakic aced the par-three 17th hole at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. The two-time Stanley Cup winner will keep US$500,000, with the other half going to former cyclist Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation. “Burnaby Joe” used an eight iron on the 162nd waterfront hole for his first hole-in-one in his golfing career. Sakic played 20 seasons in the NHL and won a gold medal with Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
BRIEFS
Wallabies mourn Appleby
Wallaby James O’Connor has paid tribute to his former school mate Halley Appleby, who died yesterday as a result of injuries sustained in a club match in Australia at the weekend. Forward Appleby lost consciousness when he suffered brain and spinal injuries in a tackle in Saturday’s match between the University of Queensland and GPS in Brisbane. His family turned off the 21-year-old’s life support yesterday morning after he had been declared brain dead, local media reported. “It’s devastating, to say the least,” O’Connor told reporters. “I grew up with Halley and lived three doors down from him in the dorms at Nudgee College. It’s a massive shock. He was a really bubbly guy, always the life of the party. He was always the one up to mischief in the dorms. Everyone loved being around him.” Wallabies lock James Horwill, a member of Appleby’s University of Queensland club, also extended his condolences over what he described as a “freak accident.” “You can get hit by a car crossing the road,” the Queensland Reds skipper said. “You don’t think about it when you are playing rugby, but obviously there’s a risk involved in anything you do.”
SOCCER
City agree to sell Tevez
Manchester City have agreed a deal to sell their Argentine star Carlos Tevez to Brazilian side Corinthians, the English Premier League club’s manager, Roberto Mancini, said yesterday. “At the moment we have an agreement with Corinthians, but Carlos now is still a City player,” Mancini told Sky TV. According to reports, the deal will be closed when personal terms between the 27-year-old and his new club are agreed. The Brazilian side had offered 40 million euros (US$64 million) for the striker, but City had been holding out for more for their captain and Corinthians have reportedly made an improved offer. The striker wants to leave Manchester as his daughters live in South America with their mother.
SOCCER
Lowly India stun Qatar
Lowly India, ranked No. 147 in the world, pulled off a 2-1 victory over 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar in a friendly at the Al Sadd Stadium on Sunday. Both teams were preparing for their World Cup Asian Zone qualifiers on July 23 when Qatar take on Vietnam in Doha and India travel to the United Arab Emirates. India put up a spirited display against the 94th-ranked Qatar, who took time to settle, despite being back home from a two-week training camp in France. India went ahead through a 16th-minute penalty from former Kansas City Wizards striker Sunil Chhetri. Striker Sushil Kumar Singh then made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute and it was only then that Qatar showed some sense of urgency. Though the home team hit back in the very next minute, it was too little, too late.
SWIMMING
D’Arcy to pay compensation
Australian swimmer Nick D’Arcy has been ordered to pay at least A$180,000 (US$192,000) in compensation to a fellow swimmer he assaulted in 2008 after a judge rejected his claim of self-defense. D’Arcy was booted off the Australian team for the 2008 Olympics for assaulting Simon Cowley and he received a 14-month suspended jail sentence in 2009 after pleading guilty to recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. The 23-year old swimmer, who last month beat Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly in California, had argued that he acted in self-defense when he “lashed out” at Cowley with a “wild defensive swing” which caused multiple facial fractures.
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