ATHLETICS
French ’mates suspended
French teammates Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine -Mekhissi-Benabbad have been provisionally suspended after trading blows in an extraordinary incident after the 1,500m at the Monaco Diamond League. Baala finished ninth in Friday’s race, while Mekhissi, the Olympic 3,000 steeplechase silver medalist, came in 11th, but an attempt to console each other went badly wrong. At one point, Baala head-butted Mekhissi who responded by swinging his arms wildly as he threw a series of punches, some of which missed their intended target. “Following the unspeakable behavior of Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi--Benabbad ... the president of the French Athletics Federation decided today to hold an emergency disciplinary hearing,” the federation said in a statement on Saturday. “At the same time, the federal office under the general regulations has decided on a temporary suspension of the two athletes until the meeting of the disciplinary commission.” The pair were separated on the track, but the row did not stop there as they exchanged strong words in the media zone after Mekhissi appeared to slap Baala. “I’m going to break you in two,” an angry Baala responded.
ATHLETICS
Savinova clocks second best
At the Russian National Championships, Maria Savinova clocked one minute, 56.95 seconds in the women’s 800m for the season’s best mark and her new personal best. “I didn’t expect to run so fast,” Savinova said. “I just wanted to win a medal here to obtain a world championships place.” Russia’s longstanding favorite at the men’s 800m, Yury Borzakovsky, confirmed his top status winning in 1:45.76. Olga Zaitseva won the women’s long jump with a leap of 7.01m. Maria Abakumova was in a class of her own in women’s javelin at the national championships, winning with 66.05m.
BASKETBALL
Lakers lay off longtime staff
The Los Angeles Lakers have laid off about 20 employees, including longtime assistant general manager Ronnie Lester and five members of their scouting staff, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. Among the laid-off scouts, Gene Tormohlen, who put in 43 years with the NBA club, is part of the group of employees who were told they were being laid off or that their contracts would not be renewed. However, Lester, who spent two-dozen years, including the past 10 as assistant general manager with the team, blasted the organization, saying the Lakers handled the situation poorly. “You think of the Lakers and you think they are a great organization,” Lester told the Times. “But if you work inside the organization, it is only a perception of being a great organization, because great organizations don’t treat their personnel like they’ve done.”
BOXING
Butch Lewis passes away
Butch Lewis, the colorful boxing promoter who worked with Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier and Michael and Leon Spinks, has died. He was 65. Funeral home owner Sammy Congo of Congo Funeral Home in Wilmington, Delaware, said he received notification of Lewis’ death on Saturday morning. He did not have information about how Lewis died. Lewis was best known in the ring for sporting tuxedos with no shirt and being involved in some of the sport’s biggest fights. He began his career in boxing in the 1970s, but later branched into music and entertainment.
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