BASEBALL
Taiwan knocked out of LLWS
Pan Yi-an scattered nine hits over five innings and added a solo homer in the sixth to lead Langley, British Columbia, to a 5-3 win on Monday over Greater Kaoshiung to advance at the Little League World Series (LLWS) in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Langley became the first Canadian team to defeat a team from Taiwan in the World Series after 16 straight losses. With the game tied, Connor McCreath scored the go-ahead run in the fourth after singling. McCreath was sacrificed to second and later came around to score on an error. Taiwan had two chances to tie late, but had a runner called out in the fourth for sliding head first into home, which is against Little League rules. Pan tagged a runner out at home to end the bottom of the fifth.
GOLF
Holmes prepares for surgery
J.B. Holmes has withdrawn from The Barclays as he prepares to have brain surgery. Holmes has been diagnosed with structural defects in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls balance. He has been dealing with vertigo-like symptoms since May and has gone to several specialists. Doctors discovered last week he has Chiari malformations. Holmes is to have the operation on Thursday next week at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He said brain surgery sounds scary, but it’s a low-risk procedure and he should be able to return to competition about three months after the surgery.
ATHLETICS
Gabriel named IAAF chief
Experienced administrator Essar Gabriel has been named the new general secretary of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), replacing the retiring Pierre Weiss, the governing body said yesterday. Gabriel is a former director-general of the organizing committee for the 2003 Paris World Championships and was responsible for organizing the first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore last year.
GOLF
Victorian Open to be joint
In what organizers are claiming to be a first for Australian professional golf, the men’s and women’s Victorian Open championships will be jointly played next year with both titles culminating at the same course and with equal prize money on Jan. 8. The men’s state championship will be played over 72 holes from Jan. 5 and the women’s tournament will be over 54 holes from Jan. 8. Cuts will be made ahead of the weekend, with the final two rounds of each tournament being held be at the Spring Valley course. A seeded draw will apply for the final day, with men’s and women’s groups alternately commencing rounds so that the leading group of men and the leading group of women will be last to start play from the first tee.
SOCCER
Colombia coach resigns
Colombian soccer officials have started their search for a new national coach after the resignation of Hernan Dario Gomez, who acknowledged he struck a woman in a bar. Gomez announced his resignation two weeks ago following the incident, but said late on Sunday he would leave despite suggestions the Colombia federation might not accept his departure. The Colombians Football Federation said on Monday it had started to search for a replacement ahead of South American qualifying for the World Cup starting in the next few months. Several possible replacements have been reported, including Gerardo Martino, who resigned recently after leading Paraguay to last year’s World Cup.
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