SOCCER
Mechelen slump to 10th
Taiwan international Javier Chen’s KV Mechelen dropped to 10th in the Belgian Jupiler League on Saturday after a 2-0 home defeat to KSC Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen. Hamdi Harbaoui opened the scoring for the visitors in the 16th minute, but they were reduced to 10 men in the last minute of the first half when Congolese midfielder Tiko was sent off after receiving his second yellow card. Mechelen failed to find a way past the 10 men, though, and Lokeren made sure of the three points four minutes from time when Laurens De Bock added a second. Chen played the full 90 minutes.
MARATHON
Makau sets new record
Patrick Makau of Kenya broke the world record to win the Berlin Marathon yesterday. Makau pulled away after 27km and finished in two hours, three minutes and 38 seconds. Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who held the previous record of two hours, three minutes and 59 seconds, pulled up after Makau’s breakaway and seemed on the verge of giving up, but resumed running. For several kilometers, he was second, about two minutes behind Makau, but appeared to have finally given up before the finish. Makau also won last year’s race in driving rain.
GOLF
Norret pulls two clear
Denmark’s Thomas Norret pulled two strokes clear of the field after a solid two-under par-70 in the third round of the Austrian Open in Atzenbrugg on Saturday to set up a shot at his first tour title. Norret’s 54-hole total of nine-under (207) put him ahead of three Britons in Kenneth Ferrie (67), Simon Wakefield (70) and Robert Coles (72) as well as Joost Luiten (72) from the Netherlands. “I will definitely be talking to the mental coach tonight — hopefully we can get me over the line,” the 37-year-old Norret, whose last win came on the Challenge Tour in 2002, told the European Tour Web site. Ferrie is the only past winner on tour in the top five, so 18-time winner Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain, who posted a 70 to lie just five back (212), was to be among those hunting down the leaders yesterday.
CYCLING
Bronzini retains world title
Italian Giorgia Bronzini retained her world title when she once again denied Dutchwoman Marianne Vos with a perfectly timed surge in the final stretch in the 140km road race in Rudersdal, Denmark, on Saturday. Bronzini launched her sprint with 150m to go, with Vos unable to catch her on the line as Italy won their fourth women’s title in the last five years. Germany’s Ina-Yoko Teutenberg finished third ahead of Briton Nicole Cooke, who produced her effort too late to repeat her 2008 success. It was Vos’s fifth second-place in succession and her 2006 victory is a distant memory.
BADMINTON
Taiwan wins mixed doubles
Taiwan’s Chen Hung-ling and Cheng Wen-hsing took gold in mixed doubles at the Japan Open in Tokyo yesterday, defeating Joachim Fischer Nielsel and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark 21-19, 16-21, 21-15. However, Cheng and compatriot Chien Yu-chin lost to Chinese pair Bao Yixin and Zhong Qianxin 13-21, 25-23, 21-12 for the women’s doubles title at the Japan Open in Toyko yesterday. Meanwhile, in men’s singles action, Chen Long claimed his second title in two weeks when he shocked world No. 1 Lee Chong Wei to win. The Chinese fourth-seed, fresh from his victory at the China Masters last weekend, dashed the Malaysian’s defense of the title with a 21-8, 10-21, 21-19 victory.
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