RUGBY UNION
Sapolu tweets away
Samoa’s Eliota Fuimaono Sapolu has again put himself on a collision course with rugby’s overlords after another Twitter tirade, this time for not acknowledging his country’s worst natural disaster. “Minute of silence for USA for 9/11, nothing for Samoa for tsunami. Both games played anniversary days. Our dead not good enough,” he said in a message sent yesterday. Sapolu was provisionally suspended from all rugby for calling Welsh referee Nigel Owen “racist.” Sapolu has been in hot water with the International Rugby Board for his outbursts throughout the tournament, which began when he said his side was being exploited with a tough schedule that he likened to “slavery” and “the Holocaust.”
SOCCER
W Germans may have doped
Three members of West Germany’s 1966 World Cup soccer team may have broken doping rules with cold treatment medicine, a letter seen by German magazine Der Spiegel said. The magazine is reporting in its current issue that historians at Berlin’s Humboldt University uncovered a letter from Nov. 29, 1966, in which FIFA medical committee chairman Mihailo Andrejevic informed West German Athletics Federation president Max Danz of slight traces of an ephedrine-based medicine found in three players. Ephedrine, a decongestant, is also a stimulant and was on FIFA’s list of banned substances at the time.
FOOTBALL
Andre Johnson to miss game
Five-time Pro Bowl receiver Andre Johnson will miss the Houston Texans’ game against Oakland this weekend because of a right hamstring injury that could sideline him for several weeks, the team announced on Wednesday. Johnson, who was injured during the second quarter of the 17-10 win over Pittsburgh last weekend, underwent a procedure on his right leg and will not be available for Houston’s home game against the Raiders on Sunday. One of the premier receivers in football, Johnson led the NFL in receiving yards in 2008 and 2009.
ATHLETICS
Mo Farah receives award
The UK’s men’s 5,000m world champion, Mo Farah, was named European male athlete of the year in Paris on Wednesday. The 28-year-old Somalia-born star — who also won silver in the 10,000m at the world championships in August — won the award ahead of last year’s winner Christophe Lemaitre of France. Russia’s 800m world champion Mariya Savinova was named female athlete of the year.
BOXING
Klitschko to fight Mormeck
World heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko has agreed to fight Frenchman Jean-Marc Mormeck in Duesseldorf, Germany, on Dec. 10, the Ukrainian said yesterday. IBF, IBO WBO champion Klitschko also added the WBA crown to his collection when he beat Briton David Haye in July. His brother Vitaly holds the WBC belt.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Minnesota Lynx beat Dream
Seimone Augustus scored 36 points to lead Minnesota’s second-half surge as the Lynx moved within one win of their first WNBA title by beating the Atlanta Dream 101-95 in Game 2 of the finals series on Wednesday. Jessica Adair added 13 points in 18 minutes in a reserve role for the Lynx, who overcame 38 points by the Dream’s Angel McCoughtry. Game 3 in the best-of-five series is set for today in Atlanta, Georgia.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with