BASEBALL
Stars named for Taiwan tour
Major League Baseball named a 19-man squad featuring Miguel Cabrera of Detroit and Skip Schumaker of St Louis for an exhibition tour of Taiwan in November. Both teams are currently battling in their respective league championship series, trying to get into the World Series. Other marquee names on the tour roster include Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson of the New York Yankees. The major leaguers will play five games from Nov. 1 to 6. Cabrera’s participation will depend on how the Tigers fare in the rest of the post-season. The Cardinals’ Schumaker has been sidelined for the National League championship series with a strained right oblique muscle.
ATHLETICS
Chen third in Kalahari run
Taiwanese ultramarathon runner Tommy Chen finished third at an extreme marathon in the Kalahari Desert by completing the race in 36 hours and 16 minutes, his spokesperson said late on Friday. According to Nicole Chiang, Chen almost gave up on the sixth day of the 250km, seven-day Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon. He took eight hours to finish the 37km route on that day. “We couldn’t find the route signs while running. The signs could have been carried away by wind or animals in the desert, but many runners couldn’t find their way out,” Chen was quoted as saying. “I wanted to hurry on my way, but I really couldn’t find the checkpoints. I thought if I kept going, I would have died in the desert of dehydration,” he said. Chiang said the organizers later realized something was not right and escorted all disorientated runners back on the right track. The 25-year-old had been running with broken shoes and cracked skin under his feet since day one. He managed to borrow another pair of shoes to complete the race. The marathon, now in its 12th year, started on Oct. 8 with 29 runners. Chen has previously accomplished the 2009 Himalayan 160km Stage Race, the North Pole Marathon last year and the Antarctic 100km ultra race. He has four more races to go before he completes his goal of finishing eight races that span across seven continents within five years.
GOLF
Horschel in McGladrey lead
Little-known Billy Horschel charged into a two-shot lead in Friday’s second round of the McGladrey Classic at Sea Island in Georgia, while fellow American Webb Simpson stayed on track for his third victory of the year. Former Walker Cup amateur Horschel eagled the par-five 15th on the way to a sizzling six-under-par 64, sinking a three-foot birdie putt at the last to post a 12-under total of 128. In hot pursuit after carding a 67 was Simpson, who has won twice in his last five starts and has a chance to beat British world No. 1 Luke Donald to the PGA tour money title. “I’ve played great this year,” Simpson said after ending a breezy day at the Seaside Course on 10 under, level with fellow American Michael Thompson (65). “Hopefully I can make a little dent in the [money list] gap this week,” he said. Simpson trails Donald by US$68,971 and both of them are scheduled to compete in next week’s season-ending Disney Classic at Lake Buena Vista, Florida. South African Louis Oosthuizen, who romped to a seven-stroke victory in last year’s British Open, fired a 67 to end the second round at eight under, along with Australian Nick O’Hern. The cut fell at one-under 139 with last year’s US Open champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and former major winners Vijay Singh, Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard and David Toms among those failing to advance.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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