SOCCER
Teams’ futures brighten
The chances of co-favorites Ghana or Ivory Coast winning next year’s Africa Cup of Nations rose on Saturday after a kind first-round draw for both countries. Former champions Ivory Coast got Angola, Burkina Faso and Sudan in Malabo-based Group B, while four-time winners Ghana tackle Guinea, Malawi and surprise qualifiers Botswana in Franceville-based Group D. Co-hosts Gabon were out of luck in Group C as they were lumped with potentially powerful North African contenders Morocco and Tunisia plus Niger, shock winners of an elimination group that included defending champions Egypt. Equatorial Guinea, at 41 in Africa by far the lowest-ranked team, but among the top seeds as co-hosts, come up against two former runners-up in Zambia and Senegal plus sentimental favorites Libya. Equatorial Guinea and Libya will kick off the three-week tournament on Jan. 21 in Bata, followed by a late-evening showdown between Senegal and Zambia.
RUGBY LEAGUE
England see off Wales
Sam Tomkins scored four tries as England comprehensively saw off Wales 42-4 in Leigh, England, to move ahead of Australia on points difference after the opening round of the Four Nations on Saturday. England got off to the start everyone expected with Tomkins going over in the first set of six, but a series of unforced errors limited them to just two more tries in the opening 40. Tomkins added the second and Kirk Yeaman the third, but England were a completely different outfit after the break and crossed the whitewash five more times to win comfortably. Brisbane Broncos center Jack Reed scored in between Tomkins’ third and fourth and Australian-born Chris Heighington added a seventh and Gareth Widdop an eighth late on.
RUGBY UNION
Lions end long wait
The Lions ended a 12-year wait for a Currie Cup title in Johannesburg on Saturday, beating the defending champion Sharks 42-16 at Ellis Park for their first South African championship since 1999 and first at home for 61 years. The Lions outscored a Springboks-filled Sharks team three tries to one and young flyhalf Elton Jantjies kicked 24 points to underline a convincing win for former All Blacks coach John Mitchell’s team. Left wing Michael Killian went over in the 26th minute for a 19-3 lead for the Lions. The Sharks struck back with a controversial score from Springboks flanker Willem Alberts early in the second, but that spurred the home team on and they responded through prop Pat Cilliers before Killian broke again to set up fullback Jaco Taute near the end.
SAILING
Abu Dhabi come first
British skipper Ian Walker steered Abu Dhabi through testing conditions to claim victory in the opening event of the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday. Abu Dhabi won the opening in-port race in Alicante by a huge margin of 14 minutes, 14 seconds. Twice Olympic silver medalist Walker took control at the first mark with a slick sail change and coped well with a sudden drop in wind. “It was very tricky on the water and none of us expected it to be,” said Walker, who is aiming to become the first British skipper to win the race. “We thought it would be strong winds out there. We did well ... It’s a great start.” Puma, skippered by experienced American Ken Read, was second ahead of Camper (New Zealand/Spain), Team Sanya (China), Groupama (France) and Telefonica (Spain) in the six-yacht race.
UNITED STATES
Lego man stays in custody
Lego man is going to stay in police custody for three months. Lego man, a 45kg, 2.4m tall sculpture, didn’t do anything wrong except wash up on a Florida beach. Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight said his office would hold the fiberglass sculpture for 90 days just like all other lost and found property. During that time, authorities would try to determine who the owner is. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that the local tourism bureau had hoped to use the Lego man to promote the area, but the sheriff said it needs to remain in police custody a little longer. The sculpture mysteriously appeared on a Siesta Key beach on Tuesday.
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