GOLF
Striker saved my life: ’keeper
Rochdale goalkeeper David Lucas, who was knocked unconscious in an English third division match against Sheffield United, credited quick-thinking opponent Richard Creswell for saving his life on Sunday. The goalkeeper collided with United defender Neill Collins just before halftime of Saturday’s match and collapsed to the ground, before striker Cresswell, Lucas’ former Preston North End teammate, put the 34-year-old into the recovery position to stop him swallowing his tongue. “As dramatic as it sounds to say he saved my life, maybe he did,” Lucas told the BBC. “It was lucky on my part that someone as sensible and quick-thinking like ‘Cressy’ reacted as quickly as he did.” The goalkeeper received medical treatment in his own penalty area as play was stopped for 10 minutes. “I’ve been told Cressy put me in the recovery position and stopped me swallowing my tongue,” Lucas said. “I only remember a free-kick outside of the box which came into the area and started curling away from me. I thought: ‘I’ve got to steady myself here and go in for the ball’. Then I knew I was down and the next thing I remember was the emergency staff putting a neck brace on me. So obviously I was knocked out for a few minutes.”
CHINA
Anelka to join Shanghai
Chelsea star Nicolas Anelka is to join Shanghai Shenhua on a two-year contract, the club said yesterday, in a huge boost for China’s scandal-hit Super League. The 32-year-old French striker will join the club next month, Shenhua said in a brief statement, which did not mention the value of the deal. “Shanghai Shenhua and Chelsea have reached [a] consensus that French striker Nicolas Anelka will officially join Shanghai Shenhua in January 2012 after the winter transfer window opens,” the statement on the club’s Web site said. Anelka will be the first former English Premier League player to appear in China’s Super League and by far its biggest star. There have been media reports Anelka would more than double his weekly salary to £200,000 (US$313,000), but Ma Yue, spokesman for Shanghai Shenhua, appeared to pour cold water on those reports. “I cannot confirm his salary at the moment. I can just say the final amount could be different from £200,000,” Ma said, refusing to give further details.
NETHERLANDS
Ajax move back into fourth
Ajax needed an own-goal by Guy Ramos to beat RKC Waalwijk 1-0 on Sunday and move back into fourth place in the Dutch league. Elsewhere, Utrecht drew 2-2 at home to Feyenoord, with Jerson Cabral scoring the equalizer for the visitors after an early strike by teammate John Guidetti had been canceled out by goals from Daan Bovenberg and Edouard Duplan. VVV Venlo moved off the bottom of the table after their second victory of the season, a 2-0 win over Roda JC. At the top, AZ Alkmaar, PSV Eindhoven and Twente all won on Saturday. Alkmaar lead the standings with 38 points, four more than PSV. Twente have 33 points and Ajax have 30.
MEXICO
Tigres win third league title
Tigres UANL came from a goal down to beat Santos Laguna 3-1 on Sunday and lift the Mexican league title for the first time in 29 years. The side from the northern city of Monterrey won the final 4-1 on aggregate following their 1-0 first-leg victory at Santos on Thursday. Second-half goals from Hector Mancilla, Danilinho and substitute Alan Pulido won it for Tigres, who won their two previous titles in 1978 and 1982.
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