GOLF
Poulter wins in Australia
England’s Ian Poulter won the Australian Masters yesterday, spoiling Geoff Ogilvy’s bid for a victory on his boyhood course. Poulter, two strokes behind Ogilvy entering the round, closed with a four-under 67 in windy conditions to finish at 15-under 269 at Victoria Golf Club. Australian Marcus Fraser had a 64 to finish second, three strokes back. Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion who matched the course record with a 63 on Saturday, shot a 73 to end up third at 11-under. Poulter quickly erased Ogilvy’s overnight lead with a 15-foot eagle putt on the par-four first hole. He then hit a birdie on the seventh to take the outright lead and added another on the ninth to make the turn with a two-shot advantage. World No. 1 Luke Donald had four birdies on the front nine to move up to fifth place, but followed with four bogeys on the back nine to finish with a one-over 72 and a share of 12th. Greg Chalmers failed in his bid to become the second player to complete the Australian Triple Crown, shooting a 74 to join Donald in the group at 4 under. Robert Allenby remains the only player to sweep the Australian Open, PGA and Masters. He accomplished the feat in 2005. Poulter putted well in the final round, despite the windy conditions. After nailing the 15-footer for eagle on the first, he sank a long putt to save par on the fifth and putted across the green for birdie on the seventh. He nearly made another eagle on the ninth, with the ball stopping inches from the hole.
SOCCER
Chen’s Mechelen frustrated
Taiwan international Xavier Chen’s KV Mechelen were held to a goalless draw by basement dwellers K Sint-Truidense VV on Saturday in the Belgian Jupiler League. The Yellow Reds, who grabbed a point off leaders RSC Anderlecht the previous weekend, failed to make a breakthrough against the Canaries, who remain bottom of the league, to pick up a share of the points and remain in 10th place ahead of the rest of the weekend’s matches. Chen played the full 90 minutes.
BASKETBALL
Jeff Green out for season
Boston Celtics forward Jeff Green will undergo surgery for an aortic aneurysm next month and miss the this season, the NBA team said on Saturday. The aneurysm was detected during a team physical last week, and after additional testing doctors recommended surgery, the Celtics said. The surgery, at the Cleveland Clinic on Jan. 9, should completely repair Green’s condition and he can expect to resume his NBA career next season, the team said in a statement. “While we are saddened that Jeff will not be able to play this season, the most important thing is his health,” Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said. Green, 25, was a first-round draft pick for the Celtics in 2007. He was traded to Seattle the same day and played three-plus seasons for Seattle/Oklahoma City before rejoining the Celtics in February as part of a trade. He played in 75 regular-season games for Oklahoma City and Boston last season, averaging 13.3 points and 4.8 rebounds.
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