GOLF
Stanley wins Phoenix Open
Kyle Stanley bounced back from a bitter defeat to win the Phoenix Open in Scottsdale, Arizona on Sunday, erasing an eight-shot deficit to triumph a week after his last-round collapse at Torrey Pines. “I’m not sure what I’m thinking right now,” Stanley said. “I just needed to focus on playing golf. I needed to put last week behind me.” Stanley was brought to tears at Torrey after a triple-bogey at the final hole dropped him into a playoff that he lost. However, on Sunday, he was in position to strike as Spencer Levin suffered a similar collapse — surrendering a six-shot overnight lead to eventually settle for third. Stanley capped a bogey-free 65 with a four-foot par putt and finished with a 15-under total of 269. Ben Crane carded a 66 and finished in second on 270.
GOLF
Lawrie takes Qatar title
Britain’s Paul Lawrie hit a final-round 65 to win his second Qatar Masters title on Sunday, evoking memories of his Open success in 1999. The Doha tournament was reduced to 54 holes because of high winds on Friday and, after carding 69 and 67 in the opening two rounds, Lawrie produced a bogey-free third to leave the chasing pack trailing. After finishing four strokes clear of Australia’s Jason Day and Sweden’s Peter Hanson, he was reminded that the last time he triumphed in Qatar, he went on to claim the Open title five months later at Carnoustie. “Now wouldn’t that be nice to get that again?” he said after finishing on 15-under par with the joint lowest round of the day. The 43-year-old Scot has made a good start to the year with top-10 finishes in last month’s Volvo Golf Champions and Abu Dhabi Championship.
CYCLING
CAS suspends Contador
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday suspended Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador for two years for a doping offense he committed during the 2010 Tour de France, officials said. The suspension, which runs through to Aug. 6 this year, means that Contador is stripped of his victory in the race that year and will be unable to take part in this year’s edition. Contador tested positive for the banned anabolic agent clenbuterol during the 2010 Tour de France, but he was subsequently cleared by the Spanish Cycling Federation in February last year, prompting the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Cycling Union to appeal the decision to CAS. Apart from losing his 2010 Tour de France title, the verdict means that Contador is stripped of all his wins in 2011, which include the Giro d’Italia.
SOCCER
Terry ruling wrong: Capello
England coach Fabio Capello said on Sunday that he disagreed with the decision by the Football Association (FA) to strip John Terry of the England captaincy, in an interview with Italian television. “I thought it was right that Terry should keep the captain’s armband,” Capello told Rai 1 station. “I don’t agree with the Football Association. I have spoken to the chairman and I have said that, in my opinion, one cannot be punished until it’s official and the court — a non-sporting court, a civil court — has made a decision to decide if John Terry has done what he has been accused of. The fact that the board has decided in this way is because it falls under the competence regarding ethics.” Terry was stripped of the England captaincy for the second time in two years on Friday after mounting concern his ongoing racism court case had made his position untenable.
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