CHINA
Chen debuts for Shenzhen
Chen Po-liang, Taiwan national team captain, the first Taiwanese to join a China League team, made his debut for Shenzhen Ruby on Saturday. Shenzhen won 1-0 at Beijing Baxi in their season opener. Chen’s performance was below his true potential and he was substituted in the 67th minute. His two shining moments in the game were when he made a remarkable pass to set up the striker for a one-on-one with the Beijing goalkeeper in the first half and at the beginning of the second half when he missed a clear chance, firing over the bar from inside the penalty area. Chen Ao-wei, a 19-year-old who played for Taipei Physical Education last year, the other Taiwanese to join the China League, was left out of the Beijing Baxi squad and he watched the game from the stands. Liu Fu-tsai, CTFA vice president, attended the game, wearing a Beijing Baxi hat and scarf. He did not arrange to meet with Chen Po-liang during his visit.
BELGIUM
Mechelen fall at Waregem
Taiwan international Xavier Chen’s KV Mechelen lost 2-0 away at SV Zulte Waregem on Sunday to remain in ninth place in the Belgian Jupiler League as the hosts pulled away from the relegation places. Jens Naessens opened the scoring for Waregem in the 19th minute at the Regenboogstadion and Brian Hamalainen doubled their lead with seven minutes remaining. Defender Davy De Fauw was man of the match for the hosts. Chen played the full 90 minutes.
ENGLAND
Muamba still in hospital
Bolton Wanderers’ Fabrice Muamba remained in “critical condition” as he continued his fight for life on Sunday. Muamba was rushed to a hospital after collapsing toward the end of the first half of an FA Cup quarter-final at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. It was later confirmed the 23-year-old had suffered a cardiac arrest.
ENGLAND
Berbatov to leave squad
Manchester United’s Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov will leave the club at the end of this season to play elsewhere in Europe, agent Emil Danchev said on Sunday. “I had three meetings with [Manchester United manager] Alex Ferguson. We accept that he is trying to build a new team, change the playing style, introduce more speed,” Danchev told Bulgarian Canal 3 television. He said Manchester United would not oppose Berbatov’s move in the summer even if they chose to extend his contract by an extra year. Berbatov joined Manchester United from Tottenham Hotspur in 2008.
RUSSIA
Lokomotiv sorry for banana
A Russian soccer club has expressed its disappointment over an “idiotic” banana-throwing incident with its Congolese-born defender. Chris Samba had a banana thrown at him from the stands after his club Anzhi Makhachkala lost to Lokomotiv in Moscow late on Sunday. Samba tossed the banana back. Anzhi called on Lokomotiv security services yesterday to identify and punish the individual who threw the banana. Samba said in a statement that the incident was “an act of a stupid person.” Racism is common among some Russian fans, which include ultranationalists and neo-Nazis. Last year, Anzhi’s Roberto Carlos had bananas thrown at him twice. In 2010, Lokomotiv Moscow fans unfurled a banner showing a banana.
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