GOLF
Lawrie leads in Sicily
Ireland’s Peter Lawrie produced a course-record eight-under-par 64 to lead after the opening round at the Sicilian Open on Thursday. Lawrie’s superb start featured nine birdies and just the one bogey at the Verdura Golf and Spa resort. The 38-year-old Dubliner leads by one shot from a trio of challengers — Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen, Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Argentina’s Tano Goya. Lawrie has put himself in with a solid chance of adding to his lone European Tour success at the Spanish Open in 2008 after missing the cut last week in Morocco. Kjeldsen was the early clubhouse leader after a round that included an eagle, six birdies and one bogey.
SOCCER
Beer ban suspended
Beer-drinking soccer fans should be able to savor their favorite beverage during matches at the 2014 World Cup after Brazilian lawmakers approved a bill suspending a ban on beer sales in stadiums. The bill regulating the beautiful game’s quadrennial extravaganza received near unanimous support in the House of Deputies late on Wednesday, paving the way for beer to be sold in plastic cups inside the venues. Sales of alcoholic beverages in sports arenas have been banned in Brazil since 2003, but the World Cup bill will create an exception that had been demanded by world governing body FIFA. The bill, which still has to be endorsed by the Senate before being ratified by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, will also allow beer to be sold in stadiums during next year’s Confederations Cup. FIFA had sought the exception over an agreement with its sponsor, US-based Anheuser-Busch brand Budweiser, and because banning beer sales in 12 Brazilian host cities would have hit the soccer organization’s revenues.
SOCCER
Clubs fined after fight
Two South Korean soccer clubs have been fined after fan violence broke out last week in which a team mascot was beaten up, the K-League said yesterday. The league said Incheon United would be fined 5 million won (US$4,400) and ordered to play a home game at a neutral venue. Daejeon Citizen will have to pay 10 million won, with their fans banned from two future fixtures. The fines come after two Citizen fans jumped onto the pitch and beat up United’s mascot, which resembles a crane bird, after United beat Citizen 2-1 during a game at the Incheon ground. A fist fight broke out between rival supporters in the stands, while some fans let off fireworks. The two men who beat up the mascot were banned from attending all domestic games at Daejeon. Citizen fans accused the mascot of gesticulating in an offensive manner in front of them, but United denied this. “What the mascot did was a common routine in every match,” a United official told the Korea Times.
SOCCER
Real to open China academy
European giants Real Madrid are to open a soccer academy in southern China next year in a tie-up with Super League leaders Guangzhou Evergrande, the Chinese club’s owner said on its Web site. Madrid, who have been champions of Europe a record nine times, are striving to promote their brand in fast-developing China, as are a host of other top European sides. The Guangzhou academy will take in more than 3,000 promising players in its first year and use the same training techniques as those used by Real Madrid in Spain, according to Chinese property giant Evergrande.
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