TAEKWONDO
Taiwan juniors nab silver
Taiwan won another medal at the World Junior Taekwondo Championships, as a high-school student from Greater Taichung won silver in the under-42kg women’s category in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Saturday. Lin Wan-ting was defeated by her South Korean opponent in a sudden-death match after both sides failed to score in three rounds of their event. Before reaching the final, Lin triumphed in four matches that day, including wins over Turkish and British opponents in the quarter-final and semi-final rounds, respectively. The championships are the first international competition for Lin, who was the only athlete awarded a medal among the four Taiwanese taking part in the competition that day. A Taiwanese had won gold in the men’s under-59kg category on Wednesday.
CRICKET
Windies reach 179-3
Kirk Edwards and Kraigg Braithwaite both made half-centuries as West Indies reached 179 for three in the first Test against Australia on Saturday when play was abandoned for the day because of rain. The big-hitting Edwards made 61, that featured 10 boundaries and a six, while teenage opener Braithwaite struck a patient 57 off 199 balls at Kensington Oval in Barbados. The pair shared a second wicket partnership of 104, aided in part by some sloppy Australian fielding. Braithwaite was dropped twice and Edwards once. Braithwaite put on 38 with Adrian Barath for the first wicket. Barath, who made 22 off 54 deliveries, threw his wicket away before lunch when he was caught by Peter Siddle at deep backward square after hooking a bouncer from Ryan Harris. The final session was interrupted by rain and eventually called off early, but Australia did pick up another wicket in the few overs that were played when Braithwaite edged Siddle behind to debutant keeper Matthew Wade. When stumps were eventually drawn, Darren Bravo was not out 20 and Shivnarine Chanderpaul was unbeaten on eight.
CYCLING
Sanchez wins Basque Tour
Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez won the Tour of Basque Country by overtaking fellow Spanish cyclist Joaquin Rodriguez during Saturday’s final stage. Sanchez, riding for local favorite Euskatel-Euskadi, cruised through steady rainfall to clock the fastest mark in the 18.9km time trial around the medieval village of Onati. Rodriguez was runner-up overall 12 seconds back, while Bauke Mollema of the Netherlands came third in the race’s 52nd edition. “I’m very happy with my performance,” Rodriguez said. “I’m not a specialist of races against the clock, but I think I’m improving. That’s obviously good news for big stage races.”
GOLF
Hend wins in Singapore
Australia’s Scott Hend closed with a six-under 64 to win the weather-shortened ISPS Handa Singapore Classic yesterday. The US$400,000 full-field Asian Tour event was reduced to 54 holes after inclement weather caused almost 10 hours of play to be lost over the first three days. Taiwan’s Lu Wei-chih, Mithun Perera of Sri Lanka, Spain’s Javi Colomo and David Lipsky of the US were bunched in tied second on matching 200s at the Orchid Country Club. As many as three players were still in contention for either a playoff or win after Hend had signed for his score. “It’s sort of like you’re going out and have to wait for your wife to do her hair or something. You’re just sitting around and pacing around and that was what I was feeling then,” the big-hitting Hend said.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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