ATHLETICS
Kipsang wins marathon
Kenyan Wilson Kipsang, the second-fastest man ever, won the men’s London marathon yesterday in an unofficial of 2 hours, 4 minutes, 44 seconds. Three-time London champion Martin Lel of Kenya finished second for the second year in a row, just ahead of Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede. Kipsang clocked 2:03:42 in Frankfurt, Germany, last year, four seconds outside compatriot Patrick Makau’s world record. Makau dropped out of yesterday’s race around the halfway mark. The elite men went through the halfway stage shortly after Tower Bridge in 62 minutes, 12 seconds, at which stage Kipsang surged to the front. He accelerated again at 35km to take an unassailable lead. In the women’s event, Mary Keitany successfully defended her London Marathon title as Kenya swept the podium places in the women’s race. Last year’s champion went clear in front from a world class field in the closing kilometers and won in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 36 seconds, a new Kenyan national record and a personal best. World champion Edna Kiplagat finished second, more than one minute behind, with world silver medalist Priscah Jeptoo a further 24 seconds behind in third. Keitany’s time was well inside her previous personal best of 2:19:19 she set in winning last year’s London Marathon.
OLYMPICS
Ferguson angry at shortlist
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is fuming after being told Wayne Rooney is on the shortlist for the UK squad at the London Olympics despite the striker being widely expected to go to Euro 2012 with England. Soccer bosses had agreed that any player turning out for England in June would not be considered for the July and August Olympic Games, but Rooney is suspended for the first two Euro matches. “It’s serious, this is the start of the season we are talking about. It’s ridiculous,” Ferguson told British newspapers yesterday, annoyed that Rooney and nine other United players are on the 80-man shortlist drawn up by Games coach Stuart Pearce, who is also caretaker England manager. The Olympic tournament will finish just weeks before the start of the Premier League season. Three over-23 players are allowed in the final Olympic 18-man squad, with United’s Welsh winger Ryan Giggs and former midfielder David Beckham likely to be included.
BOXING
Mares defeats Eric Morel
Unbeaten Abner Mares won a 12-round unanimous decision over Eric Morel in a battle of former champions for the vacant World Boxing Council super bantamweight world title in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday . Mares, 26, moved up in weight after capturing the International Boxing Federation bantamweight crown with a victory over Joseph Agbeko in August last year — a title he retained in a rematch in December. His speed and work rate wore down Puerto Rico’s Morel, a 36-year-old who once held the World Boxing Association super flyweight title. Two ringside judges scored the bout 119-109 for Mares, while the third saw it 120-107 for the Mexican, who improved to 24-0-1 with 13 knockouts. Morel fell to 46-3, with 23 knockouts. They were fighting for title vacated by Japan’s Toshiaki Nishioka after he could not get a fight with Philippine star Nonito Donaire. On the undercard, WBA bantamweight “super champion” Anselmo Moreno of Panama made the 10th successful defense of his title as he stopped David de la Mora in the ninth round of a lopsided bout. Moreno improved to 33-1-1 with 12 knockouts.
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