TENNIS
Wimbledon to share wealth
Wimbledon chiefs have increased the total prize money on offer at the grass-court tournament to £16.1 million (US$26 million) in a bid to satisfy calls for a fairer distribution of the wealth at grand slams. There has been growing unrest among players that too much of the prize money on offer at the four majors went to the top stars, who routinely reach the lucrative later stages, at the expense of the lower ranked competitors. However, All England Club officials entered into talks with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray — the top four in the men’s rankings — to debate the problem at the Indian Wells event earlier this year. And Wimbledon has responded to the big four’s demands with a 10 percent increase of £1.5 million on last year’s total prize money in a bid to ease the lower players’ complaints that the cost of living on tour was not matched by the rewards on offer.
SOCCER
Monterrey win CONCACAF
Monterrey won the CONCACAF Champions League crown on Wednesday, falling 2-1 at Santos in the second leg of the final but emerging with a 3-2 aggregate victory in the regional club championship. Neri Cardozo’s goal in the 82nd minute, from a pass from second-half substitute Walter Ayovi, was enough to give Monterrey the aggregate victory after the second-leg contest in Torreon in northern Mexico. Monterrey had triumphed 2-0 at home in the first leg last week to gain control of the tie for the North and Central America and Caribbean club crown.
SOCCER
Rangers panel threatened
The judicial panel who imposed a one-year transfer embargo on Rangers, that manager Ally McCoist said could “kill” the club, have been given police advice after threats were made against them. In a statement issued Wednesday, the Scottish Football Association lamented a “wholly irresponsible betrayal of confidential information” that had left the three-strong panel at risk. News of the police intervention came just a day after an angry McCoist, a former Rangers and Scotland striker, had called for the panel’s identities to be made public.
SOCCER
Victory name coach
Melbourne Victory yesterday unveiled Ange Postecoglou as their new coach just days after he led Brisbane Roar to back-to-back A-League championships. The Greek-born Postecoglou on Tuesday announced he was quitting Brisbane after two-and-a-half years in charge, having taken the team to consecutive A-League titles and twice qualifying for the Asian Champions League. The former Socceroo, 46, will be the Victory’s fourth coach in 13 months.
PHYSIOLOGY
Lefties have advantage
Growing up as the odd one out may be what gives left-handed people an advantage in the sports arena, where they have the element of surprise, said a study published on Wednesday. About one in 10 people are left-handed, but in a number of sports like boxing, fencing and table tennis, they were overrepresented to the tune of about one in five, study co-author Mark Panaggio said. In baseball, more than 30 percent of athletes were southpaws — and for the top hitters in the US major league the figure rose to 58 percent. “Left-handers have a slight boost in their skill ability just due to inherently being left-handed,” Panaggio said of the findings published in Britain’s Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
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