BASKETBALL
Lin sore after surgery
Knicks sensation Jeremy Lin said his surgically repaired left knee was sore on Sunday after training on Saturday, but he wouldn’t rule out a return in the first round of the NBA playoffs. “I was more encouraged by what I did yesterday and less encouraged by how I felt today,” Lin said after the Knicks trained on Sunday in Miami, where they were blown out by the Heat in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series on Saturday. “But it’s a process, ups and downs.” Lin had surgery on April 2 to repair a meniscus tear and the Knicks said he would miss about six weeks. If he were to make it back for Game 4 of the Miami series, scheduled for next Sunday, he would be ahead of schedule. Lin was careful on Sunday not to promise a first-round return, although he indicated there was a chance, especially if the series goes beyond four games. “If I felt good today, then that would be more of a possibility, but I didn’t feel that great today,” he said.
GOLF
Dufner wins before wedding
American Jason Dufner gave himself a well-timed early wedding gift by clinching his first USPGA Tour title in a playoff with Ernie Els at the New Orleans Classic in Avondale, Louisiana, on Sunday. Just six days before his marriage to girlfriend Amanda Boyd, Dufner ended a winless run of 163 starts on the US circuit by beating South African Els with a two-putt birdie on the second extra hole. “It’s a great way to start the week for Amanda and me,” the 35-year-old Dufner told reporters after sealing victory with a one-footer on the 18th green at the TPC Louisiana. “It’s a great wedding present for both of us, helps with paying for the wedding, obviously. They’re a little bit more expensive than I thought or had imagined,” he added with a grin.
BOXING
Malignaggi beats Senchenko
American Paul Malignaggi stopped previously undefeated Ukrainian Vyacheslav Senchenko in the ninth round to take the WBA welterweight title in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Sunday. The referee stepped in to halt the fight at 1 minute, 10 seconds in the ninth after 31-year-old Malignaggi had pounded the left side of the champion’s face until his eye closed. Former IBF junior welterweight champion Malignaggi moved to 31-4 with only the seventh knockout of his career. Senchenko, 35, is now 32-1 after his first loss in front of a sparse home crowd at the Donbass Arena. Senchenko, who hasn’t fought outside Ukraine for more than five years, struggled from the start with Malignaggi’s speed. The New Yorker was able to move in and out, firing off rapid punches while avoiding the slower, taller Ukrainian’s strikes.
OLYMPICS
Dopers allowed into Games
British sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar were to yesterday get the green light to take part in the London Olympics despite their doping-blighted pasts, media reports claimed on Sunday. The Court of Arbitration for Sport were to reveal their decision yesterday at 2pm, which was expected to slap down the British Olympic Association’s bylaw that bans convicted British drugs cheats from taking part in the Games under a lifetime ban. World Anti-Doping Agency has fought the associations policy of imposing life bans for the Olympics, arguing that it contravened their code. Both the BBC and the Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday that court would back the agency in yesterday’s decision.
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