OLYMPICS
Taiwanese voted into IOC
The head of the international amateur boxing federation has won a spot on the powerful International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board. C.K. Wu of Taiwan, president of amateur boxing association AIBA, defeated cycling federation chief Pat McQuaid 20-8 on Tuesday in a vote of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) in Quebec City, Canada. Wu will replace Denis Oswald as the ASOIF representative on the IOC board. Oswald, head of world rowing’s governing body, is stepping down as ASOIF president at the end of the year. International Tennis Federation president Francesco Ricci Bitti was elected unopposed on Tuesday to succeed Oswald as the head of ASOIF. Because the 70-year-old Ricci Bitti’s IOC membership expires this year, ASOIF had to nominate a full IOC member to the board. Wu’s nomination will come up for ratification at the IOC session in London in July.
BASEBALL
Wang Chien-ming activated
Taiwanese pitcher Wang Chien-ming was activated by the Washington Nationals on Tuesday, with relief pitcher Ryan Mattheus replacing the Asian hurler on the disabled list. Wang had been slated to be the fifth starter for the National League squad this season, but a strained left hamstring put an end to those plans. The 32-year-old right-hander will be used in a long relief role. In five starts with developmental-league clubs, Wang went 3-0 with a 3.52 earned-run average. Wang has been a bullpen pitcher five times during his North American career, all of them coming when he played for the New York Yankees from 2005 to 2009. The Nationals, 25-17, are one win behind the Atlanta Braves in a fight for the top spot in the National League East division.
SOCCER
Hooligans threaten players
Racing Club midfielder Giovanni Moreno and forward Federico Santander say they were threatened at gunpoint in Beunos Aires on Tuesday by hooligans who blame them for the club’s poor results. Santander, a forward with the Buenos Aires club, told a radio program that he and Moreno were accosted after practice by several hooligans who put a gun to Moreno’s leg and said they would “blow it off” if he didn’t leave the club. The hooligan gangs, known in Argentina as barrabravas, are a fixture in Argentine soccer matches, where violence takes place at almost every match. “They told us ... on Sunday we have to win. If not, things will get worse,” Santander told the radio station La Red. “Never in my career has anything like this happened.” Santander said the incident happened shortly after they left practice in Moreno’s vehicle. He said they were forced to pull over by another car and accosted at gunpoint.
SOCCER
Robben booed at home
Arjen Robben was booed by many of his home Bayern Munich fans when he made an appearance for the Netherlands in a friendly three days after he missed a penalty in the Champions League final against Chelsea. Robben’s spot-kick in extra time was saved by Petr Cech and Chelsea won the penalty shootout to lift the title at Bayern’s Allianz Arena on Saturday. Bayern won 3-2 on Tuesday in a match that was part of the settlement to a long dispute between the club and the Dutch soccer federation after Robben returned injured from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and could not play for months. Bayern demanded and won compensation from the Dutch.
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