SOCCER
Van Gaal back as coach
The Netherlands have reappointed Louis van Gaal as coach in place of Bert van Marwijk, who stepped down after the team lost all three group matches at Euro 2012 last month, the Dutch soccer association (KNVB) said on Friday. Van Gaal, sacked by Bayern Munich last year, will take charge of the Netherlands for the second time, having previously been coach from 2000 to 2002. The KNVB said in a statement that the 60-year-old had signed a two-year deal. “I’m glad the KNVB approached me, this is the challenge I have been waiting for,” Van Gaal said. He will be joined by assistant Danny Blind, the former captain of Ajax Amsterdam. “We were looking for a coach with experience, personality and professional skills,” KNVB director Bert van Oostveen said. “Van Gaal has earned his credentials nationally and internationally and we know him as a dedicated coach.”
OLYMPICS
Greece to miss basketball
Double European champions Greece made a shock exit from the Olympic basketball qualifiers on Friday following a narrow 80-79 defeat against Nigeria. The defeat will have come as a huge blow to Greece, who last won the European Championship in 2005 and whose champions Olympiakos Piraeus are also the title holders in the Euroleague, which is the continent’s elite club competition. Macedonia, who were also fancied to make the semi-finals of the 12-team tournament in Venezuela, were sent packing after an 86-76 defeat by the Dominican Republic while Russia and Lithuania rolled into the last four. The Russians, 80-65 winners over Angola, will play Nigeria for a berth in the final, while Lithuania, who eked out a 76-72 success against Puerto Rico, were due to take on the Dominican Republic yesterday. The top three teams will qualify for the Olympics and join the US, Great Britain, Spain, France, Argentina, Tunisia, Australia, Brazil and China.
OLYMPICS
Millar makes 10th showing
Ian Millar will appear in more Olympics than any athlete in history when he enters the showjumping ring aboard Star Power at the London Games. The 65-year-old Millar is about to surpass Austrian sailor Hubert Raudaschl, who was an Olympian nine times from 1964 to 1996. “It’s a great thrill to be doing this for the 10th time,” Millar said late on Thursday. “I never had a grand plan. It was all about the journey because the destination is, at best, very uncertain, as it is in life,” he added. Millar’s Olympic career spans 40 years. He could have been riding in his 11th Olympics this month, as he was named to the Canada team in 1980, but did not compete in Moscow because of a boycott.
SOCCER
France retains ‘hijab’ ban
Female French soccer players are still precluded from wearing headscarves, even though world soccer’s rule-makers lifted the ban on the hijab this week. The French Football Federation (FFF) said in a statement on Friday that it had to “respect the constitutional and legal principles of secularism which prevail in our country and which feature in our statutes. In these circumstances [the FFF] does not authorize female players to wear headscarves.” French law prohibits face-covering headgear including masks, helmets, balaclavas, niqabs and other veils covering the face in public places except under specified circumstances. On Thursday, the rule-making International Football Association Board overturned the ban on the use of the Islamic headscarf.
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