CYCLING
Nizzolo wins fifth stage
Italy’s Giacomo Nizzolo, of the RadioShack team, won the fifth stage of the Eneco Tour of the Low Countries on Friday from Hoogenheide in the Netherlands to Aalter in Belgium. Nizzolo, 23, beat Belgium’s Juergen Roelandts in a sprint finish, while another Italian, Manuel Beletti, came in third. Belgian home favorite Tom Boonen, of OmegaPharma, holds on to the overall race leader’s white jersey by one second from compatriot Jens Keukeleire. There are two stages remaining, including a time-trial in Ardooie, Belgium.
GOLF
Choi leads Toledo Classic
Chella Choi rallied with three birdies down the stretch for a four-under 67 and a one-shot lead on Friday after the second round of the LPGA Tour’s Jamie Farr Toledo Classic in Sylvania, Ohio. Choi, winless in her four years on the LPGA tour, recovered nicely after starting her back nine on a sour note with two straight bogeys. She shot an opening round 66 and was at nine-under 133 to lead a South Korean assault at the rainy Highland Meadows Golf Club. Five of the top eight golfers were from South Korea. Park In-bee had the low round, climbing 29 spots on the leaderboard with a six-under 65. Japan’s Mika Miyazato had a 68, and South Korea’s Seo Hee-kyung a 66 to join Park at eight-under. First-round leader Pernilla Lindberg, South Korea’s Han Hee-won, Karine Icher of France and South Korea’s Ryu So-yeon were another shot back. Taiwan’s Yani Tseng was eliminated after posting a total one-over par 143 in the first two rounds. Her compatriot Candie Kung shot a three-under to finish at 27th, qualifying for the third round, while Amy Hung failed to advance.
OLYMPICS
PM wants James plane
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … Kirani James? The prime minister of Antigua says he wants Caribbean airline LIAT to name one of its planes after an Olympic runner who gave the island of Grenada its first gold medal. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer says naming an aircraft after James would be a fitting tribute. The 19-year-old won the 400m final on Monday in London. James also was applauded for his sportsmanship after he traded name tags with South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee. Antigua is a major shareholder of LIAT, along with other Caribbean islands. LIAT released a statement earlier on Friday saying it plans to honor James.
SOCCER
FIFA probes bin Hammam
FIFA has formally opened a new investigation into former FIFA presidential candidate Mohammed bin Hammam, less than one month after his lifetime ban for bribery was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The investigation was opened by Michael Garcia, the former US attorney who was appointed last month to head the investigatory chamber of the ethics committee responsible for dealing with corruption in soccer’s governing body. Bin Hammam, a former head of the former Asian Football Confederation (AFC), had already been provisionally suspended. “These proceedings follow the provisional banning for Bin Hammam for 90 days as established by the ethics committee on July 26 after a preliminary investigation of the case,” FIFA said in a statement. FIFA is collecting further evidence over allegations that bin Hammam tried to bribe Caribbean officials in the run-up to last year’s FIFA election. It will also investigate allegations of financial wrongdoing while he headed AFC. Bin Hammam challenged Sepp Blatter for the FIFA presidency last year.
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