NETHERLANDS
Twente slip against Utrecht
Twente slipped three points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch league after being held to a 1-1 draw by Utrecht on Sunday. Vitesse remained third following a 4-1 derby win over NEC Nijmegen, who finished the match with eight men after Victor Palsson, Remy Amieux and Ryan Koolwijk were sent off. PSV have 33 points from 13 matches following their 6-1 thrashing of ADO Den Haag on Saturday, with Twente on 30 and Vitesse on 28. Midfielder Willem Janssen gave Twente a flying start when he headed home the opener after two minutes, only for Jacob Mulenga to equalize 15 minutes later. Vitesse came from behind to beat neighboring Nijmegen, who had Palsson sent off just before the break for a second bookable offense. He was followed by Amieux, who also received two yellow cards, in the 82nd minute, while a minute later Koolwijk was shown a straight red for a wild tackle. Melvin Platje put Nijmegen ahead in the third minute after Vitesse goalkeeper Piet Velthuizen failed to clear a back-pass, but Wilfried Bony equalized soon after with a well-placed header. Guram Kashia added another for Vitesse straight after the break, before Bony, with his 14th of the season, and Mike Havenaar sealed Vitesse’s second home win. Feyenoord also stayed in touch with the top as they cruised to a 3-0 home win over bottom side Willem II Tilburg, with Lex Immers opening the scoring, before a second-half brace from Graziano Pelle settled the match. Feyenoord are fifth with 24 points behind Ajax, who were 2-0 winners over VVV-Venlo on Saturday.
RUSSIA
CSKA extend winning streak
Three-time former champions and Russian Premier League leaders CSKA Moscow extended their winning run to six consecutive matches with a confident 3-0 win over Amkar Perm on Sunday. The Red Army side moved up to 39 points from 16 matches to stay five points ahead of second-placed Anzhi Makhachkala, who drew with Rostov. Defending champions Zenit St Petersburg, whose match at Dynamo Moscow on Saturday was abandoned in the 36th minute after home goalkeeper Anton Shunin was injured by a firecracker thrown by the visiting team’s fans, lie third on 33 points. CSKA dominated from the kickoff and went into a 25th-minute lead when Sweden international midfielder Rasmus Elm scored with a precise spot-kick after the guests fouled his compatriot Pontus Wernbloom in the area. After the break, the Muscovites were still in complete command and they created a set of scoring chances before Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa put the ball into an unguarded net after beating Amkar’s defense on a breakaway in the 73rd minute. CSKA’s Latvian midfielder Aleksandr Cauna rounded off the scoring in stoppage-time, firing home from Musa’s cross.
BRAZIL
Copa winners relegated
Former South American champions and eight-time Brazilian title winners Palmeiras were relegated for the second time in 10 years on Sunday. Palmeiras went down just four months after winning the Copa Brasil and they will play next year’s Copa Libertadores while in Brazil’s Serie B. “Have you been to the wake? That’s what’s happening here,” Palmeiras coach Gilson Kleina told reporters. The club’s relegation came after they drew 1-1 away to Flamengo, whose former Palmeiras striker Vagner Love equalized in the 89th minute of the match at Volta Redonda. Portuguesa, in 16th two places above Palmeiras, also drew 2-2 at home to Gremio, leaving Palmeiras seven points adrift with two matches remaining.
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