BADMINTON
Taiwan’s Tai claims KL title
Rising star Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan won her first title of the year by defeating Yao Xue of China in straight sets in the final of the women’s singles event at the Malaysia Open on Sunday. Tai, ranked 12th in the world and seeded sixth in Kuala Lumpur, needed 36 minutes to beat Yao 21-17, 21-14. The 18-year-old put together an impressive string of victories over third seed Tine Baun of Denmark, top seed Saina Nehwal of India and the up-and-coming Yao to claim the title, winning all three matches without dropping a set. Tai said she will ask her parents to hold on to the US$30,000 in prize money she earned for winning the tournament. The young player, who showed her potential in a close two-set lost to eventual gold medalist Li Xuerui of China at the London Olympics last year, credited her coach for the victory, saying that the strategy he advised her to follow was effective. Her coach, Lee Wei-jen, said she would focus on preparing for the Badminton Asia Championships in Taipei in April. The victory was the Greater Kaohsiung native’s second Super Series title of her career following her victory at the Japan Open last year.
ALPINE SKIING
Neureuther wins in Wengen
Felix Neureuther of Germany won the men’s World Cup slalom in Wengen, Switzerland, on Sunday in 1 minute 50.53 seconds to bring to an end a run of three successive wins for Austrian Marcel Hirscher. The 28-year-old — recording his second win of the campaign — was 0.21 seconds quicker over the two legs than overall World Cup leader Hirscher while Croatian great Ivica Kostelic was third 0.25 seconds adrift of the winner. Hirscher posted the fastest time on the first run, but Neureuther comprehensively overhauled his five-hundredths of a second advantage on the second run. At the halfway stage of the season, Hirscher is a massive 188 points ahead of Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal in the overall standings.
ALPINE SKIING
Rebensburg takes super-G
Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany won a shortened World Cup super-G amid heavy snowfall at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, on Sunday, while Lindsey Vonn struggled with the difficult conditions and lost her lead in the super-G standings to Tina Maze. Rebensburg, the Olympic champion in giant slalom, clocked 1 minute, 16.45 seconds down the Olympia delle Tofane course. Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria finished second, 0.33 seconds behind, and overall leader Maze of Slovenia was third, 0.34 back. Vonn, who finished seventh, dropped four points behind Maze in the super-G standings after four of seven races. Maze increased her lead in the overall standings to a massive 718 points ahead of Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who finished 19th.
CRICKET
Warne fined A$5,000
Australian veteran Shane Warne was fined A$5,000 (US$5,250) yesterday for a code of behavior breach in the domestic Big Bash League, his second penalty this month, officials said. Cricket Australia said Warne was fined following a disciplinary hearing into his failure to list himself as captain during the Melbourne Stars’ semi-final against the Perth Scorchers in a bid to dodge a penalty for a slow over-rate. Warne had previously been issued with one strike for a slow over rate violation and a second strike this season would have resulted in an automatic one-match suspension. “Warne was found guilty of breaching Rule 5: Laws of Cricket and Spirit of the Game by Commissioner Arthur Lodge,” Cricket Australia said.
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