CYCLING
Diaz wins Tour of San Luis
Home racer Ricardo Diaz won the Tour of San Luis crown on Sunday after Italy’s Mattia Gavazzi of the Androni team won the final stage. Gavazzi won the 154.7km ride from San Luis to Juana Koslay in 3 hours, 25 minutes and 48 seconds, edging out Slovakia’s Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Spaniard Francisco Ventoso (Movistar) in a sprint finish. The 23-year-old Diaz, racing for San Luis Somos Todos, landed the biggest title of his career to date, having set up his success with barnstorming showings in the fifth and sixth stages. Diaz won in a total time of 24 hours, 3 minutes and 16 seconds after 1,008.8km of racing with US hope Tejay Van Garderen of BMC second, 33 seconds behind, and Brazilian Alex Diniz of Funvic third at 39 seconds, forcing two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) to settle for fourth, 62 seconds off the pace.
HANDBALL
Spain wins championship
Spain thrashed Denmark 35-19 on Sunday to claim its second world handball championship. Spain dominated the match before its home fans, with its defense triggering a counterattack that overran Denmark. Joan Canellas led Spain with seven goals. Valero Rivera added six more, and Julen Aguinagalde and Jorge Maqueda each got five. Goalkeeper Arpad Sterbik made 14 saves. Spain never trailed and was ahead 18-10 by halftime. Its 8-0 run near the start of the second half put the result beyond doubt.
SAILING
Gabart wins Vendee Globe
French sailor Francois Gabart won the Vendee Globe around-the-world race in a record time on Sunday, shaving six days off the previous record held by countryman Michel Desjoyeaux. The 29-year-old Gabart is the youngest skipper competing in the seventh edition of the race, and crossed the finish line in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, at lunchtime on Sunday in his yacht MACIF. Gabart sailed for a total of 78 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes and 40 seconds, smashing two-time winner Desjoyeaux’s course record of 84 days, 3:09:08 set in 2009. Desjoyeaux did not compete this year. Frenchman Armel Le Cleac’h finished second, just over three hours behind Gabart — the smallest margin in the race’s history. Briton Alex Thomson was in third place when Le Cleac’h crossed the line.
SOCCER
Galatsary sign Drogba
Turkish top flight club Galatasaray have reached agreement on an 18-month contract for Ivory Coast veteran striker Didier Drogba, TRT television reported Sunday, quoting a source close to the club. Drogba left Chelsea last summer after helping them to their first Champions League title, joining Chinese outfit Shanghai Shenhua. Recently, the 34-year-old was linked with a move to Juventus, who denied the story. TRT did not give any details of a fee.
SOCCER
Referee breaks player’s nose
Germany midfielder Daniel Bierofka had his nose broken by the referee after being hit in the face in a freak accident during a friendly match for his second-division club, 1860 Munich. The 33-year-old was playing for 1860 Munich against VfR Aalen when the referee spread out his arms to stop play early in the second half, hitting Bierofka in the face. The midfielder was forced to come off moments later, as his team went on to win 3-0 on Saturday, and was taken to hospital for an X-ray. “I never thought the referee can injure a player,” 1860 coach Alexander Schmidt 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