BASEBALL
Pitcher earns marathon win
Japanese high-school pitcher Tomohiro Anraku led his team to a 4-1 win with a 159-pitch effort yesterday, just four days after throwing 232 pitches in one game at the national high school baseball tournament. The 16-year-old struck out eight batters in a complete-game win as Saibi High School advanced to the quarter-finals of the annual spring tournament. Anraku recovered after being hit on the wrist of his pitching hand by a line drive in the first inning at Koshien Stadium. He also drove in the game-winning run with a triple to the left field wall in the eighth inning. On Tuesday, the right-hander threw 232 pitches over 13 innings in a 4-3 win in which he struck out 13 batters. High pitch totals are fairly common in Japanese baseball. Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka once threw 250 pitches in a single game during a high school tournament in which he pitched 36 innings over four days.
SOCCER
Zagallo hurt in car accident
Former Brazil coach Mario Zagallo, 81, escaped with minor injuries in a car accident in Rio de Janeiro late on Thursday, police reported. Zagallo, who managed the legendary 1970 World Cup-winning Brazil team before returning to lead them at the 1998 tournament, suffered a bruise to his right eye, but was otherwise in good shape, according to a family source quoted in the Lance sports daily. Zagallo, who was also a player in the Brazil teams which won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, was reported to have lost control of his car which hit a pillar. He was taken to hospital, but later released to return home. Nicknamed “The Old Wolf,” Zagallo also worked as assistant to then coach Carlos Alberto Parreira at the 1994 World Cup when Brazil won their fourth title in the US.
ATHLETICS
Injury still troubling Powell
Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell’s left hamstring injury which forced him to pull up during the 100m race at the London Olympics is still giving him problems more than seven months later. Powell experienced soreness during the warm-up yesterday for the 120m Stawell Gift handicap race. The 30-year-old Powell considered withdrawing from the race rather than risk further injury, but ran and finished third in his heat. However, he was unable to run at full pace, finishing in 12.24 seconds after starting the heat from scratch. Powell said he did not feel he would be fit enough to run again at Stawell even if he qualified for tomorrow’s semi-finals.
SOCCER
Gameiro scores PSG winner
Substitute Kevin Gameiro scored the only goal as Paris Saint-Germain beat Montpellier Herault 1-0 on Friday to open an eight-point lead in Ligue 1. Gameiro’s 80th-minute strike arrived just nine minutes after the 25-year-old had replaced Clement Chantome as PSG secured a morale-boosting win just four days before they tackle Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals. David Beckham, who had come on as a substitute at the same time as Gameiro, played a key role in the goal. The former England captain, showing no signs of fatigue after his four-day publicity trip to China, started the move which yielded all three points. His pass found Jeremy Menez, who in turn released Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Swede’s pass was collected by Gameiro to score at the Parc des Princes.
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