ICE HOCKEY
Bergeron leaves hospital
Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron left hospital on Wednesday night, two days after his side lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Chicago Blackhawks, ESPN reported on Thursday. The 27-year-old Canadian was in a Boston hospital with a host of injuries, including a punctured lung, after being admitted shortly after his team’s stunning 3-2 loss to Chicago in Monday’s Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final. Bergeron was also receiving treatment for a broken rib, torn cartilage and a separated shoulder he sustained in the game. Bergeron was taken to hospital after Game 5 in Chicago because of the torn cartilage, but he eventually checked himself out and returned with the team to Boston for what turned out to be the final game of the series.
FOOTBALL
Brent fails drugs test, jailed
Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent, who is out on bail after being charged last year with drunk-driving manslaughter, was jailed on Thursday after failing a drugs test. Court records show Brent tested positive for marijuana on June 19 after providing a urine sample. The failed test is a violation of his bail on drunk-driving manslaughter charges in a Dec. 8 car crash that killed former teammate Jerry Brown. The 25-year-old Brent also faces charges of impaired driving in connection with the death of Brown, who was a linebacker on the Cowboys’ practice squad and a former college teammate of Brent. Brent played in 12 games for the Cowboys last season, finishing with 22 tackles.
MOTOGP
Jorge Lorenzo crashes out
Yamaha’s MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo will miss today’s Dutch Grand Prix after the Spaniard broke his collarbone in a high-speed crash during practice at Assen on Thursday. Lorenzo was caught out by standing water on the damp track while negotiating the Hoge Heide section, the fastest part of the circuit. Yamaha said in a statement that the Mallorcan would need surgery for a left-clavicle fracture and had been ruled out of the race. Team doctor Xavier Mir, who is also chief of hand surgery at the Dexeus Hospital in Barcelona, Sapin, said the rider would have head and chest scans in Assen, as well as abdominal checks. “Our first diagnosis revealed that there is a left-clavicle fracture with a slight shift that will need surgery to repair the bone,” Mir said. The doctor said Lorenzo should be able to travel back to Spain for an operation over the weekend.
CYCLING
Clain wins Tour de Congo
The first Tour de Congo wrapped up on Thursday in Kinshasa with the victory of French rider Mederic Clain after eight grueling stages in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). Fifty-six riders who started the nearly 960km race just over a week ago in the port city of Matadi crossed the finish line in the riverside capital, marking the violence-plagued country’s biggest sporting event in years. Ten riders did not finish. “The spectators who followed the race in three provinces were very welcoming. The countryside was absolutely extraordinary,” Clain said. “I’ll be back for the second edition.” The race did not enter restive eastern DR Congo, where dozens of armed groups battle each other and the army. Congolese Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo had ordered roads closed for the race to minimize the risk of accidents. “For the second edition, the tour should be of the whole of [DR] Congo and not just a few provinces, but for a first try this was a hit,” sports writer Beni-Joel Dinganga 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