UNIVERSIADE
Taiwanese win bronzes
Taiwanese badminton players won two bronze medals at the Summer Universiade on Wednesday in Kazan, Russia, while rising star Tai Tzu-ying reached the gold medal round. Chen Hung-ling and Wang Pei-rong reached the mixed doubles semi-finals before losing to a Chinese pair, earning a bronze medal along with a Russian duo. In addition, Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan beat Goh Soon Huat of Malaysia in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles, but was defeated by Gao Huan of China in the semis, giving him a bronze medal. In the women’s singles, Tai beat Fabienne Deprez of Germany in the quarter-finals and then defeated Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand in the semis to reach the gold medal round.
CRICKET
Pakistan great has cancer op
Pakistan great Hanif Mohammad has had an operation for liver cancer, a family friend said on Wednesday. The 78-year-old underwent an operation in London on Tuesday that saw his right liver lobe and gall bladder removed. The operation was deemed a success, with surgeon Robert Hutchins saying: “It [the cancer] has been diagnosed at an early stage and it has not spread anywhere else.” The first star of Pakistan cricket following the country’s creation after the partition of India in 1947. Mohammad played the longest innings in Test history — a 970-minute, 337 against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 1958. He followed that a year later with what was then the record first-class score of 499, for Karachi against Bahawalpur in Karachi — a mark that stood for 35 years.
OLYMPICS
Doping may ‘help’ bid
The spate of doping cases in Turkey should help, rather than harm, Istanbul’s bid for the 2020 Olympics, the head of the country’s national Olympic committee said on Wednesday. “The increase in the number of doping cases ... shows that Turkey is fighting doping, and in my opinion, will affect the Olympic bid positively, not negatively,” Ugur Erdener said. The International Association of Amateur Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Tuesday it “intensified” its drug-testing program in Turkey amid reports of dozens of positive cases in the country. Istanbul is competing against Madrid and Tokyo, with the International Olympic Committee vote to be held on Sep. 7. Turkish Athletics Federation president Mehmet Terzi acknowledged “that there regretfully has been an enormous number of tests with positive results recently” but that “the IAAF is satisfied of our fight against doping.” According to Terzi, “94 percent of these samples were taken in or out of competition tests locally, not at any international events.” Terzi agreed with Erdener that the chances of a successful Istanbul bid are enhanced “when a federation fights against doping and catches own athletes and penalizes them.”
BASEBALL
Carpenter set for return
Chris Carpenter is set to make his first minor league rehabilitation start next week, an outing that once seemed in doubt for the former St Louis ace. Carpenter pitched a three-inning simulated game on Wednesday. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Carpenter will start on Monday for Double-A Springfield. “The timing and stuff to make consistent quality pitches down in the strike zone still has a little ways to go, but my stuff was there and I felt good and that’s key so I was excited about it,” Carpenter said. Nerve issues have sidelined the 38-year-old right-hander since before the start of spring training, and it seemed his career might be in jeopardy.
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