BOAT RACING
Taiwan wins Championship
Taiwan emerged victorious at the 11th World Dragon Boat Racing Championship on Friday, beating 24 countries, with a result of 2 minutes, 8 seconds. In their debut victory at the race, Taiwan topped the 500m premier mixed category, with the runners-up being Thailand (2 minutes, 10 seconds) and Russia (2 minutes, 14 seconds). Last year, Taiwan won the 200m mixed title at the Asian Dragon Boat Championships. The 11th World Dragon Boat Racing Championship, held from July 24 to July 28 in Szeged, Hungary, has attracted players from countries including the US, Germany, Italy and Japan.
ATHLETICS
Gay’s B sample fails test
Former world sprint champion Tyson Gay’s “B” sample from an out-of-competition test in May has been confirmed positive for a banned substance, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Friday, while adding he had returned another positive test. “We can confirm that the ‘B’ sample analysis of a sample collected from Mr. Gay has been completed and that the ‘B’ sample analysis has confirmed the ‘A’ sample findings,” USADA chief executive Travis Tygart said in a statement. Tygart added that an additional sample collected from the US sprinter had also returned “an adverse ‘A’ sample finding.”
SOCCER
Klinsmann banned for final
US coach Jurgen Klinsmann will not be on the sideline for his side’s Gold Cup final against Panama on Sunday, CONCACAF ruled on Friday. Former Germany star Klinsmann was sensationally sent off in the 87th minute of the US’ 3-1 semi-final triumph over Honduras on Wednesday for an angry outburst over a hard tackle on DaMarcus Beasley. CONCACAF, soccer’s governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean, said on Friday that it had reviewed the incident and suspended Klinsmann for one match. A statement from CONCACAF noted that Klinsmann showed “dissent towards the referee by throwing the ball in a violent manner” in the incident in the match in the Dallas suburb of Arlington.
BOXING
Lomachenko goes pro
Two-time gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko is ready to begin his pro boxing career. Top Rank has signed the Ukrainian Olympic star, the promotional company announced on Friday. Lomachenko is widely considered one of the greatest amateur boxers of the past several decades. He won Olympic gold medals with unbeaten runs in Beijing and London, and he claimed two world championships in between. After considering a career with the professional arm of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) last year, Lomachenko interviewed with several top North American promoters last month, eventually choosing Bob Arum’s company. Lomachenko is expected to begin his pro career as a featherweight. Last month, he said he hopes to fight for a world title within a year.
SOCCER
Hull agree to buy Sagbo
Premier League newcomers Hull City have reached a deal to buy Ivory Coast striker Yannick Sagbo from Evian Thonon Gaillard, the Ligue 1 club announced on Friday. Sagbo scored six league goals last season and has made two international appearances. The 25-year-old will join on-loan Danny Graham and George Boyd as part of Hull’s forward line. They begin their Premier League campaign at Chelsea on Aug. 18.
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