BASKETBALL
Birdman lands in Taipei
Miami Heat forward Chris Andersen was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on Tuesday for a visit during which he is to share his NBA experience with local players. Today, Andersen is to tell high-school and professional basketball players how his team won the 2012-2013 NBA Championship and encourage young players to pursue their dreams, according to local sports firm Bros Sports Inc. The “Birdman” is also to visit the Pavilion of Dreams at the Taipei Expo Park with children supported by a charity tomorrow.
RUGBY UNION
Pumas skipper out of opener
Argentina captain Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe is to miss the opening match of the Rugby Championship Test against South Africa in Soweto on Saturday with a calf injury. Leonardo Senatore replaces Lobbe and is one of eight changes from the team beaten 27-6 by the Springboks in Cape Town at the same stage last year. The Rugby Championship was expanded last season to include Argentina, who proved competitive apart from a 54-15 home hiding from world champions New Zealand. Los Pumas prepared for Soweto by defeating the visiting New South Wales Barbarians 29-27 and 58-12 in a two-match series.
CYCLING
Demare seals Eneco stage
French rider Arnaud Demare won the second stage of the Eneco Tour on Tuesday in a sprint finish in Vorst, on the outskirts of the Belgian capital, Brussels. Demare, a former world junior champion riding for the FDJ team, edged ahead of world road race champion Philippe Gilbert of Belgium and the US’ Tyler Farrar at the end of the 176.9km stage from Ardooie. Demare took the overall leader’s jersey from Australia’s Mark Renshaw, who suffered a puncture in the final kilometer and is now 3 seconds behind Demare in the general standings, with Gilbert a further second adrift. Last year’s Tour de France winnner Bradley Wiggins, the star turn in this year’s Eneco Tour, finished well down the field, 1 minute, 22 seconds behind the leaders, and already finds himself lying 147th out of 164 riders, more than five minutes adrift of Demare.
SOCCER
Jacko joins Lennon, Gandhi
How about this for a soccer trio? A team with Michael Jackson playing alongside John Lennon and Mahatma Gandhi. Carlos Adriano, director of soccer for Brazilian Serie B side Atletico Goianiense, told reporters the club has signed a forward known as Michael Jackson — real name Carlos Adriano de Sousa Cruz. Like many Brazilian players, he goes by a nickname rather than his family name, or given name. Jackson could play with team members including John Lennon — full name John Lennon Silva Santos — and Mahatma Gandhi, whose full name is Mahatma Gandhi Heber Pio. Jackson has played with Brazilian clubs Palmeiras and Fluminense, and had a stint playing in China
VOLLEYBALL
Natalia hit with doping ban
Brazil’s sports tribunal has suspended national team player Natalia for 60 days for failing a doping test. Natalia allegedly tested positive for high levels of the banned substance prednisolone during a national league match in March. The substance is usually found in asthma medicine. The Brazil outside hitter had been initially cleared last month but the tribunal found her guilty on appeal on Tuesday, saying there were irregularities in the first trial. “I know that I’ve done nothing wrong,” Natalia 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