GOLF
Gallacher hospitalized
Former European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher is in critical condition in hospital in his native Scotland after suffering a suspected heart attack. The 64-year-old Scot skippered the Ryder Cup team in 1991, 1993 and 1995. Europe lost by 14.5 to 13.5 points at Kiawah Island, South Carolina in Gallacher’s first match in charge. His team were then beaten 15-13 on home soil at The Belfry two years later, before he finally landed his first win by 14.5 to 13.5 points against Lanny Wadkins’s US side at Oak Hill Country Club in New York in 1995. Gallacher, one of the leading players on the tour in the 1970s and 1980s, won 13 times in Europe and on eight occasions elsewhere. In 1969, he became the youngest golfer to represent the-then Britain and Ireland team in the Ryder Cup, a record that has since been eclipsed by Nick Faldo, Paul Way and Sergio Garcia. Gallacher went on to compete in eight Ryder Cups as a player.
WEIGHTLIFTING
USADA bans Ramos, 80
Don Ramos, an 80-year-old who was bidding for a world record at the Pan American Masters Weightlifting Championships, has been busted for steroid use. The US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), known for taking on such high-profile cheats as cyclist Lance Armstrong, said on Friday that Ramos had been banned for two years after testing positive during the competition on June 14. Ramos “tested positive for the presence of a steroid of exogenous origin” and will forfeit all competitive results since the date of the test, USADA said. The weightlifter, who had been attempting to set a world record for his age group at the event for competitors 35 and older, will be eligible to return to competition in July 2015.
BASKETBALL
Odom charged with DUI
NBA player Lamar Odom was arrested early on Friday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DUI) after police noticed his Mercedes SUV steering erratically on a Los Angeles highway, authorities said. Odom, 33, the husband of reality TV star Khloe Kardashian and currently not under contract with any team, was pulled over by California Highway Patrol officers at 3:25am after he was spotted “driving in a serpentine manner,” police said. Police said the former Los Angeles Lakers player passed two exits on the US 101 freeway before pulling over and showed signs of intoxication. Police did not detail the suspected source of intoxication. Odom was unable to perform sobriety tests, was arrested and booked in jail after refusing all chemical tests, the police report said. The arrest comes at a time when the two-time National Basketball Association champion is looking for a team for the upcoming season. His marriage to Kardashian has been the focus of the US tabloid media. Odom posted US$15,000 bond and was released from Los Angeles County jail at 8:33am, records indicate.
SOCCER
Court girds for debt cases
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is bracing for a flurry of cases related to UEFA rules that aim to curb debt in Europe’s soccer leagues by clamping down on big spending, its head said on Friday. “We’ve already had cases concerning clubs that had overdue payments or debts, who did not pay a debt on time,” CAS secretary-general Matthieu Reeb told reporters, citing Spanish side Malaga, and Turkey’s Bursaspor and Besiktas. He said that the CAS’s expert arbitrators would have their work cut out handling what have the potential to be highly complex disputes over club finances.
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