SOCCER
Bale trains with Real
Gareth Bale trained with Real Madrid on Wednesday for the first time since his move from Tottenham Hotspur to the Spanish capital. Madrid published a photograph on their Web site of Bale being greeted by Cristiano Ronaldo at the club’s Valdebebas training ground after returning from international duty with Wales. Bale, 24, joined Madrid for an undisclosed fee that many reports say was higher than the world-record 94 million euros (US$125 million) paid by the club to Manchester United for Ronaldo in 2009. Bale played the final half-hour of Wales’ 3-0 defeat to Serbia in Cardiff in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday. It was his first taste of action this season, but he may well make his debut for his new club in tomorrow’s trip to Villarreal in La Liga.
SOCCER
No Kerimov warrant: Interpol
Interpol on Wednesday said it has not issued an international arrest warrant for the billionaire owner of Russian soccer club Anzhi Makhachkala, Suleiman Kerimov, who is wanted by Belarus as part of a criminal probe into the potash sector that has already strained ties between Moscow and Minsk. Belarus last week opened a probe against Kerimov into suspected abuse of authority which has a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison. Minsk said then that Kerimov, who is based in Russia, should be placed under arrest and that it has issued an arrest warrant for his detention. Interpol said it received a request from Belarussian authorities on Sept. 2 for a Red Notice to be issued for Kerimov. It said that a week earlier, it had also received a separate “request from Belarus requesting that Red Notices be issued against four other individuals linked to the same case.” However, these “Red Notice requests are currently under review,” the statement added. The Belarussian charges relate to a probe that saw the chief executive of Russia’s main potash producer Uralkali, Vladislav Baumgertner, detained at Minsk airport and placed in custody at the end of last month. Belarussian investigators allege an illegal scheme by Baumgertner and other Uralkali managers to enrich themselves at a cost of US$100 million to Belarus.
SOCCER
Hunt out for four months
Crystal Palace signing Jack Hunt is unlikely to make his debut for the promoted Premier League club until next year after breaking his ankle in training. The 22-year-old defender, who signed from Huddersfield Town at the end of last month, will be out for up to four months, the BBC reported on Wednesday. “Absolutely devastated to have broken my ankle in training,” Hunt said on Twitter earlier this week. “Got to take the positives, clean break and no operation needed.” The rightback made 104 appearances for Championship side Huddersfield before making the switch to Selhurst Park.
TENNIS
Jovanovski into semis
Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia was the only seeded player to make it to the semi-finals of the Tashkent Open, beating Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) yesterday. The top-seeded Jovnovski won as the three other seeded players in the quarter-finals all lost. Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor of Spain defeated third-seeded Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 6-3, 6-0, Mandy Minella of Luxembourg beat fourth-seeded Nastassja Burnett of Italy 7-6 (7/4), 7-5, and Olga Govortsova of Belarus beat fifth-seeded Alexandra Cadantu of Romania 6-3, 6-2. In the semi-finals, Jonanovski will play Torro-Flor, while Govortsova will meet Minella.
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