BOXING
Boxing ban urged over death
A 16-year-old Philippine athlete died on Sunday after a week in a coma following a boxing match, triggering calls for the sport to be banned in schools, an official said yesterday. Jonas Garcia suffered internal bleeding after a boxing match in a regional sports competition. His subsequent death has sparked calls for boxing’s suspension from school sports competitions, said Tonisito Umali, assistant secretary of the Philippines’ Department of Education. “Requests are being made for the suspension of boxing. Other regions are also saying they will not continue boxing,” he said, adding that boxing would still be part of national sports events, but regional teams would not be forced to send representatives.
SOCCER
Frankfurt stun Leverkusen
Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s Bundesliga title hopes suffered a setback on Sunday with a shock 1-0 home defeat to struggling Eintracht Frankfurt. Leverkusen, who booked their place in the Champions League last 16 last week, remain in second place, but are seven points behind league leaders Bayern Munich. Eintracht, who had not won for 10 matches, scored the only goal on the hour mark, with Marco Russ heading in a corner from Sebastian Jung. The visitors squandered an opportunity to add to their tally in the sixth minute of injury-time, but Joselu had a penalty saved by Bernd Leno. Schalke 04 eased the pressure on coach Jens Keller with a 2-0 win over SC Freiburg. Schalke, who also made the Champions League last 16, moved into sixth place after an own-goal from Nicolas Hofler and a Jefferson Farfan penalty.
SOCCER
Spurs fans harass US woman
A musical theater lover who shares the same initials as former Tottenham Hotspur coach Andre Villas-Boas is tweeting song lyrics to irate Spurs fans who deluge her with abuse. Ashley Van Buren from New York uses the Twitter name @AVB. Following Tottenham’s 5-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, she received a stream of abuse from fans of the club. However, instead of getting upset, she got even. Van Buren posted a tweet warning would-be abusers: “Reminder that I am NOT the U.K. football coach, so if you send me a death threat meant for him, I’m gonna tweet you a musical theatre lyric.” Van Buren stayed true to her word, replying to one detractor: “So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night. #SoundofMusic.” Another received: “The sun will come out tomorrow! #Annie.” Yet perhaps her most cutting riposte was to a user who wrote: “spurs are shit!!!!” to which she replied: “With hope in your heart/And you’ll never walk alone/You’ll never walk alone! #Carousel,” a reference to Liverpool’s anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone, a tune from musical Carousel.
TENNIS
BBC awards ‘bored’ Murray
Andy Murray, the first British man in 77 years to win Wimbledon, claimed the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award on Sunday and then apologized if he sounded bored. Murray, 26, defeated Novak Djokovic in July’s Wimbledon championship match for his second career Grand Slam title. In Sunday’s awards, he beat British and Irish Lions rugby union player Leigh Halfpenny, who finished second, and horse racing jockey A.P. McCoy, who came third. Murray received the trophy from tennis legend Martina Navratilova at his training base in Miami. “No matter how excited I try to sound my voice always sounds boring — that’s just my voice, I’m sorry, I’m very excited right now. Thank you very much everyone,” he said.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with