SKIING
Avvakumova beats Takanashi
Home hopeful Irina Avvakumova triumphed at the FIS Ski Jimping World Cup at the Russian resort of Chaikovsky on Saturday, inflicting a first defeat of the season on Japanese starlet Sara Takanashi. A day after finishing third at the same venue, the 22-year-old Avvakumova claimed her first victory on the circuit with two jumps over 100m for a total of 249.2 points. Germany’s Carina Vogt finished second for the second straight day with 244.9 points, while Takanashi was third on 243.1 points. The 17-year-old Takanashi, who won the first four events of the season, remains comfortably in front in the overall standings, with Avvakumova in second. “My jumps were not as good as I wanted today,” the teenager said. “I hope it’ll go better again next time.”
RUGBY UNION
Welsh rugby bodies clash
Regional Rugby Wales (RRW), the body that represents the Welsh regions, strongly criticized the Welsh Rugby Union on Saturday as the disagreement between the two deepened. RRW wants the union to follow it by backing plans for the Rugby Champions Cup, a breakaway alternative to the European Cup initially proposed by English and French sides. The regions — the Ospreys, Scarlets, Newport Gwent Dragons and Cardiff Blues — gave the union until Jan. 31 to support the new competition. In response, the union on Thursday said it was prepared to offer the regions a new contract, but has since sent a letter to its 32 member clubs expressing support for the European Cup and opposition to an Anglo-Welsh league, which the regions are expected to seek if talks to resurrect the Rugby Champions Cup later this month collapse. In a statement, RRW reaffirmed its desire to see the regions play in the Rugby Champions Cup, saying that any tournament held by European Cup organizers European Rugby Cup would be “inferior.” It also accused the union of “failing miserably” to secure equal revenue distribution with clubs in England and France, and launching “vitriolic and disingenuous” attacks on the regions.
BOBSLED
Germany win World Cup race
Maximilian Arndt drove to gold and Francesco Friedrich piloted his sled to silver on Saturday, as Germany dominated the FIBT World Cup four-man bobsled race on one of their home tracks. Arndt and teammates Marko Huebenbecker, Alexander Roediger and Martin Putze finished two runs in 1 minute, 49.97 seconds. Friedrich and Jannie Baecker, Gregor Bermback and Thorsten Margis clocked 1:50.14. The Russian team of Alexander Zubkov, Alexey Negodaylo, Dmitry Trunenkov and Aleksei Pushkarev took third with 1:50.17. Arndt took the top spot in the four-man season standings, 70 points ahead of US pilot Steven Holcomb, who crashed in the second run, likely costing him a podium finish.
SOCCER
Bordeaux sign striker Hoarau
Girondins de Bordeaux on Saturday announced the signing of former Paris Saint-Germain striker Guillaume Hoarau on a free transfer. Hoarau, 29, was a free agent after leaving Chinese club Dalian Aerbin following a disappointing spell. Hoarau, who hails from Reunion and has won five caps for France, was due to undergo a medical yesterday before penning a contract, the length of which has not been revealed. The tall center-forward scored 38 goals in 114 Ligue 1 appearances for PSG between 2008 and January last year, and scored the winning goal for the capital club in their 2010 Coupe de France final triumph against AS Monaco.
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