CRICKET
Trott eyes comeback
Jonathan Trott is set to make his comeback for county side Warwickshire in April and wants to play international cricket again, former England batsman Dennis Amiss said in London on Wednesday. Trott, 32, left England’s Ashes tour of Australia with a stress-related illness after twice falling cheaply to fast bowler Mitchell Johnson in a crushing 381 run loss in the first Test at Brisbane. That prompted concerns the South Africa-born batsman, who made a hundred on Test debut against Australia at The Oval in 2009, might struggle to return to the international arena. However, Amiss, chairman of Trott’s benefit committee, said he expected the top-order batsman to face Gloucestershire in a preseason friendly. Trott, who has scored 3,763 runs, including nine hundreds, in 49 Tests for England at an average of 46.95, has been granted time for a family holiday while Warwickshire are on a preseason tour in Barbados. He is expected to join up with the squad on their return.
CRICKET
Vincent pleads guilty
Former New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent has pleaded guilty to not reporting an approach by a bookmaker while playing in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) last year. Vincent, 35, is one of three former New Zealand cricketers under investigation by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for alleged matchfixing. Vincent, who retired from all cricket last year, played for the Khulna Royal Bengals in the domestic Twenty20 competition in January last year. The two other New Zealand cricketers being investigated have been named by local media, but New Zealand Cricket has declined to confirm their identities. Kent cricketer Darren Stevens was found not guilty by an ICC tribunal of failing to report an illegal approach while playing for the Dhaka Gladiators last year. The ICC had been investigating an alleged conspiracy within the Bangladesh franchise to engage in match-fixing and spot-fixing during the tournament.
TENNIS
Suarez Navarro advances
Top-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain defeated Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) to reach the quarter-finals of the Brazil Cup in Florianopolis, Brazil, on Wednesday. Both players broke serve twice in the final set, but Suarez Navarro dominated in the tiebreak to close out in 1 hour, 45 minutes. Suarez Navarro is to face fifth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania, who beat qualifier Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-3, 6-1. Third-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic cruised into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over French qualifier Alize Lim. Zakopalova, runner up at last week’s Rio Open, is to face Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania, who defeated Brazilian Teliana Pereira 7-5, 6-2.
BOXING
Venezuelan ex-champ killed
Venezuelan former boxing champion Antonio Cermeno has been abducted in Caracas and killed, authorities said in Caracas on Wednesday. Cermeno was a WBA super bantamweight and featherweight champion in the late 1980s and 1990s. Cermeno, 44, was kidnapped along with his family on Monday in eastern Caracas and his body was found on Tuesday along a highway in the northern state Miranda. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sent a tweet lamenting his death. Cermeno had been working as a trainer and took part in Venezuelan government programs to disarm the population in the country plagued with rampant violent crime, and to promote sports as a way to keep young people away from street life.
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