CRICKET
Mitch Johnson’s leg infected
Star Australia paceman Mitchell Johnson is having further problems with an infected toe which forced him out of the World Twenty20 tournament in Bangladesh. Cricket Australia (CA) said yesterday that the infection had spread to Johnson’s right leg and required further treatment. The infection began from a cut suffered during Australia’s series-clinching third Test triumph over South Africa in Cape Town earlier this month. “He is recovering from an infection that began in his right big toe, before affecting his right leg,” CA said in a statement. “He is being managed by a team of medical specialists. Depending on how quickly he recovers, Johnson’s next scheduled commitment is the 2014 Indian Premier League, where he will represent Kings XI Punjab, which finishes at the end of May.” Johnson’s place in the Australia T20 squad was filled by Doug Bollinger, who joined the side in Bangladesh this week ahead of tomorrow’s opening game with Pakistan.
BOXING
Tyson Fury gets furious
British boxer Tyson Fury lived up to his name by tipping over a table and shouting expletives before storming out of a news conference ahead of his world heavyweight title eliminator against Dereck Chisora. Fury was sitting alongside Chisora at a media event in Manchester on Thursday when he exploded in rage, saying: “Listen, I’m Tyson Fury, I’m the best heavyweight on the planet, this idiot is getting knocked spark out and I’m sick to death of this.” He slammed down the microphone, flipped up the table, that had glasses on it, and left the room. Chisora applauded Fury sarcastically before saying: “Shall we give him a Golden Globe or not?” The pair are to meet in an all-British fight on July 26 for the right to challenge Wladimir Klitschko for his IBF, WBA and WBO belts.
RUGBY UNION
Referees to be purged
Super Rugby governing body SANZAR is to conduct a purge of the competition’s referees in the wake of a series of controversial blunders by match officials in the opening rounds of the season. SANZAR referees coordinator Lyndon Bray said the 18-member team of referees were set for change. “Within the next week or two we will be making decisions that will keep our team extremely accountable,” Bray said in comments published by the Australian newspaper yesterday. “There is a lot of pain to go for referees... The fact is, they’re either going to get dropped out of the team, which is a significant consequence obviously, or suffering from the point of view of number and quality of appointments. It will be a strong statement in terms of those who are currently refereeing at the top of our team and those that are clearly moving in that direction and those that aren’t.” The standard of officiating came under heavy scrutiny last weekend, with coaches from several franchises fuming after contentious decisions. Bray was moved to clarify a number of them this week, including a controversial try awarded by South African referee Stuart Berry to Golden Lions fullback Coenie van Wyk during the Johannesburg-based team’s 39-36 win at home to the Auckland Blues. Queensland Reds coach Richard Graham said he would contact Bray after some “bewildering” decisions in his team’s 35-20 loss against the Sharks in Durban, while New South Wales Waratahs coach Michael Cheika also grumbled about scrum penalties in his team’s loss to the ACT Brumbies. “I would always dispute the argument that there is no accountability or action,” Bray said. “There is.”
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