GOLF
Play abandoned in Madeira
The first round of the Madeira Islands Open was abandoned without a ball being hit on Thursday after heavy fog enveloped the Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra. The 1,500th tournament in European Tour history was set to see two rounds of action yesterday at a venue which stands at 700m above sea level. “We abandoned play because five of the holes have been unplayable all day due to the fog,” tournament director Jose Maria Zamora said. “Basically, 13 of the holes have been playable for much of the day, but five of the holes higher up the mountain — one, nine, 10, 11 and 18 — have had no visibility all day.”
TENNIS
Federer to play French Open
Roger Federer will take part in the French Open, despite earlier suggesting he may take time out to be with wife Mirka, who gave birth to the couple’s second set of twins this week. Federer’s agent, Tony Godsick told the ATP Tour Web site that the Swiss star intends to feature at the French Open, which starts at Roland Garros in Paris on May 25, where he would stretch his consecutive run of Grand Slam events to 58. “Roger plans on playing Roland Garros and he will make a decision at the last minute if he will play Rome [next week] depending on how everything is going with his family,” Godsick said. Mirka Federer gave birth to two sons, Leo and Lenny, on Tuesday. The couple already have twin girls, Myla Rose and Charlene Ri, who will be five in July. Federer, 32, has played in a record 57 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, this past January eclipsing the mark previously set by Wayne Ferreira in 2003. He will be making his 16th straight appearance at the French Open, where he won the title in 2009 to complete a career Grand Slam
BASKETBALL
Snake unnerves Trail Blazer
The Portland Trail Blazers had a snake in their locker room on Thursday. Not a backstabbing, treacherous teammate — a real live snake. The reptile, believed to be a baby rattlesnake, was found coiled up in reserve forward Thomas Robinson’s locker ahead of their playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs. Robinson, who stands 2.08m and weighs 107.5kg, was unnerved by the find. “I screamed,” he said. “I saw something curled up. I screamed. I jumped. I yelled.” Security personnel removed the snake from the locker. Robinson scored only two points on Thursday as the Trail Blazers were beaten 114-97 to fall 2-0 behind in their best-of-seven Western Conference semi-finals series.
ANTI-DOPING
Former cop to head agency
Australia has appointed a former federal police officer to head its anti-doping agency amid ongoing investigations into the links between organized crime and drugs in sports. Sports Minister Peter Dutton yesterday announced the appointment of Ben McDevitt, who has held high-ranking positions in the federal police and the Australian Crime Commission over a 28-year career in law enforcement, as chief executive of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority. The authority is still considering whether individual Australian rules or rugby league players should be charged after a 13-month investigation into the use of banned substances in the top national leagues. An investigation into supplements programs in the leagues has already resulted in a AS$2 million (US$1.87 million) fine for Australian Football League club Essendon and a AS$1 million fine for National Rugby League club Cronulla.
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