Park Hee-young topped the leaderboard at eight-under on Friday in the suspended second round of the Kingsmill Championship.
The South Korean player, fighting a lingering wrist injury, shot a three-under 68 to take a one-stroke lead over Stacy Lewis, Brittany Lang, Lexi Thompson, Azahara Munoz and Lizette Salas.
“Today more soft fairway, everything, so it helped a lot. So more comfortable today. A lot of ice, good food, good sleep,” Park said.
Photo: AFP
The second-ranked Lewis, in position to take the top spot in the world ranking from Inbee Park, had a 65.
“Definitely have a better feeling coming off the course today,” Lewis said. “Just stayed really patient and made a few putts, and added up to a pretty good score.”
Lang finished with a 68.
“I’ve been playing really well and working really hard just trying to be confident out there and committed to my shots,” Lang said.
Thompson, Munoz and Salas were unable to finish the round because of darkness after the start of play was delayed three-and-a-half hours because of overnight rain. Thompson, the Kraft Nabisco winner, and Munoz had five holes left, and Salas had seven remaining.
Coming off a victory two weeks ago in the North Texas LPGA Shootout, Lewis would jump to No. 1 with a victory or a solo second-place finish, as long as third-ranked Lydia Ko does not win. Ko, 2 under with six holes left in the round, needs a victory to move to No. 1. Inbee Park is skipping the tournament.
“I love giving myself a chance to win,” Lewis said. “I’m right where I need to be. I just got to keep staying patient and get a few putts to fall.”
Defending champion Cristie Kerr was tied for 12th at four-under after a 71. She also won the Michelob Ultra at the course in 2005 and 2009.
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng was also at four-under after shooting a first-round 68 and a 70 in the second round, while Kaohsiung native Candie Kung was at even-par after the first round.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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