ATHLETICS
High jumpers clear 2.42m
At the New York Diamond League athletics meeting on Saturday, Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim became the first high-jumpers in two decades to clear 2.42m. Bondarenko, last year’s world champion, won the event, clearing 2.42m on his first attempt. Barshim, runner-up to Bondarenko at the Moscow world championships last year and winner of the indoor world title earlier this year, also cleared 2.42m on his first try at the height, but not before taking three attempts to clear 2.35m. The previous high jumper to clear 2.42m was world record-holder Javier Sotomayor on June 5, 1994. The now-retired Cuban set the world mark of 2.45m on July 27, 1993.
TUG-OF-WAR
Taiwan wins third title
Taiwan’s women’s team won at the Asian Tug of War Championship in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, on Saturday. The team snapped up the title in the indoor women’s 500kg category with victories in all six contests. There were four other teams, including South Korea, Thailand, Mongolia and China, competing in the category. This is the third time the Taiwan team, composed of nine students from Jingmei Girls High School in Taipei, placed first at the biennial tournament, after victories in 2010 and 2012.
CYCLING
Contador overtakes Froome
Alberto Contador overtook long-time leader Chris Froome on the penultimate stage of the Criterium du Dauphine in France on Saturday. Stage seven, a 160km journey from Ville La Grand to Finhaut, was won by Dutchman Lieuwe Westra of the Astana team ahead of Russian pair Yury Trofimov and Egor Silin. Contador came in fourth at the end of an uphill finish, 1 minute, 33 seconds behind Westra, to open an eight-second lead over Tour de France champion Froome with one day to go. The Spaniard attacked the Team Sky rider, who retained the lead on Friday despite being involved in a crash on a high-speed descent, 2km from the line to snatch the yellow jersey.
BADMINTON
Tai loses in final
China’s world No. 1 Li Xuerui struggled in the first game, but regained her composure to beat Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying 21-16, 21-6 at the Japan Open yesterday. Tai, 20 years old and ranked seventh in the world, took an early lead, but Li caught her at 6-6. Li jumped to 6-0 in the second game and scored seven straight points from 9-2. She steadily piled up points to win the match in 34 minutes. Malaysia’s world No. 1 Lee Chong-wei won the men’s final for the fifth time, beating Hong Kong’s Hu Yun 21-14, 21-12.
BOXING
Algieri claims split decision
Chris Algieri survived two first-round knockdowns to claim a surprise split decision over Ruslan Provodnikov and take the Russian’s World Boxing Organization light welterweight title at the Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in New York on Saturday. Algieri improved to 20-0 with eight wins inside the distance. He could not match Provodnikov’s power, but even with his right eye swelling shut in the later rounds he put on a display of precision boxing that gave him the nod by scores of 114-112 from two judges, while the third judge saw it 117-109 for Provodnikov. Provodnikov, who fell to 23-2, landed a crushing left hook to Algieri’s eye in the first round and it began to swell immediately. Later in the round Algieri had to take a knee after another punch, but rose to continue.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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