GOLF
86-year PGA member dies
Samuel Henry “Errie” Ball, who played in the first Masters, died on Wednesday. The English golf pro was 103. Ball’s daughter, Leslie Adams Gogerty, said her father died at Martin Hospital South in Stuart, Florida. Ball was most recently director of golf at Willoughby Golf Club in Stuart. He was a PGA of America member for 83 years, which the organization says is a membership record. Ball was inducted into the PGA Golf Professional Hall of Fame in 2011. Ball played in the first Augusta National Invitation Tournament in 1934, which later became the Masters. He also competed in 19 Senior PGA Championships and shared second place in the 1962 tournament. Gogerty says her father, born in Wales, was encouraged to come to the US by golf great Bobby Jones.
ASIAN GAMES
India faces deadline
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has told India to submit its bid for New Delhi to host the 2019 Asian Games this week if it hopes to be considered to replace Hanoi after its withdrawal by the Vietnamese government. The continental body refused to extend the July 1 deadline for bids by 15 days as requested by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) due to an “extreme shortage of time,” but agreed to wait for a few more days. “Within this two-month period we need to establish the evaluation team that will visit the bidding cities and submit its report to the OCA executive board on 19th September,” the council said in a letter to IOA secretary Rajeev Mehta. “However, if you are able to still submit the guarantees within the next couple of days, OCA is willing to consider IOA’s bid very positively.” India’s bid was delayed after officials were unsure whether to apply in the wake of criticism of the organization of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, but decided to go ahead with the bid once it found the government open to the idea of hosting the games. India held the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 and also the 1982 edition, both in New Delhi.
BASKETBALL
Lowry extends contract
Kyle Lowry, who helped Toronto reach the post-season for the first time in half-a-dozen years, and the Raptors have agreed to a four-year contract extension. The 28-year-old free-agent guard told Yahoo Sports “Toronto is just the right place for me” and retweeted the report about the deal. The contract is reportedly worth US$48 million. Lowry averaged 17.9 points and 7.4 assists in his second season with Toronto. He was acquired in a July 2012 trade with the Houston Rockets, who were one of the clubs looking at adding Lowry to their roster. Lowry has averaged 11.7 points and 5.4 assists in 506 NBA games for Memphis, Houston and Toronto.
INDYCAR
Houston winner fined
The IndyCar Series has fined Carlos Huertas US$10,000 for two infractions in his winning car in the first race at the Grand Prix of Houston. Huertas, driving for Dale Coyne Racing, violated the fuel cell capacity and the height of his rear right wing. IndyCar did not strip the Colombian of the win because it says the infractions did not impact the finishing order of the race or final position of his team. Dale Coyne Racing used strategy to get Huertas and English teammate Justin Wilson to the front. Wilson eventually had to pit for fuel, and Huertas assumed the lead with just over seven minutes to go. Huertas went on to earn his first career victory.
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