CYCLING
Majka wins Tour of Poland
Young Polish star Rafal Majka wrapped up overall victory at the Tour of Poland following Saturday’s 25km time trial around Krakow, won by Belgian Kristof Vandewalle. The 24-year-old Majka took an 18 second lead over Benat Intxausti and 22 second lead over Jon Izaguirre, both Spaniards riding for Movistar, into the seventh and final stage. Although Izaguirre finished 14 seconds ahead of Majka, the Pole did enough to hold on, finishing 13th in the time trial at 43 seconds off the winner. Izaguirre finished second overall at 8 seconds, while Intxausti dropped to third at 22 seconds. Majka continued his fine form this year having finished sixth overall at May’s Giro d’Italia and won two mountain stages at last month’s Tour de France. Last year’s winner Pieter Weening had a disappointing race, ending 37th overall at 10 minutes, 52 seconds.
GOLF
Park leads Meijer Classic
Inbee Park made two long birdie putts on the back nine Saturday and finished with a three-under 68 to remain a stroke ahead after the third round of the Meijer LPGA Classic in Belmont, Michigan. The third-ranked South Korean player holed a 25-footer from the fringe on the par-three 14th, bogeyed the par-four 15th after missing a 3 foot par try and rebounded with a 35 foot birdie putt on the par-four 16th. The 26-year-old Park won six times last season and took the Manulife Financial in June in Canada for her 10th LPGA Tour title. She had a 13-under 200 total at Blythefield Country Club. “I think it would have been nice if I had probably two or three-[shot lead],” Park said. “That gives me more breathing room, but one is still better than nothing. I’m in better position than everybody else.” South Korean rookie Mirim Lee was second after a 67. Norway’s Suzann Pettersen was another stroke back after a 69. Cristie Kerr matched the low round of the tournament with a 64 to jump 44 spots to a tie for 12th at five-under. She hit 10 of 13 fairways and had only 26 putts. Taiwan’s Candie Kung shot a 71 for a total two-over 215 to tie for 53rd.
BOXING
Chudinov KOs Bouadla
Russian middleweight Dmitry Chudinov successfully defended his WBA interim title on Saturday, stopping Mehdi Bouadla in three rounds. In front of a strongly nationalist crowd at a motorbike festival in the Russian-speaking Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia in March, Chudinov knocked down his French opponent in every round before the referee stopped the bout. Chudinov stays unbeaten with 14 wins and two draws, while Bouadla drops to a 30-6 career record. The fight was part of a festival in Sevastopol organized by the Night Wolves, a Russian biker group with whom Russian President Vladimir Putin has ridden in the past.
RUGBY UNION
Weeks, Tomane sidelined
Prop Paddy Ryan and winger Tom English have been added to Australia’s Rugby Championships squad as cover for Laurie Weeks and Joe Tomane, who are sidelined for three weeks with hamstring injuries. Weeks and Tomane are expected to miss Saturday next week’s match against New Zealand in Sydney and the return match in Auckland a week later. Coach Ewen McKenzie said the injuries were minor, but the Wallabies will “continue to take a pragmatic approach and give guys with issues the chance to focus solely on their rehab before rejoining the squad. We don’t expect them to miss more than a couple of weeks.” Weeks aggravated an existing injury in training on Friday, while Tomane’s new injury has opened a place for the uncapped English.
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