CRICKET
Broad to go under the knife
England pace bowler Stuart Broad is to have surgery on his right knee on Sept. 4, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Wednesday. The 28-year-old will miss the five one-day internationals against India starting on Monday, but is expected to be fit in time for the World Cup, which begins in February. “I’ve been due for a while so can’t wait to get sorted,” Broad, who took 19 wickets in the recent Test series against India and broke his nose in the fourth match, said on Twitter on Wednesday.
SOCCER
Tourney to start Asia Games
Hosts South Korea have been drawn with Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Laos in the group stage of the Asian Games soccer tournament, organizers said yesterday. Among the other favorites for gold, defending champions Japan are grouped with Kuwait, Iraq and Nepal, while four-time winners Iran start their campaign in Group H with Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan. The tournament starts on Sept. 14, five days before the Asian Games open in Incheon, west of Seoul. The age limit for the men’s team is under-23, with three overage players allowed. Wei Jizhong, honorary life vice president of the Olympic Council of Asia, said the Games were a chance for the region to impress the world. “With nearly 10,000 athletes and 5,000 officials, the Asian Games is nearly on the same scale as the Olympic Games,” he said. “We can show to the world that Asia is in harmony and friendship. We are confident that the Incheon Asian Games will be very successful and show to the world the potential power of Asia.”
RUGBY UNION
Hansen admits ‘off day’
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen yesterday said referee Jaco Peyper admitted a series of blunders during last week’s record-denying Test draw with Australia — but added it was no excuse for his team’s poor performance. Coach Steve Hansen, who sought a meeting with the South African whistleblower after the 12-12 draw in Sydney, said Peyper “put his hand up” and confessed he was wrong with one yellow card and several free-kicks. However, Hansen said the All Blacks also had an off day as they were halted one short of a record 18th straight Test win by the fired-up Wallabies. “I know why we didn’t perform at the weekend. There were certain areas of our game we were very poor at,” Hanson said, as he announced three changes to his starting lineup for the return Test in Auckland tomorrow. Hansen said he would meet with French referee Romaine Poite, who is handling tomorrow’s match, before kick-off tomorrow.
SOCCER
Italy boss in racism probe
The Italian soccer federation’s new president is being investigated by UEFA over an alleged racist comment and could be banned for three months. Carlo Tavecchio was elected last week despite causing a stir over a reference to bananas when discussing the presence of foreign players in Italy. Players’ and coaches’ associations in Italy both expressed outrage, and FIFA had urged the federation to investigate. However, UEFA has intervened and opened a case that could result in Tavecchio being suspended for one to three months and fined if found guilty. Using a hypothetical name, Tavecchio had said: “In England they select players based on professionalism, whereas we say that ‘Opti Poba’ is here, he was eating bananas before and now he’s starting for Lazio and that’s OK.”
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