BOXING
Payano dethrones Moreno
Unbeaten Juan Carlos Payano of the Dominican Republic survived a cut over his right eye on Friday to seize Panamanian Anselmo Moreno’s WBA bantamweight world title in Mesquite, Texas. Payano, a four-time Olympian competing for his first professional world title, earned the unanimous technical decision in a fight halted after six rounds because of the cut he received by accidental head butt early in the bout. When the fight was stopped, Payano was ahead 59-55 on one judge’s card and led the other two by 58-56. Payano improved to 16-0, with eight knockouts. Moreno fell to 35-3-1, with 12 wins inside the distance. The fight was the main event of a card put together by Mike Tyson’s Iron Mike Productions, and the former heavyweight world champion was present at the Resistol Arena, in suburban Dallas — a venue better known as the home of the Mesquite Rodeo.
CRICKET
Lancashire relegated
Lancashire were relegated to the Second Division of the County Championship on Friday after their decisive showdown with fellow strugglers Middlesex ended in a draw. Glen Chapple’s side needed a victory at Old Trafford to avoid the drop and send Middlesex down instead, but after bad weather took 14 overs out of the last day, the visitors closed out the draw on 341 for eight declared and with no prospect of a successful chase of 253 in the hour remaining. Chapple, 40, had performed heroics to keep Lancashire’s hopes of survival alive when he scrambled the necessary extra batting bonus point 24 hours earlier. However, neither he nor the best efforts of Junaid Khan (three for 84) and Simon Kerrigan (three for 106) could break Middlesex’s resistance as Lancashire were relegated for the second time in three years.
SOCCER
Nasri out with groin injury
Manchester City’s Samir Nasri is expected be sidelined for a month after manager Manuel Pellegrini revealed the French midfielder needs surgery on a groin injury. Nasri missed the Premier League champions’ 7-0 League Cup victory over Sheffield on Wednesday due to the problem. And after confirming the 27-year-old former Arsenal star would not feature in yesterday’s league match at Hull, Pellegrini said: “It’s serious because maybe he will have surgery in the next days. I’m not a doctor, but I think he will be out for around one month. He was training, but he wasn’t 100 percent. He didn’t feel comfortable with what he was doing, so the doctor decided that was the best option. Of course, he’s a very important player for us and it’s not easy for us to play without Samir.”
SOCCER
Robben to build museum
Bayern Munich star Arjen Robben wants to open a private museum in his own home to showcase his trophies and mementos once he hangs up his boots, the Dutch international said on Friday. “When my wife and I are settled in our house, I dream of collecting all my things and building a private museum. It will be for me, my family and my close friends,” Robben told Bild. “I have so many souvenirs — shirts of other players. I kept the ball from last year’s Champions League final.” (Bayern beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 and Robben scored a late winner). “There are boots that I have worn at European Championships and World Cups.” Robben, who played for Chelsea and Real Madrid before joining Bayern in 2009, added: “The idea is to pull everything together so that nothing is lost.”
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