Steve Lewton surprised himself by claiming the third-round lead at the Taiwan Masters yesterday after failing to even make the cut in the past two editions of the Asian Tour event.
Briton Lewton fired three straight birdies from the fifth and capitalized on the strong start to card a two-under-par 70 for a three-day total of four-under-par 212 at the challenging Taiwan Golf and Country Club’s Tamsui course.
Filipino Antonio Lascuna signed for a second straight 69 to move into a share of second place, one shot behind, alongside overnight leader Adilson Da Silva of Brazil, who posted a 72.
“I think I’ve learnt to play the golf course a little bit after missing the cuts in the last two years,” Lewton told reporters.
“The grass here in Taiwan is very different from what I grew up playing on back home in England. It has taken me a few rounds to get used to it,” said the Englishman, who has posted two top-10 finishes this season and hopes to translate the good form into a victory.
Lascuna finds himself in prime position to overcome the heartbreak of losing in a playoff to Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat in Malaysia two weeks ago as he just missed out on claiming a maiden Asian Tour title.
REIGNWOOD CLASSIC
AP, BEIJING
Sweden’s Caroline Hedwall made five birdies on the back nine to shoot a five-under 68 yesterday and grab a share of the lead with Stacy Lewis after the third round of the Reignwood LPGA Classic.
The top-ranked Lewis started the day with a two-stroke lead over fellow American Brittany Lang, but fell back with three bogeys through the 11th hole. She then made three straight birdies from the 13th before closing with a birdie on the 18th to regain a share of the lead with a 72.
Hedwall and Lewis were at 13-under 206 at Reignwood Pine Valley.
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