OLYMPICS
IOC recognizes Kosovo
Kosovo took a significant step toward being able to compete in an Olympic Games when the Executive Board (EB) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday granted provisional recognition to its Olympic Committee. They also proposed the NOC be granted full recognition at the next IOC session, to be held in December in Monaco, which if passed would allow them to try and qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “The decision was taken by the Executive Board in the interests of the athletes in Kosovo and to remove any uncertainty they may have,” the IOC statement read. “It will allow them to take part in qualifications for the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 and in future editions of the Games.”
FOOTBALL
Britain wants NFL team
The British government wants an NFL team based in London. British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told the Evening Standard newspaper on Wednesday that the government will do whatever it can “to make this happen.” The NFL has been playing regular-season games at Wembley Stadium every year since 2007, and this season there are three games on the schedule. However, they have not yet announced any plans to put a team permanently in the British capital. “We warmly welcome the chancellor’s strong support for the possibility of an NFL team in London and look forward to welcoming him to a game at Wembley over the next few weeks,” the NFL said in a statement. “Our key priority is to continue to build our fan base in the UK so that there is strong demand for any future plans in London.” Detroit and Atlanta will play on Sunday at Wembley, the home of England’s national soccer team. Last month, the Miami Dolphins beats the Oakland Raiders 38-14, and next month, the Dallas Cowboys will face the Jacksonville Jaguars. The feasibility of a franchise in London is uncertain.
SOCCER
Riot kills Indonesian fan
An Indonesian soccer fan was killed at a match on the main island of Java when hundreds of angry supporters stormed the pitch and attacked vehicles outside the stadium, police said yesterday. Violence erupted during Wednesday’s match between Persis and visiting Martapura FC in the city of Solo, with fans mainly targeting police. Eight officers and six civilians were also injured in the clashes, which started inside the stadium before moving outside, where an angry mob set a police motorbike alight and damaged cars and buses. Persis supporters stormed the pitch toward the end of the game, when the score was level at 1-1, with police saying they were unhappy after the referee stopped the match early because missiles were being thrown at the linesmen. At first, the fans jostled police seeking to protect the referee and players, before brawls erupted. Authorities later found the body of a fan with a chest wound, Solo police official Arif Joko said, adding that it was not clear how the injury was inflicted or who was responsible.
BOXING
Yamanaka retains title
Shinsuke Yamanaka of Japan has retained his WBC bantamweight title with a unanimous decision over Suriyan Sor Rungvisai of Thailand on Wednesday. Yamanaka sent Suriyan to the canvas with a left to the head in the seventh round and floored the challenger twice more at Yoyogi Natonal Gymnasium to improve to 22-0-2 with 16 knockouts. Yamanaka has successfully defended his title seven times, winning five of them by KO. Suriyan, the former WBC superflyweight champion, fell to 37-6-1.
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