BOXING
Ali’s condition improves
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s condition is improving and he is expected to be released from hospital soon, his spokesman said in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. Bob Gunnell said two days ago when Ali was admitted to hospital, that the 72-year-old’s pneumonia condition was caught early and his stay would be a short one. “Muhammad Ali has vastly improved since being admitted to the hospital over the weekend with a mild case of pneumonia. Ali’s team of doctors hopes to discharge him soon,” Gunnell said on Monday.
SOCCER
Clarke Carlisle hit by truck
Former Burnley, Leeds and Queens Park Rangers defender Clarke Carlisle was airlifted to hospital after being hit by a truck on Monday, British media reported. The BBC reported the 35-year-old former chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association was in hospital and that his injuries were not life-threatening. England soccer body the Football Association wrote on Twitter: “The thoughts & prayers of all at The FA are with Clarke Carlisle & his family at this sad time.”
BOXING
Klitschkos’ ex-trainer dies
Fritz Sdunek, who was the trainer for Ukrainian heavyweight boxing brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, has died aged 67, following complications after a heart attack, SID reported. Sdunek, who also trained former world light heavyweight champion Dariusz Michalczewski, suffered the heart attack in the Canary Islands before being transported to Hamburg, Germany, where he died, Web site express.de announced. Sdeunek, a former amateur boxer, had had to reduce his training responsiblities in recent years as he battled heart problems and skin cancer. It was from his Hamburg base that he trained Vitali Klitschko, now mayor of Kiev, during his stellar 16-year career. Younger brother Wladimir was under his wing for eight years. “Wladimir and Vitali learnt the news from the family,” Wladimir’s manager Bernd Bonte told SID. “They are upset and very sad... He was a close friend to us all, we owe him a lot.” While Vitali, who was twice WBC champion and also WBO titleholder, has retired to focus on a political career in Ukraine, Wladimir, 38, holds three of the heavyweight championship belts (IBF, WBA and WBO), with his goal to become the first pugilist in history to hold all four by taking the WBC version next year.
BASKETBALL
Carl Herrera out of ICU
Former NBA player Carl Herrera is out of the intensive care unit (ICU) and improving following a weekend shooting, the team he coaches and one of his sons said on Monday. The Gigantes de Guayana team said in a series of Twitter posts that Herrera, the first Venezuelan to play in the NBA, is no longer in critical condition “and is improving day by day.” Herrera, 48, was shot on Saturday last week during an apparent robbery attempt at a restaurant on Margarita Island off Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.
CRICKET
Watson hit by bouncer
Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was forced to cut short his training session in the Melbourne Cricket Ground nets yesterday after being hit on the helmet by a bouncer, three days before the start of the third Test against India. Watson, under pressure for his place at No. 3 in the batting order, was knocked to the ground when a short ball from James Pattinson hit him flush on the helmet.
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