CYCLING
Lobato wins second stage
Spaniard Juan Jose Lobato won a tight sprint to clinch the second stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol in southern Spain, while Alberto Contador retained his overall lead on Thursday. Lobato suffered a minor head injury when crashing during Wednesday’s first stage, but timed his run to the finish perfectly to take the 191.7km stage from Utrera to Lucena ahead of German sprint specialist John Degenkolb and Slovenian Grega Bole in a time of 4 hours, 51 minutes, 59 seconds. Contador, a double Tour de France champion, had made a surprising burst for the line himself in the final kilometers, but finished among the peloton in 23rd to maintain his overall lead. Movistar rider Benat Intxausti moved up to second place just a second behind his compatriot after Luxembourg’s Bob Jungels lost 46 seconds on the leaders. Britain’s Chris Froome remains eight seconds off the lead in third overall after finishing back in 12th.
CYCLING
Kristoff edges bunch sprint
Norway’s in-form Alexander Kristoff, who picked up three stages last week in Qatar, came out on top in a bunch sprint in Thursday’s Tour of Oman third stage. The Katusha rider was followed home by Italian duo Andrea Guardini and Matteo Pelucchi at the end of the 158.5km ride around al-Mussanah Sports City. “The team is good, our ‘work rhythm’ is working well and that gives me a lot of confidence,” Kristoff said. Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara retained the lead in the overall standings, four seconds clear of Spain’s Alejandro Valverde and five seconds up on Austria’s Patrick Konrad.
GOLF
Veterans roll back the years
Former major winners Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen struck a blow for the old guard on the PGA Tour as the two veterans surged into a six-way tie for the lead at the Northern Trust Open in Pacific Palisades, California, on Thursday. Playing together in the opening round at a sun-splashed Riviera Country Club, the seasoned campaigners fired matching five-under 66s on a firm and fast-running layout with barely a breath of wind. Singh piled up six birdies and a lone bogey, while Goosen picked up three shots in his final six holes as they finished the round level with Americans Nick Watney, James Hahn, Daniel Summerhays and Derek Fathauer. Mexican Carlos Ortiz opened with a 67, while Germany’s Alex Cejka, Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Americans Justin Thomas and William McGirt carded 68s. “I kept my ball in play, hit a lot of fairways, hit a lot of greens, and when I did miss I chipped it real close,” said former world No. 1 Singh, who has battled assorted health problems in recent years. “It was a comfortable round.”
GOLF
Five tied for lead in Delhi
Local favorite S.S.P. Chowrasia was among five names on a packed leaderboard on Thursday on the first day of the Indian Open after shooting a six-under 65. The Kolkata-born Chowrasia was level-pegging with Canada’s Richard Lee, Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat, Bangladesh’s Siddikur Rahman and Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren after the start of the four-day event at Delhi Golf Club. Chowrasia carded two birdies on the final three holes, playing alongside his fellow leader Lee, who picked up four strokes on the back nine. After Rahman and Chapchai also carded rounds of 65, Lagergren made it a five-way tie in the final round of the day. Some of the bigger names were also still very much in contention, including Miguel Angel Jimenez, who recorded a one-under 70.
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