ICE HOCKEY
Elmer Lach dies at 97
Hall of Famer Elmer Lach, who was the oldest surviving NHL player, died on Saturday morning at the age of 97. A member of Montreal’s famous Punch Line along with Maurice “Rocket” Richard and Toe Blake, Lach won three Stanley Cups with the Canadiens before retiring in 1954 as the league’s all-time points leader with 623. “Every member of the Canadiens organization is profoundly saddened and touched by the death of Mr Lach,” Canadiens president Geoff Molson said. “Elmer Lach was a determined player who enjoyed a great career with the Canadiens and who became an important part of the community in Montreal. Lach was born in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1918. He was a free agent when he was signed by the Canadiens in October 1940 after being rejected by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who considered him too small. He made up for his lack of size with his slick playmaking skills, grit in the corners and his tenacity on defense. Lach was 42 days older than former Boston Bruin Milt Schmidt, making him the oldest surviving NHL player before his death. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.
ATHLETICS
Judge hit by javelin
Authorities say a field judge working a track meet at a northern New Jersey college was struck in the heel by an errant javelin toss on Saturday. Reports said that firefighters had to cut the javelin with a saw before 57-year-old Dan Klice could be placed in an ambulance. He was being treated at a hospital for injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Other details on his condition were not disclosed. Klice was struck in the left heel at the meet at Ramapo College. Authorities say Klice apparently saw the javelin headed toward him and tried to avoid it, but tripped while moving backward and his legs went up. Authorities say taking the javelin immediately out of Klice’s foot could have worsened the bleeding.
RUGBY UNION
Leinster, Clermont advance
Ian Madigan kicked Leinster to a gripping 18-15 win over Bath, while Clermont Auvergne dismantled Northampton 37-5 in wildly contrasting European Champions Cup quarter-finals on Saturday. Bath scored the only tries of the match against Leinster in Dublin through England flyhalf George Ford and their captain Stuart Hooper, but a succession of infringements were punished by the immaculate boot of Madigan. The Ireland flyhalf gave the hosts an early lead, but Ford sold the Leinster defense a delicious dummy before scampering over the line from 20m. Clermont were never threatened at their home fortress by Northampton, who were missing Wales winger George North due to concussion. The hosts produced an awesome performance, their speed and creativity proving far too much for Northampton to handle.
RUGBY UNION
Golden Lions gamble, win
Substitute hooker Armand van der Merwe snatched a last-minute try to earn the Golden Lions a 22-18 victory over the Northern Bulls in a Super 15 thriller on Saturday. Trailing by three points with time running out in damp Johannesburg, the Lions gambled by taking a tap penalty rather than a kick at goal that would almost certainly have ensured a draw. Little substitute scrumhalf Faf de Klerk caught the slow-to-retreat Bulls napping at Ellis Park with his tap-and-go penalty and passed to Van der Merwe, who barged over near the post. Elsewhere, the Crusaders ran riot with eight tries in a 52-10 hammering of the Sharks in South Africa.
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