SOCCER
Latics sack Malky Mackay
Championship strugglers Wigan Athletic sacked manager Malky Mackay on Monday after the club slumped to the brink of relegation. A 2-0 home defeat against Derby County earlier in the day left Wigan facing the prospect of dropping into the third tier just two years after they were in the Premier League and famously beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final. With Wigan sitting second-from-bottom, eight points from safety with five games remaining, the club decided to dismiss Mackay just five months after his controversial hiring. Chairman David Sharpe, who only replaced his grandfather Dave Whelan in the role last month, told the club’s Web site: “This was a very difficult decision to make, but I feel that for the long-term future of the club there needs to be change now.” Former Watford and Cardiff City manager Mackay was announced as Uwe Rosler’s replacement in November last year, despite still being part of a Football Association investigation into claims he sent text messages which were of a homophobic, racist and sexist nature during his time with the Bluebirds.
SOCCER
Mario Mandzukic ruled out
Croatia forward Mario Mandzukic was set to miss Atletico Madrid’s clash with Real Sociedad yesterday due to an ankle injury, coach Diego Simeone said on Monday. Argentine Simeone said Mandzukic had been struggling with the problem for some time, but could not put a duration on his lack of availability. “It happened 10 matches ago, against [Bayer 04] Leverkusen, he turned his ankle, but he always maintained his consistency in every match. Against Leverkusen he played more than 80 minutes on one leg, but with incredible commitment to the team,” he said. Simeone said Mandzukic had gone to see him on Sunday to tell his coach that he was only playing at 70 percent and no longer felt able to give his all to the team.
CRICKET
England make flying start
England made a flying start to their tour of the West Indies by bowling out a St Kitts Invitational XI for 59, before Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott added 158 for the first wicket on Monday. In England’s first match game since their dismal World Cup campaign in Australia and New Zealand, Ben Stokes took three wickets, while Stuart Broad and Chris Jordan took two each as the hosts were dismissed in 26.3 overs. Captain Cook opened the England innings with Trott, back in the international side for the first time since leaving the Ashes tour in 2013 due to depression issues, and they added 158 before Trott was out for 72. England reached the close on 181-1 with Cook unbeaten on 95.
RUGBY SEVENS
Singapore wins bid
Singapore has clinched a four-year deal to host a leg of the Sevens World Series at its state-of-the-art National Stadium starting next year, World Rugby said yesterday. The Southeast Asian city-state joins Vancouver, Sydney and Cape Town as new stops on the 10-leg tour, the sport’s world governing body said in a statement. “I am sure Singapore, with its major event experience and passion, and superb new stadium, will become a fan and team favorite on the record-breaking World Rugby Sevens Series,” World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper said. World Rugby said Singapore — which last staged a Sevens World Series tournament in 2006 — beat 24 other destinations bidding for hosting rights. No dates have been announced for the Singapore event.
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