GOLF
Kim wins in Hawaii
Kim Sei-young holed out from 140m for an eagle to win the LPGA Tour’s Lotte Championship in Hawaii on Saturday after the first hole of a playoff with Inbee Park. Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling, Yani Tseng and Min Lee were tied for 25th, 36th and 61st places, finishing on one-over, three-over and 10-over respectively. After driving into the water in regulation on the 18th hole, Kim forced the playoff with a chip-in for par. She then won on the hole with her eight-iron shot that barely cleared the water. The 22-year-old South Korean player became the first two-time winner on the LPGA Tour this year. She won in the Bahamas in February in her second start as a tour member. Kim rebounded from a disappointing final round two weeks ago in the ANA Inspiration when she squandered the lead and ended up tying for fourth. She closed with a one-over 73 in winds reaching 50kph at Ko Olina to match Park at 11-under 277. Park finished with a 71. I.K. Kim bogeyed the final two holes for a 74 that left her two strokes back. Kim Hyo-joo (69) and Chella Choi (72) tied for fourth at seven-under as South Korean players swept the first five places. German Sandra Gal (69) finished sixth at six-under.
GOLF
Merritt leads RBC Heritage
Troy Merritt on Saturday shot a two-under 69 to take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the RBC Heritage, while defending champion Matt Kuchar and US Masters winner Jordan Spieth stayed within reach. A day after tying the course record with a 61 to build a four-stroke advantage at Harbour Town, South Carolina, Merritt had four birdies and a double bogey to reach 14-under 199. Kuchar, Brendon Todd and Kevin Kisner were tied for second. Todd made the big move with a 63, the day’s lowest round. Kisner shot 67, and Kuchar 68. Jim Furyk led a group another stroke behind after a 68, with Spieth five shots back, also following a 68.
BOXING
Fonfara beats Chavez Jr
Andrzej Fonfara knocked down Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the ninth round and won after the bell on Saturday when the referee stopped the fight. Fonfara, 26-4 with 15 knockouts, landed big shots all night at the outdoor StubHub Center ring in Carson, California, and his left hand in the ninth knocked down Chavez (48-2) for the first time in the boxing scion’s career. Chavez’s corner stopped the fight after nine rounds, and the crowd threw beer while roaring its displeasure. Fonfara was penalized a point for using his shoulder in the seventh, but appeared to be in control before the stoppage. The win was his second straight since a competitive loss to light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson. The enigmatic Chavez had not fought since March, 2013, when he convincingly won a rematch with Bryan Vera.
BOXING
Gomez not to face charges
Former three-time boxing champion Wilfredo Gomez will not face any charges after the police detained him on Saturday while investigating allegations of domestic violence, authorities said. The police said prosecutor Linette Velazquez ordered them to not file any charges against Gomez after finding there was no cause for arrest based on what his partner later told officials. Gomez had been detained at a home in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan. He has held the World Boxing Council super-bantamweight and featherweight titles, and the world junior lightweight crown. He has had previous run-ins with the police, including a 1994 arrest on charges of domestic violence and buying cocaine.
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