SOCCER
Watford in Premier League
Watford clinched promotion to the Premier League in dramatic fashion as their rivals slipped up in the final seconds on Saturday. Slavisa Jokanovic’s side had moved to the brink of reaching the top-flight with a 2-0 win at Brighton earlier in the day, yet it seemed like the Championship leaders would be made to wait for promotion by the results of the chasing pack. However, fourth-placed Norwich conceded an equalizer in a 1-1 draw at Rotherham and third-placed Middlesbrough slumped to a 4-3 defeat at Fulham after conceding a last-minute goal. That was enough to seal Watford’s return to the Premier League after an eight-year absence with one match remaining and they will be crowned Championship winners if second-placed Bournemouth lose to Bolton today.
SOCCER
Inter beat Roma 2-1
Mauro Icardi scored in added time as Inter beat visiting Roma 2-1 in Serie A on Saturday to signal a late charge for a spot in Europe. Roma remained level second with Lazio. Also, AC Milan’s four-match unbeaten run was halted by a 2-1 loss at Udinese. Yesterday, Juventus could clinch their fourth straight title if they beat Torino in a derby and Lazio loses. At the San Siro, midfielder Hernanes put Inter ahead 15 minutes in with a spectacular shot from beyond the area after creating some space amid several defenders. Four minutes later, Roma forward Victor Ibarbo hit the post. Roma’s Radja Nainggolan equalized in the 63rd, finishing off a counterattack with a long angled shot that left goalkeeper Samir Handanovic immobile. Icardi wasted a golden chance to win it for Inter when he shot high in the 84th, but he made up for it a few minutes later, finding the target through the legs of defender Jose Holebas after being set up by Lukas Podolski. Inter moved up to seventh, five points from the Europa League places. Earlier, Udinese scored twice in the second half to end a six-game winless run. Giampiero Pinzi was left unmarked to score from the center of the area through a crowd of defenders following a corner in the 58th, and Emmanuel Badu doubled the lead in the 75th from close range, redirecting a cross following a rebound. Filippo Inzaghi’s side was completely dominated until Giampaolo Pazzini pulled one back in the 88th with a leaping header on Milan’s only on-target attempt of the match. Udinese moved up to 12th. “We played a very ugly match,” Inzaghi said. “I’m very, very angry. There are no excuses. When a squad plays like that, the coach is more responsible for it than anyone else.”
GOLF
Henderson leads Skirts
Brooke Henderson had a one-shot lead and lost momentum going into the final round of the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic in Daly City, California, on Saturday. Henderson led by as many as five shots on a chilly afternoon at Lake Merced until making bogeys on her last two holes. The 17-year-old Canadian had to settle for an even-par 72 and the lead over Morgan Pressel and Kwak Min-seo. Pressel birdied four of her last six holes for a 67 on a day when the course average was 74.6. Kwak had a 69. Those were the only two rounds in the 60s. Henderson was denied a waiver for the age minimum of 18 to try to join the LPGA Tour. She was hopeful a victory yesterday could change that. Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling carded a 74, while her compratriots Hsieh Yu-ling shot a 75, Hou Yu-sang a 76 and Chen Meng-chu a 78. Kaohsiung-born Taiwanese-American Candie Kung shot an 81.
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