BOXING
Taiwanese makes semis
Taiwanese boxer Huang Hsiao-wen advanced to the semi-final of the women’s youth division at the International Boxing Association (AIBA) Women’s Junior and Youth World Boxing Championships in New Taipei City on Tuesday. Huang, who defeated her Mongolian rival the previous day, secured a berth at the semi-final after her Romanian rival failed to qualify for the match after failing to make the weight. Earlier in the day, two Taiwanese junior boxers, Chan Yi-ching and Shao Yi-yun, lost in the junior division of 54kg and 63kg. The championships, which opened on Saturday in New Taipei City, will run through Saturday. They have brought together 342 fighters from 44 nations, competing for a total of 23 titles.
OLYMPICS
Workers strike in Rio
Olympic construction work for next year’s Games in Rio de Jeneiro came to a partial halt on Tuesday after thousands of workers demanding a pay rise put down their tools. About 70 percent of about 12,000 workers preparing South America’s first ever Olympiad was on hold as the dispute hit several sites. A judge on Monday ruled that at least 30 percent of workers should maintain basic construction services pending a solution to the dispute. “The Engenhao stadium site and Deodoro complex, plus Galeao international airport, those of the southern metro line and the subway system are 70 percent paralyzed,” Rio’s heavy construction workers’ union chairman Nilson Duarte Costa said. Bosses and workers are due to meet tomorrow before a regional tribunal in an attempt to find an agreement. The strike is due to last all week, just as members of the International Olympic Committee visit.
ICE HOCKEY
Babcock talks with Sabres
Though a deal has not been completed, Mike Babcock has been in negotiations with the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday regarding the possibility of becoming their next head coach. The talks took place between Babcock and Sabres general manager Tim Murray and began early in the day, a person familiar with the discussions said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks are private and the Sabres have not publicly discussed their coaching search to replace Ted Nolan, who was fired last month. The person stressed said there were still a “few more deal points” to work out, and there was no agreement yet in place. Murray spent part of the afternoon with team scouts. Babcock is still under contract with the Detroit Red Wings through June 30, but the Red Wings granted Babcock permission to speak with other teams.
OLYMPICS
IWF leaves SportAccord
Weightlifting has become the 10th sport to break with -SportAccord, the umbrella body for Olympic and non-Olympic federations. The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) says it decided to suspend its membership following last month’s attack on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by SportAccord president Marius Vizer. The matter will be discussed at the IWF congress on June 5 in Wroclaw, Poland. Weightlifting follows triathlon, wrestling, taekwondo, boxing, athletics, archery, canoeing, shooting and bobsled in suspending or cutting relations with SportAccord. The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations has also suspended ties. Vizer has become isolated since blasting the IOC and IOC president Thomas Bach in a speech in Sochi, Russia. Vizer said the IOC system was “outdated,” and Bach’s reform program of no use.
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