CRICKET
Calm Amla downs Kiwis
South Africa opener Hashim Amla fell two runs shy of a half-century as South Africa cruised to a six-wicket victory over New Zealand in the first Twenty20 at Kingsmead on Friday. Set 152 to win, the hosts were always up with the run rate and reached their target with 13 deliveries to spare. Having won the toss and elected to bowl, South Africa restricted New Zealand to 151-8 by taking the final seven wickets for 40 runs. All the home batsmen then got starts, but it was the steady hand of Amla (48) who guided the to victory. Captain A.B. de Villiers (33) and Rilee Rossouw (38) also gave impetus to the innings. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson smashed 42 from 21 balls as New Zealand made a swashbuckling start before he was stumped off left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso. David Wiese was the pick of the South Africa attack with 2-24.
GOLF
Spieth on course for record
Jordan Spieth stepped up his bid for golf history on Friday, firing a second-round 67 that put him in the hunt for a third major title this year at the weather-disrupted PGA Championship. Spieth’s six-under total of 138 put him one stroke behind clubhouse leader David Lingmerth, who had eight birdies, four bogeys and a double-bogey in a roller-coaster of a two-under-par 70.
WINDSURFING
HK hit storage snag
The Hong Kong Windsurfing Association’s plan to store equipment in Rio de Janeiro ahead of the Olympics next year has been blown off course by exorbitant rental rates. Hong Kong competitors are in Brazil for the second test event at the International Sailing Regatta in Marina da Gloria and with further meets at the Olympic venue scheduled ahead of the Games, the association had planned to store equipment there rather than ship it back home. A similar arrangement had been negotiated with London organizers ahead of the 2012 Games, but the team were knocked back by Rio officials quoting them HK$1 million (US$129,000) for the storage. “I was surprised by the figure when I first heard it,” Dennis Chau Wai-keung, executive director of the Hong Kong Windsurfing Association, told the South China Morning Post. “Our plan was to leave our container there after the test event so we could keep all our equipment, including a coach boat, and save on shipping it all back and forth each time we go out there.” Chu said negotiations were ongoing, but said if Brazilian authorities refused to budge then alternative plans would be required. One solution involved bringing all the equipment back on the long journey to Hong Kong after each meet at a cost of about HK$150,000 a time, he said.
FOOTBALL
NFL warns over fighting
The NFL sent a memo on Friday to all 32 clubs warning about fights after several recent training camp incidents, according to a copy published on the league’s Web site. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent told teams that game officials will have a point of emphasis for the upcoming season to prohibit player fights during games. “These rules are in place for the protection and safety of our players to keep them on the field,” Vincent wrote. “As professionals, no matter how emotional the game becomes, there is nothing that should resort to fighting. Coaches are encouraged to emphasize to players, coaches, and other club personnel who are on the sidelines, that fighting will not be tolerated.”
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