BOXING
Braehmer defeats Konrad
Juergen Braehmer defeated fellow German Konni Konrad by an eighth-round technical knockout to retain his WBA light heavyweight title in a one-sided bout on Saturday. Konrad looked out of his depth, and was sent staggering back against the ropes in the first round. Braehmer floored Konrad in the sixth with a counterpunch, although Konrad survived the count. He quit with an eye problem before the eighth. Braehmer said he noticed Konrad was having trouble with his eye, and so he targeted it for further punishment. “You know, it’s boxing,” he said. Braehmer improved to 47-2 (37 KOs) after his fifth successful defense of the vacant title he won by defeating Marcus Oliveira in December 2013. The Montenegro-born Konrad dropped to 22-2-1 (11 KOs).
BOXING
Pac-Man hints at more fights
Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao hinted he has several more fights left in him after his US promoter said Pacquiao is likely to retire next year. Pacquiao played down remarks by promoter Bob Arum that he would fight just once more next year before hanging up his gloves to run for office in the Philippine Senate. “I know better what is happening to my body,” Pacquiao said defiantly late on Saturday, reacting to Arum’s statement. Arum on Thursday was quoted as saying that 36-year-old Pacquiao wants to get on with his political career and run for the Senate. Pacquiao, who has won eight world championships in different weight divisions, has previously parlayed his boxing fame into a career in showbiz and election as a congressman. Pacquiao has declined to say whether he will run for higher office in next year’s elections, but has previously said he expects to fight again in April against an unnamed opponent.
FOOTBALL
Hayne makes 49ers roster
The Jarryd Hayne bandwagon Down Under just got a little more crowded. The former National Rugby League star early yesterday tweeted he made the 53-man roster for the San Francisco 49ers, ending an against-the-odds transition since leaving the Parramatta Eels last year to chase his dream of playing in the NFL. Mission accomplished, so far. “Hayne Plane arrives on schedule,” the Australian newspaper said. The Sydney Morning Herald said Hayne “completed one of the greatest code-switches in sporting history.” Under a section of the newspaper called “Hayne Mania,” the Sunday Telegraph in Sydney said Hayne, 27, was sightseeing with his mother Jodie and two sisters in San Francisco when told he had made the cut.
FOOTBALL
Teenager dies during game
A high-school football player in Louisiana died from injuries he sustained on the field during a game, officials told reporters on Saturday. Tyrell Cameron, 16, a student at Franklin Parish High School in northeast Louisiana, was wheeled off the field on a stretcher after he was injured during the fourth quarter on Friday night, Franklin Parish Sheriff Kevin Cobb said in an interview. Cameron was pronounced dead later at a local hospital, Cobb said. The official cause of death and the circumstances leading up to the injury are still under investigation, Cobb said. “This is something that has touched everybody — not only here, but throughout the entire country — who is involved in youth sports,” Cobb said. “Tyrell will live on in the memory of those who loved him,” the school said on Twitter.
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