GOLF
Kjeldsen leads KLM open
Soren Kjeldsen on Friday shot his second consecutive round of 64 to take the lead with a 12-under 128 at the halfway stage of the KLM Open in Zandvoort, the Netherlands. The Dane shot a bogey-free round on another day of low scoring at the par-70 Kennemer Golf and Country Club. Kjeldsen is one shot ahead of Wade Ormsby of Australia — who followed his 61 on Thursday with a 68 — and England’s David Horsey (66). Matthew Fitzpatrick left a birdie putt just short on his final hole to miss out by the narrowest of margins on the first 59 on the European Tour.
CYCLING
Gougeard wins 19th stage
Alexis Gougeard of France broke away from the pack and stayed ahead to win the 19th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Friday, while Tom Dumoulin extended his slender overall lead. Gougeard was followed across the line in the medieval walled city of Avila by Nelson Oliveira, who finished second, and Maxime Monfort came third in the rolling 185.8km stage. Dumoulin set a fast pace on the final scramble while his main rival, Fabio Aru, lagged on the cobblestone surface. Although Aru retained second overall, he lost three seconds to go six seconds behind the Dutchman. Joaquin Rodriguez of Spain is third overall.
CYCLING
Uran wins Quebec GP
Colombia’s Rigoberto Uran won the Grand Prix of Quebec WorldTour one-day race on Friday ahead of Australian Michael Matthews. Uran gave Etixx-QuickStep a second victory on the day, after Matteo Trentin’s earlier victory in the sixth stage of the Tour of Britain. Uran, cycling road race silver medalist at the 2012 London Olympics, used a powerful attack on the finishing climb to take the triumph ahead of Matthews, with Norway’s Alexander Kristoff third.
FOOTBALL
Manning extends contract
Quarterback Eli Manning on Friday signed a four-year contract extension with the New York Giants worth US$84 million. The deal includes a no-trade clause and a US$31 million signing bonus. The 34-year-old Manning, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, completed a career-best 63.1 percent of his passes for 4,410 yards, 30 touchdowns and 14 interceptions last year. Manning was entering the final year of his second NFL contract. The Giants open their season tonight in Dallas against the Cowboys.
BASKETBALL
Venezuela shock Canada
Canada, boasting nine NBA players on their roster, have blown their initial chance to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio with a shock loss to Venezuela at the FIBA Americas tournament on Friday. Canada, who had dominated the tournament by winning each contest by 17 or more points, fell 79-78 in the semi-finals to a Venezuela team without any NBA players, fully aware a win would lock up a place in Rio. Now they will have to try to get through via a qualifying tournament next year, against potentially much tougher European competition. Venezuela came back from a seven-point deficit late in the contest to win on a free throw from Gregory Vargas with three tenths of a second left after Aaron Doornekamp was called for a foul. Boston Celtic center Kelly Olynyk led all scorers with 34 points and added 13 rebounds for Canada, but it was not enough when combined with an off night for Andrew Wiggins, who managed just nine points and multiple turnovers.
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