SOCCER
Sampdoria defeat Bologna
Italy internationals Eder and Roberto Soriano scored second-half goals as UC Sampdoria on Monday beat 10-man Bologna 2-0 in a Serie A match that was postponed for a day due to bad weather. The win moved Sampdoria level second with five other clubs, two points behind leader Inter. Promoted Bologna are still looking for their first points. Brazilian-born Eder opened the scoring in the 75th with a shot that banged in off the post and Soriano doubled the lead four minutes later with a powerful effort from beyond the area. Bologna substitute Luca Rizzo was sent off after picking up his second yellow shortly after the hour mark.
CYCLING
Thomas pulls out of worlds
Geraint Thomas has joined Team Sky colleague Chris Froome in pulling out of the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, starting this weekend, saying he is not physically up to it. “It’s been a hard decision to make, but the season has taken its toll on me and I don’t feel physically up for a good worlds,” Welshman Thomas, 29, wrote on Facebook. “I don’t want to go there just to make up the numbers, I’d want to be competitive or at least do a good job for the boys.” Thomas, who helped Froome win this year’s Tour de France, is targeting a big year next year with the Olympics and the Tour de France both being priorities. Froome was forced to pull out of the worlds after fracturing his foot in the Vuelta a Espana.
FRANCHISES
Cowboys top Forbes list
The Dallas Cowboys have dethroned Real Madrid as the most valuable sports team in the world, according to a Forbes survey of the richest teams in the NFL. The Cowboys, often described as “America’s Team” despite not having won the Super Bowl since 1995, topped the Forbes list with a value of US$4 billion, fueled in part by the NFL’s gargantuan domestic TV deal. The valuation puts them ahead of Real Madrid, who were valued by Forbes at US$3.26 billion, according to a global list released earlier this year. Two other US sports franchises, the NFL’s New England Patriots and baseball’s New York Yankees, were next with an estimated value of US$3.2 billion. Reigning European champions Barcelona came in at fifth with an estimated value of US$3.16 billion. Premier League giants Manchester United were valued at US$3.1 billion according to the most recent Forbes estimates.
SWIMMING
Magnussen preps for Rio
It was tough viewing for James Magnussen to see his 100m freestyle crown nabbed at last month’s World Aquatics Championships, but the convalescing Australian drew comfort from the relatively slow times at the Kazan meeting. Magnussen is back training with the national squad in Canberra after missing the worlds due to shoulder surgery. His four-year reign as 100m world champion was broken by China’s Ning Zetao, who swept to victory with a time of 47.84 seconds. Magnussen’s personal best of 47.10 would have blown all challengers out of the water at Kazan, and the Australian is eager to reassert his authority at the Rio Olympics next year after being pipped for gold at the London Games. Magnussen underwent surgery on his troublesome left shoulder in May, having lost 70 percent of his strength in it. He lost his 100m national title to teammate Cameron McEvoy, who was pipped for the world title by Ning, the first Asian swimmer to win the blue ribbon event.
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