SOCCER
N’Gog makes up for miss
David N’Gog missed a penalty, but made amends by heading in a second-half winner as Stade de Reims provisionally moved to third place in the Ligue 1 standings with a 1-0 win over Lille OSC on Friday. Unbeaten at home this season, Reims moved within two points of leaders Paris Saint-Germain. Reims withstood an early pressure from Lille, with the visitors creating three clear chances in the first 10 minutes, as Eric Bautheac’s volley ricocheted off both posts in the third minute. Djibril Sidibe’s foul on Antoine Devaux earned a penalty kick for Reims, but goalkeeper Steeve Elana saved N’Gog’s effort with a dive to his right in the 19th minute. Reims were the better team after the interval and were rewarded with the three points after N’Gog connected with Prince Oniangue’s cross to score his first goal this season. With seven points in as many matches, Lille are already trailing PSG by 10 points.
SOCCER
Ingolstadt drop away points
Ingolstadt 04 captain Marvin Matip scored on his 30th birthday to salvage a 1-1 draw for the promoted side against Cologne in the Bundesliga on Friday. Anthony Modeste opened the scoring in the 10th minute with a fine header from Marcel Risse’s cross, only for the unmarked Matip to equalize with a header from a corner in the 21st. “It was a nice goal, but it didn’t lead to the win,” Modeste said of his opener. “Against such teams, we have to win or it could get close in the end.” Cologne dominated the second half, but could not force a winner. Japan striker Yuya Osako had a late chance from close range, but was thwarted by visiting goalkeeper Ramazan Ozcan. “Sometimes it helps when you’ve broad shoulders,” Ozcan said. “It was an entertaining evening,” Ingolstadt coach Ralph Hasenhuettl said of his side’s first dropped points away from home in the club’s first Bundesliga season. Ingolstadt won their opening three away games. “We had a bit of luck tonight, but we’re a promoted side, we shouldn’t get carried away,” Matip said. Cologne climbed to fifth, ahead of Ingolstadt on goals scored, before the rest of the seventh round.
ATHLETICS
Reus wins Spartathlon
German runner Florian Reus yesterday won the historic 245.3km Spartathlon race for the first time, clocking 23 hours, 17 minutes, 31 seconds. Reus, 31, was second for the past two years, and as the winner of the race he received an olive wreath and a cup of water from the Evrotas River. Finishing a surprise second was first-time course competitor Dan Lawson of the UK, with the 42-year-old runner timing 23 hours, 53 minutes, 32 seconds. He led for most of the race. Third in the 33rd annual Spartathlon was Denmark’s 40-year-old Kim Hansen, who was 30m behind Lawson and clocked 23 hours, 54 minutes, 37 seconds. The first woman across the line and fourth overall was 36-year-old American Katalyn Nagy in 25 hours, 7 minutes, 12 seconds, the best time ever for a woman on the course. The race traces the classical route of Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger sent to Sparta in 490 BC to seek help against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. According to Greek historian Herodotus, Pheidippides arrived in Sparta “on the next day of his departure.” The idea for the creation of Spartathlon belongs to John Foden, a British RAF Wing Commander who first ran the course in 1982 in 36 hours.
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