RUGBY UNION
De Villiers retires on injury
South Africa captain Jean de Villiers has ended his international career after a fractured jaw ruled him out of the rest of the World Cup. The 34-year-old center has 109 caps, the fourth-highest in South African rugby, and has captained them 37 times. “It’s never nice getting injured and knowing that I’ve played my last game for South Africa. It’s quite sad,” De Villiers told a news conference. De Villiers suffered the latest of a series of injury blows that have blighted his international career in South Africa’s 46-6 win over Samoa on Saturday. “As I got replaced and I was running off, I knew it was my last,” he added. “I won’t get this opportunity again. Having played for the Springboks for 13 years now, you’ve been through so much, you’ve made so many good friends, you’ve seen so many good things, you never think that it would end like this.” De Villiers said he broke the news to teammates on Saturday night and was to return to South Africa yesterday for probable surgery on his jaw. “It’s happened now and I’m very grateful for the time that I’ve had in the Springbok jersey and I wish the team the very best. I told them last night, as a former Springbok now, I wish them the very best and I’m supporter No. 1 now.” South Africa coach Heyneke Meyer hailed De Villiers as “a warrior” and one of the country’s greatest players. “The way in which he never gave up fighting to overcome his last serious knee injury reminded me again how much of a warrior he is and how highly he regarded the Springbok jersey,” Meyer said.
GOLF
Jaidee wins European Open
Thailand veteran Thongchai Jaidee on Sunday captured his seventh European Tour title with a one-shot victory at the European Open. The 45-year-old former paratrooper carded a final-round bogey-free 67 for a tournament total 17-under-par 267. England’s Graeme Storm also enjoyed a final day 67 for a four-round total 268. Storm’s challenge unraveled when he found water from the 17th tee and, although he managed to save par at the last, Jaidee claimed victory at the 18th, becoming the oldest champion in the event’s history. “It’s a very special week for me,” the Thai star said. “It is the third time I have won outside of Asia, so I’m very excited about that and I’m happy to win this tournament.”
CYCLING
Armstrong settles SCA suit
With a payment and an apology, Lance Armstrong has settled a decade-long dispute with a promotions company that sought repayment of more than US$10 million in bonuses it paid the former cyclist during a career that was later exposed to be fueled by performance-enhancing drugs. Dallas-based SCA Promotions first pursued evidence of doping against Armstrong in 2005. Although the company paid Armstrong in 2006, the testimony in its lawsuit and arbitration case helped lay the foundation for later doping charges that ultimately got Armstrong banned from the sport and stripped of his record seven Tour de France victories. SCA demanded repayment in 2013 after Armstrong publicly admitted using steroids and other doping methods. Armstrong’s lawyers had insisted there was no legal ground for a “redo” on the previous voluntary settlement, an arbitration panel ordered Armstrong to pay a US$10 million penalty for lying under oath. “I am pleased to have this matter behind me and I look forward to moving on. I do wish to apologize to SCA and [its chief executive] Bob Hamman for any misconduct on my part in connection with our dispute and the resulting arbitration,” Armstrong said.
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