GOLF
Rain delays second round
Rain yesterday brought a halt to the second round of Taiwan’s US$500,000 Yeangder Tournament Players Championship in New Taipei City. The second round is to be played today instead, with the third-and-final round to be played tomorrow, organizers said. Taiwanese hopeful Lin Wen-tang and countryman Hung Chun-kang remained tied at the top of the leaderboard after both shot five-under-par 67s in the opening round on Thursday.
SOCCER
Liverpool sign Klopp
Liverpool confirmed Jurgen Klopp as their new manager on Thursday. Former Borussia Dortmund boss Klopp signed a reported three-year contract with the Premier League giants and succeeds Brendan Rodgers, who was sacked by Liverpool’s US owners on Sunday. “Liverpool Football Club are delighted to announce Jurgen Klopp has been appointed as the club’s new manager,” the club said in a statement on Twitter. “The German coach has signed a deal to take the helm at the Reds and will be presented at a press conference at Anfield on Friday [yesterday] morning.” Klopp, whose first game in charge is to be against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday next week, arrives with Liverpool languishing in 10th place in the Premier League.
SOCCER
France win friendly
Euro 2016 hosts France coasted to a third successive victory on Thursday as Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema scored twice in a 4-0 friendly win over Armenia. Benzema was on target in the 77th and 79th minutes after Antoine Griezmann (35) and Yohan Cabaye (55) had put France firmly in the driving seat. Griezmann hit his sixth international goal in his 21st game after being teed-up by Benzema, who enjoyed a much-needed confidence-boosting evening. The Real Madrid star is top of the scoring charts in Spain, but had not netted for France since October last year. In other friendly encounters elsewhere, Nigeria were defeated at home, going down 2-0 to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Honduras and Guatemala drew 1-1, Costa Rica lost at home to South Africa 1-0 and Panama were defeated 2-1 by Trinidad and Tobago.
CRICKET
Dead rubber abandoned
The final Twenty20 between India and South Africa at Eden Gardens was abandoned due to a wet outfield on Thursday without a ball being bowled. Heavy afternoon showers caused damage to the outfield before the scheduled start of play and despite a lengthy dry spell, conditions did not improve enough for the match to proceed. The match officials made three inspections before deciding no play was possible. South Africa had already bagged the series with victories in the first two matches. The teams next play five one-day internationals before a four-Test series starts next month.
CRICKET
Finn finds form
Lanky paceman Steven Finn grabbed four wickets and leg-spinner Adil Rasheed took three to show some early form in their two-day tour game against Pakistan A in Sharjah on Thursday. Finn took 4-16 in his probing 15 overs, while Rasheed had figures of 3-53 in 19 overs, as England gave their bowlers more of a work-out after winning the toss on the first day. For Pakistan A, comprising of the nation’s best performers in domestic matches, Test discard Adnan Akmal (74 not out), Sami Aslam (43) and Umar Amin (39) put up some fight in an unimpressive 192-9 at the close.
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