ICE HOCKEY
Flames rally over Red Wings
Flames captain Mark Giordano waited out Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard, then scored his second goal of the game in overtime in their NFL game on Friday, helping the Calgary Flames come back to end a four-game losing streak with a 3-2 win over the struggling Red Wings. Giordano took a pass from Johnny Gaudreau and held as Howard made the first move before scoring on the backhand 3 minutes, 12 seconds into overtime. “When I got the puck from Johnny, my first instinct was to shoot, but the goalie charged out and raced over and I surprised myself with that one,” Giordano said. In other games, the Canadiens beat the Sabres 7-2, the Bruins defeated the Islanders 5-3, the Lightning downed the Jets 4-3, the Capitals won over the Oilers 7-4 and the Kings blanked the Hurricanes 3-0.
BASKETBALL
Rose eyes season opener
Former NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose made his pre-season debut on Friday with a plastic mask protecting his ailing left eye and said he hopes to be ready for the start of the season next week. “This opens it up even more,” Rose said of his chances of taking the floor on Tuesday, when Chicago face Eastern Conference champions Cleveland to launch the new NBA season. “I don’t want to jinx myself, but my eye is improving every day. It looks like it’s a go for me. This gives me a couple days to really work on it so I’m prepared for Tuesday.” Rose has endured persistent swelling and blurred vision in his left eye after surgery on Sept. 30 to repair a fractured left orbital.
ICE HOCKEY
Women launch US league
A small band of trailblazing female ice hockey players have struck a blow for women’s sports in the US by signing up for the nation’s first professional league for women. The fledgling National Women’s Hockey League began in this month, with teams from Boston, New York, Buffalo and Connecticut playing each other in a season that runs until March. For the time being, the NWHL is light years away from the glitz and glamor of its money-spinning male counterpart, the National Hockey League, where top teams are valued at more than US$1 billion and stars like Sidney Crosby command annual salaries of up to US$16.5 million. Players in the NWHL mostly have not given up their day jobs and are paid modest salaries ranging between US$10,000 and US$22,500. Teams play in more modest venues.
FIGURE SKATING
Max Aaron leads
Max Aaron took the lead in Skate America on Friday night, scoring a personal-best 86.67 points in a program to Nessun Dorma that included an opening quad salchow-triple toe loop. “It’s nice to do something that I’ve trained and performed multiple times in practice and to do this at an event means a lot to me,” said Aaron, the 2013 US champion. Aaron credited his improved mental approach to his skating as one of the main reasons for his success. “My goal coming in here was to do two clean performances and I’m halfway there,” he said. “I’m moving on to the long already and I’m excited.” China’s Han Yan was second at 86.53, and Russia’s Konstantin Menshov followed at 86.15. US champion and Olympian Jason Brown was eighth at 78.64 after popping the back end of a triple flip-triple toeloop. Russia’s Evgenia Medvedeva topped the women’s opening session at 70.92. US Olympian Gracie Gold doubled a planned triple flip, but otherwise was smooth in her short program, finishing second at 65.39.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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