The MotoGP title race is to go down to the wire after Dani Pedrosa won a dramatic Malaysian Grand Prix yesterday, which saw championship leader Valentino Rossi clash with former champion Marc Marquez.
Rossi finished third behind title rival and Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo to allow the Spaniard to close within seven points, but the seven-time premier-class champion is to start from the back of the grid in the season finale in Valencia after being penalized for causing Spanish rival Marquez to crash out of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Prior to the race, Rossi had claimed former champion Marquez “would prefer [fellow Spaniard] Lorenzo to win” the championship, and the pair took their war of words onto the Sepang International Circuit in stunning fashion.
The duo swapped places and touched wheels a number of times until Rossi appeared to slow at a turn, force Marquez wide and then flick out a knee, which resulted in his rival’s Honda sliding into the gravel.
Rossi said it was a racing incident and regretted his rival had crashed out.
“I lost a lot of time fighting with Marc and tried to go a little wider on that turn, but, unfortunately, he crashed at that moment,” Rossi said in an interview.
“It cost us both a chance to fight with Jorge, so Valencia will now be difficult,” he added, referring to the season-ending race on Nov. 8.
Rossi’s Yamaha team are appealing Race Direction’s decision, announced on MotoGP’s official Twitter feed, to award the Italian three penalty points that pushes him to the back of the grid in Spain.
Rossi, who is seeking a record-equaling eighth premier class title, is on 312 points ahead of the Valencia Grand Prix, seven ahead of Lorenzo, with 25 available for victory in Spain.
There was more drama on the podium as the pro-Rossi Malaysian crowd booed Lorenzo when he picked up his second-place prize, with the Spaniard storming off immediately after the anthems and not waiting to pose for post-race photographs.
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