GOLF
Snedeker sags Down Under
Tournament favorite and headline act Brandt Snedeker endured a nightmare start to the Australian PGA Championship yesterday after crashing to a 12-over-par 84 at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast. The American has won seven times on the USPGA Tour, but looked more like a weekend hacker when he crashed to seven-over after just four holes. Starting his round at the 10th, he had back-to-back bogeys before a double on the par-five 12th followed by a triple-bogey seven on the 13th. He ended the day tied 150th in the 156-man field. South African Zander Lombard took advantage of more favorable afternoon conditions to shoot a five-under 67 to take a two-shot first-round lead ahead of England’s Mark Foster (69).
SOCCER
Udinese make final 16
In fourth-round Coppa Italia action on Wednesday, Antonio di Natale scored twice to lead Udinese to a 3-1 victory over Atalanta BC at Stadio Fruili in Udine. The home side were up 1-0 at halftime, but Atalanta found the back of the net not long after the restart, with Gaetano Monachello hammering the ball in from close range. At the Stadio Renzo Barbera, Franco Vazquez was sent off and Palermo crashed out of the competition 2-3 to Alessandria, while a dramatic last minute goal from Claudio Winck sent Hellas Verona through to the final 16 after downing Pavia 1-0.
ATHLETICS
NADO calls for doping bans
Italian anti-doping authorities have called for two-year bans for 26 athletes, including Olympic bronze medalist Fabrizio Donato and European champion long jumper Andrew Howe, for allegedly failing to provide doping samples, media reports said on Wednesday. Italy’s National Anti-Doping Organization (NADO), accused the 26 of “evasion, refusal and failure to submit themselves to providing biological samples,” the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper reported. The athletes named by the organization included Howe, who won the European title in 2006 and a world silver medal a year later, Donato, who was European triple jump champion in 2012 and won a bronze at the London Olympics the same year, and 2014 European marathon champion Daniele Meucci. The accusations followed a police investigation in Trento, in northern Italy. None of the accused had yet responded publicly, reports said.
ENGLAND
Fans angry over ‘pie tax’
Disgruntled Leeds fans have voiced their anger over plans to introduce a new “pie tax” at Elland Road and warned the ailing Championship club that it risks losing the loyalty of supporters. Club officials are set to introduce an additional £5 charge starting this month in one of the stadium’s stands, with adult ticket prices rising to £42 including a “meal deal” voucher — regardless of whether fans want food or drink. The news is another blow to fans growing increasingly frustrated with controversial Italian owner Massimo Cellino, who last month called off plans to sell the club to a fans’ consortium. Leeds Supporters’ Trust chairman Michael Green said: “The whole thing has been introduced without any consultation at all and it is the latest manifestation of a club that is completely out of touch with its supporters. Leeds are 17th in the Championship, with their bid of returning to the Premier League after more than a decade away once again looking unlikely this term.
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