GOLF
US duo share Shootout lead
Americans Matt Kuchar and Harris English combined for a 14-under-par 58 in a scramble format on Thursday to seize a one-stroke lead after the opening round of the 27th annual Franklin Templeton Shootout in Naples, Florida. The three-day invitational event hosted by retired Australian star Greg Norman matches 12 pairs of golf’s top men’s players in three different styles; yesterday featured a modified alternate shot and today’s final round utilizes a better-ball format. Kuchar and English, the only pairing to have played the event together more than once, won the Shootout in 2013 and finished second last year. Kuchar comes off a win in October at the Fiji International event on the Australasia PGA Tour while English has a best finish of second this year, losing a playoff at Torrey Pines.
FOOTBALL
Injured Watt plans to play
Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt once again lived up to his ironman image when he said he planned to play in tomorrow’s home game against the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, despite a broken hand. The reigning defensive player of the year did not practice with the team on Thursday, and instead worked with trainers on the side field wearing a cast on his left hand. “I broke my hand in practice and will play in the game Sunday [tomorrow],” said Watt, a three-time Pro Bowl selection, who has started 76 consecutive games since making his NFL debut in 2011. “I’ve played with worse than this before. Football is a game where things happen.” Asked how he would respond if Patriots players targeted his injured hand, the 26-year-old replied: “Let ‘em try. Come at it. I’ll take advantage of whatever you try to do.”
BOXING
Police clear Tyson Fury
Newly crowned world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will not face police action over comments he made about homosexuality, Greater Manchester Police said late on Thursday. Fury, 27, has attracted controversy after likening homosexuality to pedophilia, with more than 133,000 people signing a petition calling for his removal from the shortlist for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. A member of the public had reported Fury to the police on Tuesday for allegedly committing a hate crime. “The circumstances in which these comments were made suggest that no criminal offence has taken place and this matter will not be investigated any further,” a police spokesman said. In a recent interview with the Mail on Sunday, Fury, who is a born-again Christian, said that three things needed to be accomplished before the devil comes home. “One of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other is pedophilia,” he said.
BASKETBALL
Dolph Schayes dies
Dolph Schayes, a 12-time NBA All-Star and Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. He was 87. The New York-born son of Romanian immigrants was an iconic 1950s NBA power forward, playing his entire 16-year NBA career for the Syracuse Nationals and, after their relocation to Philadelphia in 1963, the 76ers. “Dolph Schayes was one of the most influential figures in NBA history,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said. “He helped the NBA grow from its earliest days, emerging as one of the game’s first stars and displaying the kind of passion for competition and commitment to excellence that has come to define our league.”
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