RUGBY UNION
New rules to be tested
A World Rugby experiment to have two on-field referees in major matches is to be trialed in next year’s provincial championships in New Zealand. The two-referee proposal is the most radical to emerge from a review of the rules conducted by the world body this year. The responsibilities of each referee have not been specified, but it is thought the second referee will primarily police a new offside line, which has been set 1m back from rucks. New ruck rules are also to be tested.
BASEBALL
Mariners re-sign Iwakuma
The Seattle Mariners have re-signed Japanese right-handed pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma after an agreement with the Los Angeles Dodgers was never finalized. Seattle announced the deal with Iwakuma late on Thursday night. It includes a contract for next year and options for the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Iwakuma has pitched his entire career in the majors with Seattle, going 47-25 with a 3.17 ERA in 111 games.
CRICKET
Hussey rejects return talk
Retired Australia Test batsman Mike Hussey has laughed off suggestions he could return to international duty for next year’s World Twenty20 after scoring an unbeaten 80 to lead the Sydney Sixers to victory in the domestic Big Bash League. The lefthander, who retired from international cricket two years ago, is to be on the flight to India for the March 8 to April 3 tournament as a coaching consultant for the Australia team. Shane Watson was one observers of the 59-ball knock who suggested his 40-year-old Sixers teammate would not look out of place back out in the middle in the international game, but Hussey was having none of it. “No, I wouldn’t have thought so,” Hussey said. “I’m happy to try and help out as much as I can off the field.”
CYCLING
Lea to appeal ban
Two-time Olympic cyclist Bobby Lea on Thursday said he will appeal a doping ban that would end his chances of competing at next year’s Games in Rio de Janeiro. The US Anti-Doping Agency said an arbitration panel had approved a 16-month suspension, starting from Sept. 10, which stemmed from a positive test for a metabolite of the narcotic oxycodone during the US road cycling championships in August. Lea, 32, said in a letter on his Web site that the positive test was the result of taking prescribed Percoset as a sleep aid the night before competition.
BASKETBALL
Shumpert delivers baby
Clevland Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert delivered a baby girl when his fiancee unexpectedly went into labor on Wednesday. According to the NBA star’s fiancee, Teyana Taylor, the couple welcomed their daughter in a bathroom at their home. Taylor posted on Instagram that she did not initially realize she was in labor and Shumpert, “playing Dr,” helped deliver the baby with “his bare hands.” Taylor said Shumpert tied a pair of headphones around the umbilical cord while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. Taylor’s message to her daughter, Iman Tayla Shumpert Jr, was: “Mommy carried you. Daddy delivered you. #MeetTheParents we love you baby girl.” Shumpert, who is in his second season with Cleveland, did not play on Thursday night against Oklahoma City because of a strained right groin. He sustained the injury against the Celtics, just hours before he performed his special delivery.
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