BASKETBALL
Meadowlark Lemon dies
Meadowlark Lemon, the “clown prince” of basketball’s barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters, whose blend of hook shots and humor brought joy to millions of fans around the world, has died. He was 83. Lemon’s wife and daughter confirmed to the team that he died on Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona, Globetrotters spokesman Brett Meister said on Monday. Meister did not know the cause of death. Though skilled enough to play professionally, Lemon instead wanted to entertain, his dream of playing for the Globetrotters hatched after watching a newsreel of the all-black team at a cinema house when he was 11. Lemon ended up becoming arguably the team’s most popular player, a showman known as much for his confetti-in-the-water-bucket routine and slapstick comedy as his half-court hook shots and no-look, behind-the-back passes. In a sign of his crossover appeal, Lemon was inducted into both the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Clown Hall of Fame. “My destiny was to make people happy,” Lemon said as he was inducted into the basketball hall as a contributor to the game in 2003. Lemon played for the Globetrotters during the team’s heyday from the mid-1950s to the late-1970s, delighting fans with his skills with a ball and a joke. Traveling by car, bus, train or plane nearly every night, Lemon covered nearly 6.4 million kilometers to play in more than 100 countries and in front of popes and presidents, kings and queens.
SOCCER
Barca hire, fire Guardiola
Diehard Real Madrid fan Sergi Guardiola’s decision to write offensive tweets aimed at Barcelona came back to haunt him on Monday when he was hired and fired by the Spanish giants on the same day. The 24-year-old striker penned a deal with Barca’s B team, but was fired just a few hours later when angry fans of the Catalan club made officials aware of Guardiola’s Twitter tirade from 2013, www.lequipe.fr reported. His tweets had included “Allez Madrid” and “Fuck Catalans.” “FC Barcelona has decided to terminate the contract signed with Sergi Guardiola, after finding that he had published offensive tweets about the club and Catalonia,” a Barcelona statement said.
SOCCER
Real lose final appeal
Real Madrid on Monday lost their appeal against being kicked out of the Copa del Rey, but said they would still fight the decision even if the country’s Administrative Tribunal for Sport (TAD) insisted it was final. The Spanish giants were thrown out of the competition for fielding an ineligible player, Denys Cheryshev, in their tie against third-tier side Cadiz earlier this month. Cheryshev not only started the match, but also opened the scoring in Madrid’s 3-1 win. However, he should not have been on the field because he was due to serve a one-match ban in the cup after picking up three yellow cards whilst on loan at Villarreal last season. “The club respects, but does not share this resolution by the Tribunal,” Real said in a brief statement. Real said that they would still pursue the matter in the courts and “other possible legal avenues are being examined.” However, TAD defended its decision. “Each club is responsible for verifying if their players are eligible for selection,” the committee said. TAD added that a register exists that lists all ineligible players and the sanctions available. “Real Madrid know of the existence of this register and did not consult it. So they are liable for this omission,” it said.
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