BASKETBALL
Lin in Lunar New Year ad
The NBA is celebrating the Lunar New Year with a TV spot featuring Jeremy Lin, Stephen Curry and James Harden. The ad shows the stars sharing a New Year meal with a Chinese family. It is being broadcast until Feb. 22 across all of NBA China’s television and digital partners’ platforms. Lin plays for the Charlotte Hornets and is the first US-born NBA player of Taiwanese descent. Houston, Golden State and Washington will wear uniforms with the team name in Chinese and host arena events. Other NBA teams will celebrate the holiday and pay tribute to Chinese culture. Fifty-one games will be broadcast or streamed in China, showcasing all 30 NBA teams for the first time.
OLYMPICS
Fresh cuts in Rio
The cash-strapped Rio Olympics on Tuesday announced cuts to everything from stadium seating to perks for participants, but assured that the Games’ biggest infrastructure project — extension of the Rio metro — is on time. Stuck in its worst recession since the 1930s, Brazil is rebranding the first Olympics in South America as a model of austerity in contrast to London 2012 and the lavish Beijing Olympics. “We are cutting some services and making important adjustments in the committee’s budget. In future, many Games will follow this example to create economically sustainable events with no white elephants,” Mario Andrada, chief spokesman for the Rio 2016 organizing committee, told journalists in Sao Paulo. However, fans appear unconvinced and Andrada reported lackluster ticket sales.
SOCCER
Cole released by Roma
England’s most capped fullback, Ashley Cole, has been released by Roma, the Italian Serie A club said on Tuesday. The 35-year-old former Arsenal and Chelsea star only joined the Italians 18 months ago. He made just 16 appearances across all competitions last season and had not featured a single time on a match sheet during the current campaign. Italian media said Cole could move to the US to play in Major League Soccer. Cole won 107 England caps before retiring from international duty in 2014 after being omitted from his country’s World Cup squad. During a glittering club career, he won three Premier League titles, the FA Cup seven times, one League Cup and the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012, adding the Europa League a year later. He was considered one of the best fullbacks of his generation, but his career also included several controversial off-field incidents.
SOCCER
Mancini blasts ‘racist’ Sarri
Furious Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini blasted Napoli counterpart Maurizio Sarri a “racist” and claimed his rival called him a “poof” following a fiery finish to Inter’s 2-0 Italian Cup victory on Tuesday. Mancini and Sarri clashed on the touchline after Adem Ljajic killed off the quarter-final tie at the San Paolo stadium in Naples in injury time to add to Stevan Jovetic’s opener. “Maurizio Sarri is a racist and men like him have no place in football,” Mancini told RAI TV after the game. “He used racist words. He started insulting me and then shouted at me, calling me a poof ... but if he’s a man, then I’d be proud to be a poof,” Mancini said. “From someone like him, who’s 60, I can’t accept that, he should be ashamed. You have the right to argue, but not like that. I went to see him in the changing rooms and he apologized, but I told him that in England, he wouldn’t be allowed to set foot on a pitch again.”
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