BOXING
Frampton defeats Quigg
Carl Frampton on Saturday defeated Scott Quigg on a split points decision to become the WBA and IBF super bantamweight champion and guaranteed fellow Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy a night out at Wayne Rooney’s expense. Frampton triumphed after 12 rounds in front of a 20,000 sell-out Manchester crowd courtesy of 116-112 counts in his favor by two judges, with the other giving it to local fighter Quigg 115-113. Frampton paid tribute to Quigg, with whom he had fought a fierce war of words in the build-up to the fight over the choice of dressing rooms: “I’m proud to have beaten a very good fighter tonight. He was a worthy champion.”
CYCLING
Stevens shatters hour record
Evelyn Stevens of the US on Saturday shattered one of cycling’s most revered marks — the hour record — by riding about 48km at the Olympic Training Center Velodrome in Colorado. Wearing the skinsuit of her Boels-Dolmans trade team, Stevens covered 47.98km and more than 143 laps on the 333m track. She passed the unified mark of 46.833km set by Bridie O’Donnell last month with more than a minute left and nearly eclipsed Jeannie Longo’s mark of 48.149km set in 1996. Longo’s distance, referred to as the “best human effort,” was set using a “superwoman” position no longer allowed under current hour-record rules laid down by cycling’s governing body two years ago.
TENNIS
Cuevas defends Brazil title
Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay was yesterday set to defend the Brazil Open title in the final against Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain. Cuevas beat Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4 in the semi-finals on Saturday to reach his second final in two weeks. Last weekend, he lifted the Rio Open trophy. Carreno Busta won against countryman Inigo Cervantes 6-1, 6-1 for the second time this month. To reach his first ATP final, Carreno Busta has knocked out four Spanish players: Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Roberto Carballes Baena and Cervantes.
SOCCER
Apology for ‘offensive’ song
English side Blackpool on Saturday apologized to Bradford for playing Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start The Fire, regarded as offensive for a club who lost more than 50 fans in a stadium inferno in 1985. Blackpool said the choice of song over the public address system at Saturday’s third-division game at their Bloomfield Road home was unintentional after some Bradford fans complained on social media. “The club would like to apologise for any unintentional offence caused by a song played at today’s match,” Blackpool said on their official Twitter site after the game. The Bradford fire killed 54 Bradford fans, two Lincoln fans and injured dozens more.
SOCCER
Moshiri buys into Everton
Everton on Saturday announced that Iranian billionaire Farhad Moshiri has become “a new major shareholder” at the English Premier League club and has promised “new investment.” Subject to Premier League approval, Moshiri is set to acquire a 49.9 percent stake in the Merseyside club. “After an exhaustive search I believe we have found the perfect partner to take the club forward,” Everton chairman Bill Kenwright said in a statement. “I have got to know Farhad well over the past 18 months and his football knowledge, financial wherewithal and true-blue spirit have convinced me that he is the right man to support Everton.”
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