GOLF
Kim moves two shots clear
South Korean Kim Sei-young backed up her low opening round at the LPGA JTBC Founders Cup in Phoenix, Arizona, with another impressive effort on Friday, shooting a six-under 66 to move two shots clear. Last season’s rookie of the year, who shot a 63 on Thursday, moved to 15-under 129 at the Wildfire Golf Club — two clear of the US’ Brittany Lang. Lang started the day tied with Kim, but dropped off the pace after a 68 on Friday. Jacqui Concolino (64) and Italian Giulia Sergas (68) share third at 12-under. World No. 7 Kim has set her sights on a Rio Olympic berth and the 23-year-old, who won three times last year, came out firing with a birdie and eagle to start her round. Another eagle at the 15th put her firmly in the driving seat. Koahsiung-born Candie Kung shot a two-under 70, while Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling carded an even-par 72. The other Taiwanese competitors, Yani Tseng and Min Lee, were cut from the competition.
GOLF
Day leads at Arnold Palmer
Jason Day made it look easy on Friday in the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a seven-under 65. Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose had to work hard to stay in the game. Day made a pair of long birdie putts and stretched his lead to five shots when he finished his round at Bay Hill in the morning. Stenson was eight shots behind when he started his second round and shot 66 to close within two shots. Rose had a 66 and was three behind. Day was at 13-under 131. Rory McIlroy made the cut with a 67, though he was still 11 shots behind Day.
FOOTBALL
Ravens’ Tray Walker dies
The Baltimore Ravens’ cornerback Tray Walker died on Friday from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Florida, the NFL team said. “We are grieving the loss of a special young man. #RIPTrayWalker,” the Ravens said in a posting on their Twitter account that included a picture of the 23-year-old player. Walker’s agent Ronald Butler told US media that Walker was pronounced dead at 5pm at Jackson Memorial Hospital, less than 24 hours after he suffered head injuries in a dirt bike accident not far from where he attended high school at Miami Northwestern. Walker, a fourth-round pick in last year’s NFL draft, played in eight games for the Ravens last season and competed mostly on special teams kicking plays, contributing one solo tackle from scrimmage.
ATHLETICS
Bromell holds on to win 60m
The US’ Trayvon Bromell captured the 60m title at the World Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday night in a race that was so close that it took several minutes to determine the rest of the medalists. Bromell finished in 6.47 seconds and had the flag draped around him as he waited to see who would join him in celebration. When everything was sorted out, Asafa Powell of Jamaica was moved up to second and Ramon Gittens of Barbados third, just ahead of China’s Xie Zhenye and Su Bingtian.
GOLF
Chawrasia takes lead
India’s S.S.P. Chawrasia shot a four-under-par 68 to overtake second-round leader Terry Pilkadaris of Australia at the Hero Indian Open in New Delhi yesterday. Pilkadaris slumped to a one-over 73 to be two shots off the lead and two ahead of Rashid Khan (69) and Anirban Lahiri (67) on 206 overall. Taiwan’s Lee Chieh-po missed the cut.
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