SOCCER
Reborn Parma promoted
Two-time UEFA Cup winners Parma have returned to the ranks of Italian professional soccer after confirming their promotion from the fourth division on Sunday. The club, kicked out of the professional league last year after being declared bankrupt, secured promotion to the third tier with a 2-1 victory over AC Delta Rovigo, which guarantees that they will play in Lega Pro next season. “I am experiencing some indescribable emotions today,” captain Alessandro Lucarelli, the only player who remained with the side as they dropped down the divisions, told the club’s Web site. “The message that comes from Parma today is that we’re back. We hope this is just the beginning of a great journey that will take us back where we belong.” Parma were wound up in June last year. They were reborn as Parma Calcio 1913, but viewed as a continuation of the former club, with the backing of pasta baron Guido Barilla.
CRICKET
Herath quits one-dayers
Sri Lanka spin bowler Rangana Herath has announced his retirement from limited-overs matches to concentrate on Tests. Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement on Sunday that the 38-year-old left-arm spinner made the decision to allow young talent to be groomed for the 2019 World Cup. Herath had long been in the shadow of Muttiah Muralitharan, the world record holder for Test and one-day international wickets, but since Muralitharan’s retirement Herath had stepped up to become the nation’s match-winning spinner. Herath has taken 297 Test wickets in 67 matches.
CYCLING
Gasparotto wins Amstel Gold
Italian Enrico Gasparotto won the first Ardennes Classic of the season on Sunday, claiming victory in the Amstel Gold race in Valkenburg, the Netherlands, for the second time. The 2012 winner timed his attack to perfection on the final Cauberg climb and then easily beat Denmark’s Michael Valgren of Tinkoff in a sprint finish at the end of the 248.7km one-day classic. On crossing the finish line, Gasparotto paid tribute to his Belgian teammate at Wanty–Groupe Gobert, Antoine Demoitie, who died three weeks ago during Gent-Wevelgem in a collision with a motorbike. “This victory is incredible,” Gasparotto said. “Yesterday, Antoine’s wife came to our hotel to meet us. It was hugely emotional, one of the most of my life.” The chasing peloton left it too late to launch a counterattack and finished four seconds behind, with Italian Sonny Colbrelli of Bardiani-CSF winning the sprint for third place.
CYCLING
Fabio Aru to sit out Classics
Italian Fabio Aru, set to be one of the favorites for July’s Tour de France, is to miss the rest of the Ardennes Classics season, Astana said on Sunday. Aru failed to finish Sunday’s Amstel Gold race — the first of three Ardennes Classics over the space of a week, with La Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday and Liege-Bastogne-Liege next Sunday — due to pain in his back. “He’s suffering with his back,” Astana said. “To avoid other consequences, and to prepare as best as possible for the next big aim of the season — the Tour de France — it was decided to bring forward his anticipated rest period, which would have started the day after Liege.” Aru, 25, won the Vuelta a Espana and came second in the Giro d’Italia last year, and is expected to provide reigning Tour de France champion Chris Froome with strong competition in July.
BASKETBALL
Atkinson new Nets coach
The struggling Brooklyn Nets on Sunday appointed Atlanta Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson as their new head coach, a position he will fill once his post-season commitments are over. Atkinson, 48, will take over from Tony Brown, who performed the role on an interim basis for the Nets after former head coach Lionel Hollins was fired in January. He will become the 21st head coach for the franchise after spending the past four seasons as an assistant with the Hawks under head coach Mike Budenholzer. “We are thrilled to announce Kenny Atkinson as our new head coach and to welcome him and his family to Brooklyn,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said in a statement. “Kenny’s years of NBA coaching experience working under successful head coaches such as Mike Budenholzer and Mike D’Antoni have provided him with the foundation and experience we were looking for in a head coach. We believe that Kenny’s core principles, leadership, communication skills and exceptional background in player development make him an ideal fit for the culture we are building in Brooklyn.”
GOLF
Andrew Johnston wins Open
England’s Andrew Johnston clinched his first victory on the European Tour at the Open de Espana in San Roque, Spain, with a one-under par 70 on Sunday to win by one shot from Dutchman Joost Luiten. Sergio Garcia, whose foundation hosted the event at the Real Club de Valderrama, was four-under par for his final round to finish third two shots back. Johnston’s one-over score for the tournament is the first over-par score to win a European Tour event outside the majors since 1996.
TENNIS
Nick Lindahl pleads guilty
Australian former professional tennis player Nick Lindahl has avoided a jail term after pleading guilty to match-fixing charges relating to a game in 2013. Lindahl, 27, appeared for sentencing in Sydney’s Burwood court on Monday and was fined A$1,000 (US$767), a court official said. The charges related to a match Lindahl played against a junior in a low-level Futures tournament in northeastern Queensland state. Lindahl’s opponent was approached by a third party before the game, but rejected the offer and reported it to a match official, the court was told earlier. It was alleged by the police prosecutor that Lindahl advised two other people that he was going to “tank” the match, and by providing that information, they were able to place bets, state broadcaster ABC said. A local betting agency suspended wagering on the match when it noted an unusually high number of bets. Lindahl, whose singles ranking peaked at 187 in 2010, and his opponent were interviewed by the Tennis Integrity Unit (TIU) before the matter was referred to police. The court was told Lindahl had not received any personal benefit from the crime, ABC said.
RUGBY UNION
Rene Ranger ruptures knee
The Auckland Blues on Monday said that Rene Ranger had ruptured a knee ligament, potentially ending the destructive center’s Super Rugby season and stalling his bid for an All Blacks recall. The club said medics had confirmed Ranger ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in the Blues’ 23-18 win over the Sharks on Saturday and would undergo scans on Monday. Such injuries typically take at least six months to heal, and often far longer, with intensive rehabilitation. That would leave Ranger on the sidelines for the rest of the Super Rugby season.
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