BOXING
Blackwell retires after coma
Nick Blackwell has announced his retirement from boxing after sustaining serious injuries against Chris Eubank Jr in the British middleweight title fight last month that left him in an induced coma with bleeding in his brain. “No, that’s me done,” Blackwell tweeted after being asked by on the social media site if he would be making a comeback. “I can’t put my friends and family and self through that again, but I’ll still be involved.” Blackwell, a former British middleweight champion, told Eubank that he held no grudges after he collapsed in the ring. The fight was called off in the 10th round because of swelling over his left eye. After the 25-year-old emerged from the coma, he posted a message of thanks for the support he had received, leading Eubank to ask after his well-being on Twitter. Blackwell replied: “No hard feelings, we were both there doing a job and it was unfortunate for what happened but I hope your OK champ.”
SOCCER
US releases FIFA transcripts
A US judge on Monday released transcripts of guilty pleas from three prominent defendants in the sweeping FIFA corruption investigation who confessed to crimes and agreed to pay US$37.5 million in compensation. Former FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, Argentine-Italian marketing executive Alejandro Burzaco and Brazilian intermediary Jose Margulies pled guilty last year to racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies. US prosecutors have in total accused 40 officials and marketing executives of soliciting and receiving tens of millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in a case that has sparked an unprecedented crisis at FIFA. The transcripts show the three of them expressing regret and suggesting that bribes were standard practice. All three, who are confined to US house arrest, will be sentenced for corruption in New York in June. “I abused my position to obtain bribes and kickbacks for my personal benefit,” Webb, who suffers from a heart condition, told the judge in pleading guilty to seven counts and confessing to enriching himself from 2012 to 2014. He said he was told in 2012 that sports marketing companies would offer “side payments” or bribes in exchange for commercial rights to soccer matches.
SOCCER
Hooligans attack referees
About 40 masked and helmeted hooligans burst into a refereeing seminar in an Athens suburb on Monday, the Greek soccer federation said. “A criminal organization which has been acting undisturbed lately continues to endanger the lives and physical integrity of people involved in soccer. Another incident of violence has been added to the chain of such events,” the federation said. The federation said intruders both insulted the referees and threw yogurt and other objects at them, injuring one.
TENNIS
Friedsam beats Konta
Wild card Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany defeated Johanna Konta of Britain 6-3, 6-3 at the start of the Porsche Cup, a WTA tournament on indoor red clay. In the second match Monday, Timea Babos of Hungary defeated Sabine Lisicki of Germany 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. The top-seeded player in the tournament is Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, while No. 2 is Angelique Kerber of Germany, the Australian Open champion. Both have byes into the second round.
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