Chris Hanson, who has never finished inside the top 30 on the European Tour and has made just 19,000 euros (US$21,600) this year took a one-shot lead into the final round of the Trophee Hassan II.
The 30-year-old qualifying school graduate carded a third-round five-under 67 at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam to be six-under for the tournament.
The rugby league fan from Harrogate in northern England has a career-best finish of 39 on the European Tour, but he showed impressive form on Saturday with five birdies, two bogeys and an eagle on the par-five 12th.
He went into yesterday’s final round with a one-shot lead over compatriot David Dixon and Clement Berardo of France.
“It’s not something I thought I was going to go out there and shoot today, but I played some really nice stuff and took my chances when I got them,” Hanson said. “I felt I got rewarded for some good golf today. I drove the ball really nicely and kept myself in play a lot of the time. From there you can score on this golf course.”
Dixon came home in 33 to card a round of 67, with playing partner Berardo shooting a 68 after chipping in at the 13th.
Another Englishman, Joshua White, was fourth after dropping two shots late on, with in-form South Korean Wang Jeung-hun fifth on three-under.
The course at Rabat is making history this week as the first to host European Tour and Ladies European Tour events at the same time.
England’s Florentyna Parker maintained her two-shot lead in the Lalla Meryem Cup after a third-round 72 in breezy conditions on the Blue Course.
At six-under, the 26-year-old is two ahead of compatriot Liz Young, who was joined by rookie Nuria Iturrios of Spain on four-under.
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