GOLF
Lang wins Women’s Open
Brittany Lang on Sunday won the US Women’s Open in a three-hole playoff over Anna Nordqvist, whose challenge was doomed by a two-stroke penalty at the second playoff hole. Nordqvist was penalized for grounding her club in a fairway bunker, with video showing her club barely touching the sand before she hit out. That paved the way for Lang — who parred all three playoff holes — to capture her first major title at CordeValle in San Martin, California. The two had ended regulation tied on six-under-par 282 — two shots in front of a group that included 19-year-old world No. 1 Lydia Ko, who was seeking to become the youngest golfer to win a third major title. Taiwan’s Yani Tseng and Teresa Lu finished tied for 59th with three others on 10-over 298.
GOLF
Goydos wins at En-Joie
Paul Goydos likes to say his golf game is two good rounds, then a mediocre one. “That’s kind of all tournaments, not just here,” he said before playing in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open. Last year, he did just that at the En-Joie Golf Club, fading late while challenging for the lead and losing to Jeff Maggert by two shots. On Sunday, Goydos put that notion and that disappointment behind him, shooting a bogey-free 69 to beat Wes Short Jr (69) by two shots on a tricky day at En-Joie buffeted by gusting winds. Goydos finished at 14-under 202 for his third victory on the Champions Tour. Qualifier Neal Lancaster (70) was third at 11-under, while John Riegger (72) finished tied for fourth at 10-under with Joe Durant (68).
CRICKET
BCB rules out neutral venue
The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has ruled out a neutral venue for their home series against England if the visiting team cancel their tour of the south Asian country after the July 1 attack at an upmarket Dhaka restaurant that left 20 dead. England’s limited overs captain Eoin Morgan has called it a “big concern” and felt a neutral venue to host the three one-day internationals (ODIs) and two Tests would be a “feasible” idea. “We always believe [neutral ground] is never a solution,” BCB chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury told local media. “Cricket cannot stop in a country. The cricket operations of both BCB and ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] are in continuous communication regarding the England tour of Bangladesh in October. They are in discussion with the tour related matters, especially the logistics.” An ECB spokesman said they would follow government advice on the trip.
RUGBY SEVENS
Hayne fails to make team
Former San Francisco 49ers running back Jarryd Hayne has failed in his bid to win selection in the Fiji rugby sevens team to compete at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Hayne pre-empted a scheduled announcement by the Fiji Rugby Union with a Facebook post yesterday saying his time with the Fiji squad “has ended.” The former National Rugby League star, who won a place on the 49ers roster as a rookie last year, said he met with Fiji coach Ben Ryan on Friday last week and agreed he has not done enough to win Olympic selection. Hayne was a late addition this season, after quitting the NFL, and struggled to adapt to the pace and fitness demands of sevens.
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