SOCCER
United step up Pogba chase
Manchester United are said to have stepped up their world-record chase for Paul Pogba by reportedly thrashing out a huge financial package with his agent, while the Juventus midfielder eagerly awaits developments in sun-kissed Miami. United coach Jose Mourinho has made Pogba his top transfer target as he bids to make a big impact in his first season at Old Trafford and a record-breaking £100 million (US$130 million) deal looked to have moved closer on Wednesday. British media reported United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward pulled out of the club’s pre-season tour to China to meet Pogba’s agent, Mino Raiola, when the pair negotiated a prospective five-year contract worth £220,000 per week after tax.
OLYMPICS
hina condemns doping
A top Chinese sports official said the nation has committed to a zero-tolerance stance on doping ahead of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Vice Director of the General Administration of Sports Gao Zhidian yesterday said that Olympics-bound athletes and coaches are required to sign pledges not to cheat, saying violators would be severely punished. Gao said athletes, coaches and team doctors must also pass a written exam on banned substances, with only those scoring 80 percent or higher permitted to go to Rio.
RUGBY UNION
All Blacks impress Carter
The All Blacks’ class of 2016 have “extremely impressed” former flyhalf Dan Carter, who is not surprised by the team’s ability to move on quickly after losing stalwarts to international retirement last year. Steve Hansen’s side lost six veterans, including Carter and captain Richie McCaw, after their successful Rugby World Cup defense, raising suggestions the team would be vulnerable this year. However, the new-look side under captain Kieran Read swept Wales aside 3-0 in the Test series last month and appear as strong as ever leading into next month’s Rugby Championship. “I was extremely impressed, but it is what I expected. They are such a formidable outfit,” Carter told TVNZ yesterday. “I knew they were just going to continue from the success at the World Cup. All the young guys stepped up and I have become a huge fan now. I can sit back and watch them, and have really enjoyed the style of play in June.”
SOCCER
Guardiola loses first match
Pep Guardiola’s reign as Manchester City coach started with a 1-0 defeat in a friendly at his former club Bayern Munich on Wednesday in a game watched by 68,000 spectators. Erdal Ozturk scored the only goal of the game in the 76th minute, although both sides were under-strength at the Allianz Arena, with many of their leading players enjoying longer summer vacations following Euro 2016 and the Copa America Centenario. Belgium defender Vincent Kompany was an unused substitute for City after recovering from thigh surgery that kept him out of the Belgium team at the Euros. “I had a special feeling — it was like coming home once again,” said Guardiola, who has been replaced at Bayern by former Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti.
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