SOCCER
Liverpool defeat Barcelona
Liverpool on Saturday thrashed Barcelona 4-0 in their International Champions Cup friendly, providing a boost for manager Juergen Klopp as he focuses on domestic success in his first full season in charge. With little at stake for either side, Liverpool dominated against a Barcelona team containing Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, who was facing his former club for the first time. In front of almost 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, Liverpool went ahead after a well-worked move in the 15th minute saw Sadio Mane score his first goal after his transfer from Southampton in June for a reported £34 million (US$44.4 million). Divock Origi scored two goals after the break, with one from on-loan midfielder Marko Grujic.
RUGBY UNION
Hurricanes win maiden title
As Hurricanes captain Dane Coles grimaced in pain on the sideline during Saturday’s Super Rugby final in Wellington against the Golden Lions, he did not have to think twice about going back into battle. “Mate, it’s a final,” he declared afterward as the Hurricanes celebrated their 20-3 victory to win the championship for the first time. Coles, who suffered a painful rib injury during the Hurricanes’ win over the Western Stormers in the quarter-finals and missed the semi-final against the Chiefs, was only confirmed as playing shortly before the final began. He lasted 50 minutes before another blow to the ribs sent him from the field grimacing in agony. However, when his replacement Ricky Riccitelli needed a face wound attended to a few minutes later, Coles re-entered the fray. “I knew it was only a blood bin, so it was just one of those things you wanted to do for the team. I made a run and didn’t have too much in me, but, mate, it’s a final,” Coles said after the game.
RUGBY LEAGUE
Warriors defeat Gold Coast
Jarryd Hayne made his return from a stint in the NFL and showed flashes of his past exploits in the National Rugby League, but could not prevent his new team, Gold Coast, from losing to the New Zealand Warriors in a key match yesterday. The Warriors won 24-14, moving ahead of the Titans into seventh place in the race for a top-eight playoff spot. Hayne, who left the San Francisco 49ers and unsuccessfully tried out for Fiji’s Olympic rugby sevens squad, signed with the Titans on Wednesday. He came on in the 28th minute to sustained applause from a sellout crowd of 25,000; double the average attendance. A TV broadcast also embraced Hayne’s return, offering a “Hayne Cam,” in which one half of a split screen featured only Hayne.
SOCCER
Evans scores in return game
Former Wales striker Ched Evans, who spent two years in prison only to have his rape conviction quashed, on Saturday scored in his return to league action after a four-year hiatus. The 27-year-old secured a 1-1 draw for his third-tier side Chesterfield against Oxford United with a superb 25-yard free-kick in the second half. Evans had several chances during the game, including a relatively easy opportunity that he miscued so badly it went out of bounds. Chesterfield manager Danny Wilson said that Evans needs time to fine tune his accuracy. “Evans always makes sure he gets chances — he missed two before the goal that he’ll score by mid-season,” he said. Evans was jailed for five years in 2012, being released in 2014, for raping a 19-year-old woman. The Court of Appeal of England and Wales quashed his conviction in April. He is to go on trial again for the alleged rape in October and has pleaded not guilty.
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