GOLF
Masson wins maiden title
Caroline Masson on Sunday broke out of a star-filled pack to win the Manulife LPGA Classic for her first tour title. The 27-year-old rebounded from an opening double-bogey to make nine birdies in a five-under 67. She beat third-round leader Lee Mi-hyang, Minjee Lee and Solheim Cup teammate Karine Icher by one stroke, carding a 16-under 272. Lee Mi-hyang had a 71, Minjee Lee shot 68, and Icher 66. Ariya Jutanugarn tied for fifth at 14-under in her bid to win three straight events for the second time this season. Top-ranked Lydia Ko and last year’s winner, Suzann Pettersen, also finished on 14-under. Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling finished on a nine-under 279 total for a share of 26th place, while Yani Tseng completed play with a four-day total of 285 to tie for 58th place.
GOLF
Casey takes lead with eagle
Paul Casey on Sunday eagled the final hole to jump into a three-stroke lead after the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship in Massachusetts. The Englishman’s approach shot from 235 yards at the par-five 18th landed just in front of the green and rolled up to inside a foot of the hole. He tapped in for a third consecutive five-under 66 at TPC Boston. Casey posted a 15-under 198 total, with the US’ Brian Harmon (68) in second place on 12-under with one round left. Casey, 39, has won 13 times on the European Tour, but only once in the US, where he now plays almost full time. Despite his hot form, Casey will not be part of the European team for this month’s Ryder Cup: he was not eligible, after resigning his membership of the European Tour to concentrate on the PGA Tour.
SOCCER
Rapinoe kneels for anthem
US soccer star Megan Rapinoe on Sunday knelt during the national anthem before the Seattle Reign’s game against the Chicago Red Stars “in a little nod” to NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the anthem to protest racial injustice and minority oppression came to public notice when he remained seated before a pre-season game against Green Bay. On Thursday night last week in San Diego, he and safety Eric Reid kneeled during the anthem before a game against the Chargers. “It was a little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he’s standing for right now. I think it’s actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn’t,” Rapinoe told American Soccer Now after Seattle’s 2-2 tie in the National Women’s Soccer League game.
FOOTBALL
Cowboys sign Mark Sanchez
The Dallas Cowboys officially announced the signing of veteran NFL quarterback Mark Sanchez in one of several roster moves on Sunday. Sanchez is expected to be the Dallas backup after being released by the Denver Broncos on Saturday. Rookie Dak Prescott is to be the starter when the Cowboys face the New York Giants in their NFL season opener on Sunday. The Cowboys also kept starting quarterback Tony Romo on the roster. Sunday was the first day Dallas could have placed Romo on injured reserve, which means he would be able to return later in the regular season. Romo suffered a compression fracture in his back in a pre-season game against Seattle on Aug. 25.
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