GOLF
M.J. Hur shares lead
South Korea’s M.J Hur yesterday eagled two of the last three holes for a 10-under 63 and a share of the second-round lead with Canada’s Brooke Henderson in the Reignwood LPGA Classic. Hur chipped in from 45 feet for eagle on the par-five 16th, lipped out a birdie try on the par-three 17th, and hit a three-wood to set up a tap-in eagle on the par-five 18th. The 26-year-old South Korean player broke the tournament record of 64 in the event being played for the third time. Henderson shot her second straight 66, saving par on 18 with a six-footer to match Hur at 14-under 132 at Reignwood Pine Valley in the Asian Swing opener. Taiwan’s Min Lee fired a second-round three-under-par 70 for a total of 142, while her compatriots Yani Tseng and Kaohsiung-born Candie Kung also carded second-round three-under-par 70s for totals of 144.
OLYMPICS
Rome’s 2024 bid buried
Rome’s ill-fated bid to host the 2024 Olympics was definitively buried on Thursday when the city council voted in favor of the new mayor’s request to withdraw support for it. Nearly two thirds of councilors backed Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi’s position that the cash-strapped city needs to sort out its own problems before it is in a position to host the Games. Italy’s Olympic committee had already accepted that the bid was dead in the water and has said a new attempt to get the Games was unlikely for at least 20 years. Raggi, a member of the populist Five Star Movement, had made it clear before she was elected in June that she did not think the Italian capital should be bidding for the Olympics at a time when its creaking transport system and other public services are falling apart for lack of investment.
FORMULA ONE
Hamilton tops practice
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in yesterday’s practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, bettering his teammate and Formula One title rival Nico Rosberg. Hamilton, who has fallen eight points behind Rosberg in the championship fight following a hat-trick of wins by the German, was a quarter of a second faster at the Sepang International Circuit, where temperatures on the resurfaced track climbed past 58oC. The most noteworthy incident of the day’s two sessions was a fire that engulfed the Renault of Kevin Magnussen in pit lane, which repeatedly reignited for several minutes due to a fuel leak. Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen set the third and fourth-fastest times, ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Force India’s Sergio Perez.
SKI JUMPING
Russia events canceled
World Cup events in men’s ski jumping in Russia have been canceled, with concerns that organizers previously failed to pay prize money on time. The International Ski Federation (FIS) says the Dec. 10 to 11 competitions at Nizhny Tagil will not take place, though two women’s events will go ahead as scheduled. The events had been at risk in the fallout from a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation into Russian state-backed doping. In July, the International Olympic Committee asked winter sports bodies to look for other venues this year while the investigation continued.
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