ICE HOCKEY
Penguins begin defense
Pittsburgh began their defense of the Stanley Cup with a 3-2 victory over Washington on Thursday, with Phil Kessel beating Braden Holtby in the fourth round of a shootout for the winning tally. Kessel’s wrist shot over Holtby’s glove was initially ruled no goal, but was overturned on replay. Marc-Andre Fleury then saved Alex Ovechkin’s attempt from in close to help the Penguins improve to 5-0 against Washington in season openers. Patric Hornqvist and Evgeni Malkin scored as the Penguins capped a celebratory night in which they lifted their latest Stanley Cup banner to the rafters. Andre Burakovsky scored twice for Washington. Holtby made 28 stops, but allowed three goals in the shootout.
RUGBY UNION
Fiji team to play in NRC
A Fiji team are to join Australia’s National Rugby Championship (NRC) next year, laying the platform for a potential future push for a Pacific island team in Super Rugby. Fiji provided one of the feel-good stories in Rio de Janeiro in August when their men’s side won the first rugby sevens Olympic title, securing the nation’s first-ever medal in the process. While being frontrunners in the abbreviated sevens format, Fiji have never progressed beyond the World Cup quarter-finals in the traditional 15-a-side game. Because of a lack of infrastructure and funding, talented rugby players have tended to go abroad to Europe, New Zealand or Australia to seek professional opportunities. The momentum of the exodus has recently been increasing. To help Fiji keep some homegrown talent at home, World Rugby is underwriting the participation of the Fiji Warriors in Australia’s NRC. “The Fiji brand of rugby is arguably the most exciting brand of rugby in the world and their inclusion in the NRC will enhance the competition both in terms of the quality of rugby and by adding a huge amount of support and interest from the Fijian communities both in Fiji and here in Australia,” Australian Rugby Union chief executive Bill Pulver said at the official announcement yesterday.
CRICKET
Tahir, South Africa fined
Spinner Imran Tahir has been fined 30 percent of his match fee for his heated exchange with Australia batsman David Warner, while South Africa were penalized for maintaining a slow over-rate in Wednesday’s fifth ODI against Australia in Cape Town. Tahir showed a lack of respect toward the umpires when he ignored them during his verbal spat with Warner and the behavior was deemed “contrary to the spirit of the game,” the International Cricket Council (ICC) said. South Africa captain Faf du Plessis was docked 20 percent of his match fee and the rest of the team 10 percent for the slow over rate. Both Du Plessis and Tahir pleaded guilty and accepted the sanctions.
CRICKET
Pakistan take control
Pakistan moved into a commanding position against the West Indies in the day-night Test in Dubai last night. At press time, Pakistan had moved to 406-2 against the pink-ball attack in the United Arab Emirates, who dismissed Sami Aslam for 90 on Thursday and Asad Shafiq for 67 yesterday. Azhar Ali was on 207 not out, batting with Babar Azam on 25 not out.
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