MOTORCYCLING
Gardner returns home
Australia’s former motorcycling world champion Wayne Gardner returned home yesterday, slamming his treatment by Japanese police following his release from jail over an alleged road rage incident. Gardner, 57, was arrested at the Japan Grand Prix on Oct. 16 after he got involved in an argument with other visitors and was accused of assaulting them, police said. The Australian said at the time he was only trying to disengage himself from one of the men who had grabbed his body, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. He was released after almost two weeks in custody on Friday and described his experience as “horrendous.” “I never want to do that again,” Gardner told reporters at Sydney airport upon his arrival. Gardner was in jail in Shimotsuke, 100km north of Tokyo, where he said he was questioned by police almost daily. Gardner said he paid a A$3,000 (US$2,280) fine for his release on condition of admitting his guilt, according to reports.
SOCCER
Sevilla held at Sporting
Sevilla were yesterday let down by their dismal away form as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Real Sporting de Gijon and squandered the chance to provisionally go top of La Liga. Jorge Sampaoli’s side were chasing a win to seal the club’s best-ever start to a league season and Luciano Vietto got them off to a dream start by latching on to a boot up field from goalkeeper Sergio Rico to squeeze the ball under Ivan Cuellar in the fourth minute. Sevilla grabbed a first away victory in 17 months in their previous outing at CD Leganes, but hopes of a second-straight win on the road were soon dashed by Moi Gomez’s volley to level the scores in the 20th minute. The visiting side dominated the remainder of the game and despite chances falling to Franco Vazquez and Pablo Sarabia, and Sporting’s Duje Cop hitting his own side’s post, a winner proved elusive.
CRICKET
Sri Lanka start strong
Sri Lanka batsmen Kaushal Silva and Kusal Perera yesterday rode their luck as Zimbabwe dropped a series of catches on the opening day of the first Test at Harare Sports Club. Silva was dropped once and Perera twice in the lead-up to tea, allowing Sri Lanka to reach the interval on 185-1 after they had won the toss and elected to bat first.Zimbabwe had hoped to push Sri Lanka in their 100th Test match, and first under new coach Heath Streak, but were instead dogged by familiar problems with their fielding. Opener Dimuth Karunaratne survived an early catching chance to make 56, and although he fell in the afternoon session when he was caught at midwicket off the bowling of Graeme Cremer, three further dropped chances cost the hosts dearly.
FIGURE SKATING
Chan grabs early lead
Three-time world champion Patrick Chan is turning heads early and Sochi gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir marked their return to the International Skating Union (ISU) Grand Prix with a sparkling performance on Friday. Chan seized a commanding lead after the men’s short program as rival Yuzuru Hanyu stumbled through his routine and placed fourth at Skate Canada, the second stop on the ISU figure skating Grand Prix calendar. Chan, who changed coaches just before the start of this season, finished with 90.56 points while Olympic champion Hanyu is almost 11 points back with a score of 79.65. Japan’s Takahito Mura is second at 81.24 and Kevin Reynolds is third with 80.57.
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