GOLF
Ciganda, Smith share lead
Carlota Ciganda on Thursday birdied three of the last six holes for a 5-under 67 and a share of the lead with Sarah Jane Smith at the Citibanamex Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Ciganda had a bogey-free opening round at the Club de Golf Mexico. The Spaniard won last month in South Korea for her first LPGA Tour title. Smith played the back nine in 5-under 31 after bogeying Nos. 8 and 9 to make the turn at even par. The Australian is winless on the LPGA Tour. Mexican amateur Maria Fassi, a freshman at the University of Arkansas playing on a sponsor invite, was two strokes back on 69 along with South Korea’s Chella Choi and France’s Karine Icher. Michelle Wie opened with a 70. The 2009 winner in Guadalajara, she is also playing on a sponsor invite after failing to qualify for the 30-player event. Kaohsiung-born Candie Kung hit five birdies, but offset those with two bogeys and a double-bogey for a 71 and a share of ninth. Canada’s Brooke Henderson, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 7 in the world, had a double bogey in a 74. No. 14 Anna Nordqvist also struggled, making a double bogey in a 75.
GOLF
Stenson makes late run
Henrik Stenson on Thursday forged a late charge to put himself a shot off the lead after the opening round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge. Stenson can clinch the Race to Dubai title with a victory in South Africa and three birdies in his last four holes on Day 1 put him in contention for that and a second Nedbank title. Stenson opened with a 3-under 69, just one behind a three-way tie for the lead made up of Felipe Aguilar, Jeunghun Wang and Ross Fisher. It is the first year the Nedbank Challenge forms part of the European Tour’s three-tournament final series. The Nedbank follows last weekend’s Turkish Airlines Open, and the season-ending World Tour Championship in Dubai is to come next weekend. RoryMcIlroy, the Race to Dubai winner the past two seasons, skipped the Turkish Airlines Open and the Nedbank. McIlroy is third in the standings behind Stenson and Danny Willett. In South Africa, Stenson started with five straight pars and bogeyed No. 6. He picked up shots at Nos. 8 and 9, but really found his groove at Gary Player Country Club late in his opening round.
SOCCER
Greece probes arson
Greece is enlisting antiterrorism police to investigate a suspected arson attack on a top referee’s home, which prompted the suspension of all league games. Greek Minister of Sports Giorgos Vassiliadis said that the Greek government is also prepared to pull domestic clubs out of European competitions unless “normality” is restored. Greek soccer has been plagued for years by persistent fan violence and allegations of corruption and match-fixing. The government briefly delayed the start of the top division in September, arguing that a festering squabble involving the federation, league organizers, and clubs posed serious security concerns. Vassiliadis said the government “will not accept mafia-style gangs” operating in Greek soccer. He spoke on Thursday after a meeting chaired by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. League matches were indefinitely suspended after Wednesday’s blaze, in which nobody was hurt.
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