TOUCH RUGBY
Beasts stay perfect
The Taipei Beasts maintained their perfect record in the Taipei Touch Association’s winter league, notching a win over the Taipei Celts in their only game at the Taipei American School in Tianmu yesterday. That win put their record at 7-0, two points ahead of the Taipei Hulks in second, with AyKang Galaxy moving to third on the back of two wins and a loss to the Hulks. The Celts are fourth and Team KGB fifth, while hosts TAS are sixth.
ATHLETICS
Bolt wins IAAF award
Usain Bolt is track and field’s male athlete of the year, winning the award from the sport’s governing body for a sixth time. Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia won the women’s award after her world-record run to win Olympic gold in the 10,000m. The awards were handed out on Friday by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) at a gala ceremony in Monaco. The winners were chosen by athletics officials, athletes, journalists and an online public poll. Bolt won golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, repeating his feats of the 2012 London Games and in Beijing in 2008. Ayana smashed the world record in the Olympic 10,000m. Her time of 29 minutes, 17.45 seconds shaved more than 14 seconds off the previous best.
ICE HOCKEY
San Jose beat Montreal
San Jose extended their mastery over Montreal at home by beating the Canadiens 2-1 on Friday in a clash of NHL division leaders. Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski scored in the first period, while Martin Jones stopped 31 shots as the Sharks continued their record of not having lost at home in regulation time against Montreal dating back to 1999. The Canadiens failed to maintain pressure against Jones, who turned away several point-blank shots early and then was rarely tested. Andrew Lehkonen scored a power-play goal late in the third period, but there was not time enough for the Canadiens to find a tying goal. In the day’s other game, Sean Monahan scored the shootout winner in Calgary’s 3-2 victory over Minnesota. Kris Versteeg and Mikael Backlund scored in regulation for the Flames, while the Wild’s goals came from Chris Stewart and Mikko Koivu.
CRICKET
Maxwell fined by team
Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was fined yesterday by his team for “disrespectful” comments about teammate Matthew Wade on the eve of their opening one-day international against New Zealand in Sydney. Maxwell on Thursday said he felt as though batting below Wade at No. 6 for Victoria in the domestic Sheffield Shield cricket hurt his selection chances for Australia’s third Test against South Africa in Adelaide last week. Australia Captain Steve Smith and the team’s leadership party fined Maxwell for what they termed his “disrespectful” comments toward his state skipper and ODI teammate Wade. Head coach Darren Lehmann said Maxwell’s words in a media conference were “disappointing,” leading to Smith and Australia’s senior members to impose a fine on the 28-year-old. “Everyone was disappointed in his comments,” Smith told reporters. “I’ve expressed that to him myself and spoke to the team. One of our values is respect and having respect for your teammates, opposition, the fans, the media. I thought what he said was very disrespectful to a teammate and his Victorian captain.”
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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