TOUCH RUGBY
Beasts top table
The Taipei Beasts topped the Taipei Touch Association’s Winter League table after running unbeaten up until their final game in group play at the Bailing Rugby Fields in Shilin District yesterday. They came within a single play of going undefeated, with their final game — against the Taipei Hulks — locked at 1-1 after the hooter. However, the Hulks scored to win 2-1, although the result had no bearing on the final standings. AyKang Galaxy won one of their three games yesterday to barely retain their third-place position over the Taipei Celts, who finished fourth, despite two wins, with a touchdown differential of two fewer than Galaxy. KGB sat fifth, while TAS were sixth. The finals are at the rugby grounds on Saturday from 10am.
SOCCER
Crash labeled ‘murder’
Bolivian Minister of Defense Reymi Ferreira said that a plane crash that killed 71 people in Colombia was “murder,” because the pilot only had the exact amount of fuel needed for the flight in violation of civil aviation principles. The Bolivia-based LaMia airline flight was carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the Copa Sudamericana tournament’s finals when it crashed outside Medellin on Nov. 28. Six people survived. In a recording, the pilot is heard radioing to the control tower that he is out of fuel. Investigations continue, but authorities say he ignored international rules on fuel reserves. “What happened in Medellin was murder because anyone who dares take passengers, more than 70 people, with the exact amount of fuel is clearly violating the most basic protocols of civil aviation,” Ferreira said.
CRICKET
Pakistan warm up with win
Pakistan’s bowlers yesterday dismissed a Cricket Australia XI for 109 to clinch a 201-run win on the third and final day of a tour match ahead of next week’s first day-night Test against Australia in Brisbane. The visitors required just 27.3 overs to roll through the inexperienced home side after Pakistan declared at 216-6, setting a target of 311 with two sessions to play. Pakistan needed just one, with spinner Mohammad Nawaz claiming three wickets and pacemen Mohammad Amir and Rahat Ali two each. They dismissed the hosts for 114 in the first innings. Amir (2-18) looked dangerous with the new ball, sharply swinging it back after he also claimed three wickets on Thursday night in his opening two overs of the first innings. Ali (2-19) also pressed his claims for a Test recall, the left-armer trapping both openers, Jimmy Pearson and Jake Carder, LBW with deliveries that stayed low. Pakistan opener Azhar Ali had earlier warmed up for the first Test, starting on Thursday at the Gabba, with an unbeaten 82. Pakistan have never won a Test series in Australia, winning just four of 32 Test matches there since their first visit in 1964. Australia have won just one of their past five Tests.
BASEBALL
Astros signee ends era
A 20-year-old Cuban pitcher has agreed to a minor-league contract with the Houston Astros that includes a US$2 million signing bonus. The agreement involving left-hander Cionel Perez was announced on Friday and is part of the last international signing period without a cap on bonuses. Starting from July 2, teams will not be able to exceed set limits each year that start at US$4.75 million for bonuses of more than US$10,000 for amateurs residing outside the US, Puerto Rico and Canada.
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