RUGBY UNION
Munster through to quarters
Two-time winners Munster joined fellow Irish side Leinster in the European Champions Cup quarter-finals on Saturday with a fractious 14-12 win over Glasgow. Munster, the champions in 2006 and 2008, ensured top spot in Pool 1 with 20 points, six ahead of Glasgow with just one round of matches left. Munster director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said he sees no reason why Munster cannot win a third European title. “If we avoid picking up a lot of injuries and keep our form like this, I think we’ve got a chance of getting somewhere,” he said. Elsewhere, two-time winners Leicester were dumped out of the competition after suffering a morale-sapping 34-3 loss to Racing 92. Scrumhalf Dan Robson scored a try with just 58 seconds left as Wasps snatched a nerve-racking 17-14 triumph over Toulouse to edge closer to the last eight. The victory moved Wasps to second place in Pool 2, a point behind Connacht, who crushed hapless Zebre 66-21.
GOLF
Thomas leads by seven
Justin Thomas is doing just about everything right at the Sony Open as he fired a bogey-free five-under 65 in the third round on Saturday to extend his lead to seven strokes. A day after setting the PGA Tour’s 36-hole scoring record, Thomas continued to roll at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu. Thomas reached 22-under 188 to equal the lowest 54-hole total in PGA Tour history. “I felt like I managed my day really well to shoot five-under,” Thomas said. “I was really happy to be bogey-free. That was a big goal of mine. I had a couple of saves, I was putting the ball in position off the tee.” Thomas has a seemingly insurmountable seven-shot lead over fellow American Zach Johnson, who shot a third-round 66. No player in the history of PGA Tour has ever lost a seven-shot lead on the final day.
GOLF
McIlroy pursuing Storm
World No. 2 Rory McIlroy remained in hot pursuit of the South African Open title on Saturday after a third-round 67 that included an eagle left him second, three shots behind Graeme Storm. Englishman Storm also carded a five-under 67 at Glendower Golf Club in Johannesburg for a total of 199, with Northern Ireland’s McIlroy on 202 at the European Tour event. “I wish I was a little bit closer to the leader,” McIlroy said after a round played in hot, partly cloudy conditions. “Graeme is three shots ahead of me at the moment, so it would be nice to make a fast start tomorrow [Sunday] and close the gap. If I can quickly narrow the gap between us to two or one shots, it will set up an interesting final round.” South African Jbe Kruger carded a 69 and Englishman Jordan Smith a 66 to share third place on 203.
RALLYING
Peterhansel claims title
French driver Stephane Peterhansel said luck played no part in his record-extending seventh Dakar Rally triumph on Saturday. Peterhansel duly completed the 12th and final stage — a mere 64km sprint — on the road to Buenos Aires without incident to successfully defend his title by more than five minutes from fellow countryman and Peugeot teammate Sebastien Loeb. Loeb won the final stage, but lost his chance of a maiden Dakar title when he punctured on Friday. At the time, Loeb, the former nine-time world rally champion, was attacking Peterhansel and had more than halved the time deficit on the leader. “It was a high-stakes duel, we went fast,” Peterhansel said. “I’d like to thank Peugeot for providing us with awesome cars and, especially, for not issuing team orders, which is a great show of fair play.”
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