ICE HOCKEY
Struggling Stars beat Caps
Kari Lehtonen made 42 saves, while Devin Shore, Radek Faksa and Jason Spezza scored as the Dallas Stars continued their puzzling domination of the Washington Capitals with a 4-2 victory on Monday night. Despite struggling this season, Dallas extended their point streak in the series to 12 games and won for the sixth consecutive time in Washington. The NHL-leading Capitals’ home winning streak snapped at 15 and their point streak at 17. Despite Nicklas Backstrom’s 21st goal and T.J. Oshie’s 25th, they lost in regulation at home for the first time since Dec. 17 and in any fashion at home since Dec. 29. The Stars chased reigning Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Braden Holtby with three goals on 11 shots and have not lost in regulation to the Capitals since 2006. In Florida, Mika Zibanejad scored in overtime and Antti Raanta made 38 saves for the New York Rangers as they beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0. In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Joe Pavelski scored twice as the San Jose Sharks defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-2 and in Ottawa, Mike Hoffman had a power-play goal early in the third period as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2.
RUGBY UNION
Cheika woos Kurtley Beale
Australia coach Michael Cheika has dangled the carrot of a more senior role for Kurtley Beale in the Wallabies setup if the playmaker comes home early from England. The 28-year-old Beale started a lucrative two-year deal with Premiership club Wasps last year, but has the option to return to Australia and is yet to decide on his playing future. A serious knee injury wiped out Beale’s international season last year and he played the last of his 60 Tests in the 2015 World Cup final defeat to New Zealand. Cheika had Beale playing off the bench during the tournament behind starting inside center Matt Giteau. It proved an effective gambit, but Beale complained about his back-up role before his departure overseas. “Beale before wasn’t starting, he was hole-fixing, but I think it will be different for him this time, because I’ve got a clear vision of what I want him to do in the team,” Cheika told local media. “I know it’s only been a year, but in that year there’s been a big change in the Wallabies squad as well. He’ll come back with a slightly different stature I’d say and I want him to play according to that.”
SOCCER
Player breaks age record
Japanese player Kazuyoshi Miura has reached another milestone in his professional career. The veteran striker, who plays for J-League second-division club Yokohama, appeared in a professional match at the age of 50 years and seven days to beat former England international Stanley Matthews’ longevity record. Miura told FIFA.com in comments published yesterday: “I don’t actually feel like I’ve gone past a legend. I may have surpassed him in longevity, but I won’t ever be able to match his statistics and the career he had.” Miura played 54 minutes in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with V-Varen Nagasaki, enough to move past the record Matthews set when he played for Stoke City against Fulham at the age of 50 years and five days in 1965. Miura played for Brazilian club Santos and in Italy with Genoa earlier in his career. He represented Japan’s national team 89 times, scoring 55 goals, but never played at a World Cup.
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