CYCLING
Van Garderen wins stage
American Tejay van Garderen successfully defended his Volta a Catalunya lead in a fourth stage that was cut short by 60km because of a snowstorm in northeastern Spain. Nacer Bouhanni of France won the 136km stage after outsprinting Davide Cimolai of Italy in the final meters. Cimolai beat Bouhanni to win the opening stage on Monday. Van Garderen finished 33rd with his BMC Racing Team to maintain a 41-second lead over teammate Samuel Sanchez of Spain. Geraint Thomas of Team Sky was a further three seconds behind, while Alejandro Valverde was a further second back. Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Team Sky remained four seconds behind Valverde in the overall standings. The fourth stage was originally to run from Spain’s Llivia to Igualada, but the snow prompted the race to start 58km into the route in the city of Montferrer.
GOLF
Johnson maintains form
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson on Thursday continued his perfect record at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, while No. 2 Rory McIlroy was eliminated without even setting foot on the course. On an extremely windy afternoon at Austin Country Club, with gusts of up to 56kph, Johnson coped with the elements to beat Germany’s Martin Kaymer 3 and 2. After losing to Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen on Wednesday, McIlroy got a win on Thursday when his scheduled opponent Gary Woodland withdrew, citing personal family reasons.However, even with that walkover, McIlroy still needed Kjeldsen to lose his second match to have any chance of advancing out of the round-robin group stage. However, Kjeldsen duly shut the door on the Northern Irishman, beating Argentine Emiliano Grillo 4 and 3 on Thursday to improve to 2-0-0. Swede Alexander Noren was also guaranteed a part of the sweet 16, after beating Austrian Bernd Wiesberger 3 and 2.
RUGBY UNION
SIx Nations honors Hogg
Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg was on Thursday chosen as the player of the Six Nations for the second year in a row. He is only the second player to receive the award twice, after Brian O’Driscoll was picked in 2006 and 2007. Hogg received nearly one-quarter of the public vote. Ireland flanker C.J. Stander was second with about 15 percent of the vote, while France No. 8 Louis Picamoles finished third with nearly 13 percent. “To receive this award again is an absolute honor, particularly when you take other players on the short list into account,” Hogg said.
RUGBY UNION
Grenoble players released
Three Grenoble players who were detained following a rape complaint have been released from police custody pending further investigations, Bordeaux prosecutor Marie Madeleine Alliot said on Thursday. France’s Loick Jammes, New Zealand’s Rory Grice and Ireland’s Denis Coulson had been detained since Wednesday after a 21-year-old woman said that on March 11 she was drugged and taken to a hotel in Bordeaux, where she was raped after a French Top 14 game between Bordeaux and Grenoble. None of the three players have been formally charged. Three other players were released from custody earlier on Thursday, but Alliot extended the detention of Jammes, Grice and Coulson.
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