GOLF
Hsu shows improvement
At the Yeangder Heritage tournament in Miaoli yesterday, Hsu Hao-sheng of Taiwan improved on his opening round of 77 with a pair of 68s in the next two to be three-under, seven shots behind leader Chang Yi-keun of South Korea on 206 overall after three rounds. Chan Yih-shin, the best-placed Taiwanese after the second round, had slipped to two-over (218). They were among 16 Taiwanese who avoided the cut: Lu Chien-soon, K.P. Lin, Peng Hung-ching, Lin Wen-tang, Hung Chien-yao, Lu Wen-teh, Fang Yin-jen, Lu Wei-chih, Sung Mao-chang, Wang Tsung-chieh, Wang Wei-hsiang, Tsai Che-hung, Tseng Tzu-hsuan, Chen Ming-chuan and Liu Yu-jui. In Los Angeles, Haru Nomura grabbed the lead in the LPGA Texas Shootout near Dallas on Friday, her eight birdies more than offsetting two bogeys in a 65 that left her one shot in front of Ariya Jutanugarn. Candie Kung was the best-placed among Taiwanese, shooting a 71 to claim a share of 21st, with Hsu Wei-ling shooting a 69 to be in a share of 34th. Min Lee, Cheng Ssu-chia and Yani Tseng missed the cut. Meanwhile, at the Volvo China Open, Taiwan’s Lien Lu-sen also missed the cut. South Africa’s Dylan Frittelli shot a third-round 64 to take a three-shot lead.
SWIMMING
Lochte returns to pool
Ryan Lochte is competing in the pool for the first time since being suspended last year after he and three other swimmers vandalized a gas station during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and then said they had been robbed at gunpoint. The 32-year-old swimmer finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 53.92 seconds and won the 200 individual medley in 1 minute, 44.21 seconds on Friday at the US Masters Swimming Spring Nationals in Riverside, California. Lochte is banned from all domestic and international US national team competitions through June 30 as part of his 10-month suspension. He will swim four more events this weekend and is able to compete because the age-group meet is sanctioned by a different governing body.
BASEBALL
Yankees win homer-fest
Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer in the 10th inning as the New York Yankees completed a stunning rally from an eight-run deficit, outslugging the Baltimore Orioles 14-11 on Friday night. In a game of home runs, Starlin Castro tied it with a two-run drive that capped a three-run burst in the ninth off Brad Brach. Then in the 10th, Holliday hit the eighth home run of the evening — five by the Yankees — with one out off Jayson Aquino (1-1). Down 9-1 in the sixth, the Yankees pulled off their biggest comeback since overcoming a 9-0 gap to beat Boston 15-9 in 2012.
RUGBY UNION
SAR seeks overseas revenue
Staging “home” Test matches abroad is among the options South African bosses are considering in a bid to make the national body profitable again. South African Rugby (SAR) posted a 23.3 million rand (US$1.75 million) loss last year. Dwindling sponsorship in a harsh economic climate, rising costs and helping fund 14 professional provincial teams were among the reasons for the deficit. One possibility to increase revenue is playing an occasional high-profile Test abroad to boost the bank balance. “We could move an attractive Test overseas if it makes commercial sense,” SAR chief executive Jurie Roux told a media group. “Within a four-year cycle, one year could be set aside to play the New Zealand All Blacks aboard for the commercial good of domestic rugby.”
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