CYCLING
Bauhaus sprints to stage win
Phil Bauhaus on Thursday sprinted to victory in the fifth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine. The 22-year-old German edged four French riders at the finish line to claim his biggest career win. “Today I felt I had good legs from the beginning of the stage, so I was confident for the sprint. My legs were good enough to take them on,” Bauhaus said. Bauhaus beat Arnaud Demare, Bryan Coquard, Adrien Petit and Nacer Bouhanni. Thomas De Gendt retained the race leader’s jersey ahead of three Alpine stages. De Gendt has a 27-second lead over Richie Porte, with Alejandro Valverde in third place, 51 seconds behind. The race, a warm-up for the Tour de France, ends tomorrow.
GOLF
Pettersen, Lee share lead
Suzann Pettersen and Lee Mi-hyang on Thursday each shot an eight-under 64 to share the first-round lead at the Manulife LPGA Classic. Kim Hyo-joo, Gonzalez Escall and Feng Shanshan were one shot back at 65, followed another shot back by Alena Sharp, Emily Pedersen and Jodi Ewart Shadoff. Pettersen, who recently lost her yardage book for the course and had to write notes from scratch this week, said she trusted her eye and it paid off with six birdies over one eight-hole stretch. Sharp started on the back nine and bogeyed her opening hole before recovering on the 12th with a 6-iron to leave herself a 15-footer for eagle. Sharp connected and followed it up with three birdies over her next four holes. Kaohsiung-born Candie Kung of the US carded a two-under 70 for a share of 39th, while Taiwan’s Cheng Ssu-chia was tied for 130th on five-over 77. The 6,613-yard track is still recovering from an unusually wet and cool spring in the area. Players were allowed to lift, clean and replace balls on closely mowed fairway areas.
GOLF
Four share lead at St Jude
Matt Every, Scott Brown, Stuart Cink and Sebastian Munoz on Thursday each shot six-under 64 to share the lead after one round at the FedEx St Jude Classic. Charl Schwartzel and Matt Jones were each one stroke back at the final tuneup before the US Open. Two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen and Chez Reavie each shot a 66 on the par-70 TPC Southwind course. Every, 33, has two wins on the PGA Tour, but none since 2014. He has only made two cuts this year and has not finished better than a tie for 62nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
GOLF
No. 399 takes two-shot lead
Felipe Aguilar on Thursday hit top form at the Lyoness Open with a seven-under-par 65, giving the Chilean a two-shot lead after day one. The world No. 399’s best effort since the Joburg Open in January last year took him clear of the chasing pack at the Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg outside Vienna. South Africa’s Jaco van Zyl, Sweden’s Johan Carlsson and England’s Ashley Chesters were in joint second with two other Englishmen, Graeme Storm and Oliver Wilson, a further shot behind in a tie for fifth with France’s Joel Stalter. Aguilar, 42, has not won a tournament since 2014, but laid the groundwork for his early lead by racing to five under on the front nine.
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