ATHLETICS
Coleman to run only 100m
American Christian Coleman is to run only the 100m at the world championships in London next month, his management company said on Friday. Coleman had qualified for the 100m and 200m with runner-up finishes at last month’s US championships. The 21-year-old, who last month set the fastest time of the year in the 100m by running 9.82 seconds, and his coach decided to concentrate on the shorter race after a lengthy collegiate season. With 48 races indoors and out, Coleman has run more often this year than Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Andre De Grasse combined, HSI Sports Management’s Emanuel Hudson told reporters. Coleman, who has not competed since the US championships, wants to make his European professional debut in the 100m at the Monaco Diamond League’s meeting on July 21, Hudson said. “We have requested a lane for him in the men’s 100m, but as of today have not been given a spot,” Hudson said by telephone.
MOTORSPORTS
Governor wins stock car race
Vermont’s stock car-racing governor is back in victory lane. Vermont Governor Phil Scott on Thursday won the 50-lap feature at Barre’s Thunder Road, taking home a total of US$1,200. Scott, a part-time race car driver, has the most all-time wins in the top division at Thunder Road. The win was his 30th and his first since becoming governor in January. He can now add to his list of accomplishments that he is the first sitting governor to win a Vermont stock car race. Scott easily won two preliminary heats on Thursday before starting the feature in the pole position at the head of the pack. He led for the entire race.
SOCCER
Bilbao shave heads in unity
The entire Athletic Bilbao squad have shaved their heads in solidarity with teammate Yeray Alvarez, who is undergoing chemotherapy for testicular cancer. The team surprised the 22-year-old midfielder, who was last month forced to withdraw from the Spain Under-21 side after suffering a relapse, with their new look as he arrived at the club’s dressing room for a visit. The club posted a photograph on Twitter of the entire squad arm-in-arm. Alvarez thanked his teammates in a message posted on Instagram that said: “What happens in this family is crazy.” He was diagnosed with a tumor on his right testicle and had the organ removed in December last year. A routine medical examination last month revealed an anomaly that doctors decided required chemotherapy.
SOCCER
Mascot Lowery dies aged six
Bradley Lowery, a soccer mascot who struck up a close friendship with England striker Jermain Defoe after being diagnosed with a rare cancer and gained fans across the sport, has died. He was six. Lowery’s family on Friday said in a statement on Facebook that he died in the arms of his mother and father. “He was our little superhero and put the biggest fight up, but he was needed elsewhere,” the statement said. Lowery, who had neuroblastoma, was a mascot for then-English Premier League team Sunderland several times last season and formed a bond with Defoe, who now plays for AFC Bournemouth. Lowery was also a mascot for an England game at Wembley Stadium in March, and supporters of different clubs made banners and chanted his name at games. “Today, the football world lost one of its bravest fans,” World soccer governing body FIFA said on Twitter.
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