SOCCER
Duo suspended for biting
Two El Salvador players have been handed suspensions for biting their US opponents during the Gold Cup quarter-finals, soccer’s regional governing body the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football announced on Saturday. Henry Romero was given a six-game ban, while Darwin Ceren received three for separate incidents that occurred during the US’ 2-0 win over El Salvador on Wednesday. Romero bit US striker Jozy Altidore on the back of his shoulder, while Cerin bit US defender Omar Gonzalez in the second half. The federation announced the sanctions for the players’ “anti-sporting behavior” just before the US started its semi-final match against Costa Rica, which the US went on to win 2-0. El Salvador has been eliminated from 2018 World Cup qualifying.
BASEBALL
Moran taken to hospital
Houston Astros rookie Colin Moran was taken to hospital after fouling a ball off the left side of his face during the sixth inning against Baltimore on Saturday. Playing in just the second game of his Major League career, Moran fouled off a pitch by Baltimore’s Darren O’Day and the ball went straight up and hit his face. Trainers rushed out onto the field and applied towels to Moran’s face, which began to bleed. The 24-year-old tried to walk off of the field, but his knees momentarily buckled and he was taken away on a cart. Marwin Gonzalez took over at-bat and hit a three-run homer as the Astros went on to win 8-4.
SOCCER
Zaha called a ‘black monkey’
Crystal Palace winger Wilfried Zaha has accused Manchester United and Liverpool fans of calling him a “black monkey” on social media. “If Man United and Liverpool fans feel better by calling me a black monkey in my messages ... feel free to carry on if it makes your day better,” the former Man United player posted on Instagram after his team’s 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League Asia Trophy in Hong Kong on Saturday. Palace manager Frank de Boer had earlier said the 24-year-old Ivory Coast international needed greater protection from referees after he received rough treatment during Saturday’s match.
POKER
Rookie wins World Series
A New Jersey man with a degree in accounting is this year’s World Series of Poker champion. Scott Blumstein won the series’ marquee no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event early yesterday in Las Vegas surrounded by dozens of supporters including relatives and college friends. He is now more than US$8.1 million richer after eliminating Pennsylvania’s Daniel Ott on the 246th hand of the final table, more than 60 hands with just the two of them with bricks of bills and a gold bracelet separating them. “I’m really happy about how I played tonight,” said Blumstein, who is 25. “This is just one poker tournament. It takes variance and luck and playing your best, and all those things came together and I’m happy to be the winner,” he said. Blumstein’s final hand of an ace of hearts and a two of diamonds ended up being stronger than that of Ott, who went all in with an ace of diamonds and an eight of diamonds. The community cards were a jack of spades, a six of spades, a five of hearts, a seven of hearts and a two of hearts. It was the last card that prompted Blumstein’s supporters to erupt. “I’m really happy with the result, really happy with the deuce because I was playing good, but I’m pretty tired of poker at this point honestly,” Blumstein said.
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