CYCLING
Bobridge arrested for ecstasy
Australian cyclist Jack Bobridge, who won silver medals at the last two Olympics, was arrested in Perth, Australia, on charges of dealing in ecstasy, local media reported yesterday. Bobridge was arrested after police raided his home on Wednesday, the ABC reported. Bobridge was bailed to appear at a Perth magistrates’ court to face the charges next month, ABC added. In a highly successful career, Bobridge rode in four versions of the Giro d’Italia and won the Australian road race national title for the second time in Ballarat in January last year.
COMMONWEALTH
Doping samples to be stored
Doping samples at next year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, Australia, are to be stored long-term for future testing as officials send a strong message that the host country will not “tolerate cheats.” A pre-Games anti-doping taskforce would also be established to test athletes before they arrive for the Games, which run from April 4 to April 15 next year, organizers said yesterday. The Commonwealth Games Federation, local organizers and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Agency are to also share intelligence with law enforcement to investigate the possession and trafficking of banned substances. Commonwealth countries Kenya and Jamaica have previously had their drug-testing program scrutinized and ordered to be brought up to world anti-doping standards.
BADMINTON
Chen Yufei upsets top seed
China’s Chen Yufei announced herself as a star of international badminton on Thursday when she knocked out Japan’s top-seed Akane Yamaguchi in the third round of the World Championships. The 19-year-old reigning world junior champion shocked the Japanese favorite with a straight 21-18, 21-19 victory and is to meet Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon in the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen defeated Sai Pranneth of India 19-21, 21-10, 21-12 in the third round.
CRICKET
West Indies lead England
The West Indies grabbed three wickets before lunch on the first day of the second Test against England at Headingley as the hosts stumbled to 61 for three in the face of some impressive bowling. Kemar Roach struck twice and Shannon Gabriel once as the West Indies, humiliated in the first Test, offered hope that they can at least make a match of it.
PARKOUR
Group gives FIG deadline
Global organizers Parkour Earth have set the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) a deadline to end attempts to control their sport and give it Olympic status. The six-nation group asked FIG president Morinari Watanabe in an open letter on Thursday for an “urgent meeting” by Sept. 15 to formalize its right to govern. It said it seeks FIG’s “commitment to take no further steps to implement your purported encroachment.” FIG is working with some French founders of parkour to launch a world tour of events next year, leading to a first world championship in 2020. “FIG would like to specify that its approach has never been to unilaterally appropriate a discipline,” it said in June. The FIG executive committee is due to discuss the issue at a meeting in Benin from Oct. 26 to Oct. 27.
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