FOOTBALL
Sexism sees host lose gig
A Philadelphia sports radio personality said he lost a weekly television gig after saying a female announcer calling an NFL game “sounds unnatural.” Mike Missanelli said on his radio show that he was fired from Sports Sunday on WPVI, Philadelphia’s ABC station. He said it is because on Tuesday he questioned why ESPN was using Beth Mowins to do play-by-play on ESPN’s Monday Night Football double-header. He said he has no one to blame but himself and calls it a “harsh result.” The firing comes the same week Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton made sexist comments to a female reporter. When a Charlotte newspaper reporter asked Newton about a wide receiver’s route running, Newton laughed and said, “it’s funny to hear a female talk about routes.” He has apologized.
YACHTING
Coutts calls time on racing
The America’s Cup’s most successful sailor, New Zealander Russell Coutts, yesterday announced he is walking away from yachting’s most glamorous event. The five-time winner of the oldest international sporting trophy said his involvement in the competition was over, even as his homeland prepares to host the next regatta in 2021. “I don’t really have any ambitions to continue with the America’s Cup at this point,” Coutts told yachtingnz.org.nz. “I have had quite a few years involved with it — loved it, fantastic event — but there are other things to do in life.” Coutts, 55, has dominated the America’s Cup for nearly two decades. He was skipper for Team New Zealand during their victories in 1995 and 2000, before switching to the Swiss entry Alinghi and winning in 2003.
GYMNASTICS
Hurd wins all-around title
American Morgan Hurd on Friday won the all-around title in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, spoiling Ellie Black’s bid to become the first Canadian winner. Hurd, 16, edged Black by 0.101 points, finishing with 55.232 points in her world championships debut. Russia’s Eremina Elena was third with 54.799. “It’s crazy that I was even competing here,” Hurd said. “To think that I won is just the most surreal feeling in the world.” American Ragan Smith, the favorite to win the gold medal, was forced to withdraw from the final after injuring her ankle during the vault warm up at the Montreal Olympic Stadium. Black is a five-time Canadian champion. “I’m standing here with the silver medal, so I’m pretty happy with that,” Black said. “There’s ups and downs in gymnastics, there are mistakes that are made. It’s part of the sport. There’s probably a bunch of athletes who would love to be in my position right now.”
FORMULA ONE
Bottas ruins run with crash
Valtteri Bottas topped the time sheets in yesterday’s third free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, before smashing his Mercedes into a wall at high speed. The Finn, who is already set to receive a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox, clocked a fastest lap of 1 minute, 29.055 seconds ahead of afternoon qualifying at Suzuka. Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton went second quickest in 1 minute, 29.069 seconds and Sebastian Vettel — who trails the Briton by 34 points with five races left this season — 0.3 seconds adrift, while Kimi Raikkonen also hit a wall in the second Ferrari. Bottas cut a dejected figure soon after losing control of his car exiting the fast left-hand “spoon” curve and crashing into the barriers, damaging his right rear suspension.
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