RUGBY LEAGUE
PNG beat Wales 50-6
Captain David Mead yesterday scored three tries, including two inside the first 10 minutes, to launch co-hosts Papua New Guinea to a record 50-6 win over Wales in their opening match at the Rugby League World Cup. Canterbury Bulldogs back rower Rhyse Martin then scored two second-half tries and kicked five goals for a record individual tally of 18 points to help the Kumuls to their largest-ever win in an international match and consign Wales to its heaviest World Cup loss. Mead touched down in the fifth and ninth minutes to give Papua New Guinea a flying start to their first-ever home match in a World Cup. By halftime they had five tries, held a 26-0 lead, and Wales had already missed 29 tackles and was gasping in intense heat.
GOLF
Birdie burst lifts Armour
Ryan Armour’s six birdies on Friday included a burst of four straight as he seized a one-shot lead at the weather-hit Sanderson Farms Championship. Armour, 41 and seeking his first US PGA Tour win, carded a four-under par 68 at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, for a 10-under total of 134. He was one stroke in front of South Africa’s Tyrone van Aswegen, who had 10 birdies in a seven-under par 65 for 135. Van Aswegen’s round also included a pair of sixes — a bogey at the par-five fifth and a double-bogey at the par-four 16th, but thanks to his personal best for birdies in a round he was in contention for a first tour title.
GOLF
Tiger Woods pleads guilty
Tiger Woods on Friday pleaded guilty in a Florida court to reckless driving, the state attorney said, after police found the golf champion asleep in his Mercedes-Benz beside the road in May. Under the plea agreement reached in Palm Beach County, north of Miami, Woods will not serve jail time unless he commits major violations of his probation. The deal requires Woods, winner of 14 major golf championships, to spend one year on probation, pay a US$250 fine, perform 50 hours’ community service and complete “DUI [driving under the influence] school,” among other conditions, Palm Beach County state attorney Dave Aronberg said. Woods, 41, had five drugs in his system, including the opioid painkiller hydrocodone, when he was arrested on May 29 in Jupiter, Florida, according to a toxicology report police released at the time. Police arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence.
TENNIS
Federer fights to reach semis
Top seed Roger Federer was finally forced to work hard for a win at the Swiss Indoors tournament as he fought back to beat Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in his quarter-final on Friday. The world No. 2, chasing an eighth title at his hometown tournament, had dropped only eight games as he breezed through the first two rounds, but found his 28th-ranked opponent a much tougher nut to crack. Mannarino took the first set and, although Federer cruised through the second, the Frenchman made him work hard again in the third before the Swiss completed the win. World No. 4 Marin Cilic had an even harder time than Federer, needing two tiebreaks to beat 100th-ranked Hungarian Marton Fucsovics 7-6 (3) 5-7, 7-6 (4) in just over three hours. The Croat now faces Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, a late contender to snatch one of the last two places at the ATP World Tour Finals in London, who beat Roberto Bautista 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.
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