BASKETBALL
All-Star game in Chicago
The NBA is bringing the All-Star game to Chicago for the first time since Michael Jordan dazzled his home crowd. A person familiar with the situation said the All-Star festivities are to be held in the Windy City in 2020. The person spoke on Thursday on the condition of anonymity because an official announcement has not been made. The last time the All-Star festivities were held in Chicago, Jordan put on quite a show. He and Dominique Wilkins soared in an epic slam dunk contest, “His Airness” edging out the “Human Highlight Reel” with one last spectacular display.
CRICKET
Hazlewood ready for Ashes
Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood said he is fit and ready for the Ashes series against England after taking six wickets and coming through a Sheffield Shield match unscathed. The 26-year-old was forced to return from Bangladesh following the first Test after picking up a side strain that also ruled him out of a subsequent limited-overs tour of India. Hazlewood showed his injury problems are behind him with a satisfying performance for New South Wales against Western Australia earlier this week and he has been taken out of the team for next week’s match against Queensland. He is instead to train as part of Australia’s Test attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane to prepare for the opening Ashes Test on Nov. 23. “Things went pretty well the whole game,” Hazlewood told reporters in Sydney yesterday.
SOCCER
Batshuayi out with injury
Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi has withdrawn from the Belgium squad for their upcoming internationals due to a foot injury and has returned to the Premier League club for treatment, the national team’s manager Roberto Martinez has said. Batshuayi, who has scored seven goals in 12 appearances for Chelsea this season, last played for the London club during their 3-0 Champions League defeat by AS Roma last month and was benched for their subsequent league win over Manchester United. Belgium were to play Mexico yesterday, followed by a match against Japan on Tuesday. “Batshuayi is out for the Mexico game and has left the group to recover at Chelsea, because of an injury to his foot,” Martinez told reporters.
FOOTBALL
Sherman seriously injured
The Seattle Seahawks might have to pay a price for their victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Thursday as key player Richard Sherman incurred an apparently serious Achilles tendon injury. Sherman departed the game after getting entangled with an Arizona player in the third quarter in Glendale, Arizona. The four-time Pro Bowl defensive back was seen on television appearing to say to teammates “tore my Achilles,” a potentially season-ending injury. He was one of nine Seahawks to leave the game due to injury. Sherman was already listed as carrying an Achilles injury before the game. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson also had an injury scare. He briefly left the field during the second quarter after being stuck in the neck by the helmet of an opposition player. However, Wilson quickly returned to action and seemed fine during a post-game interview on the field.
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