FOOTBALL
Peters fined for flag throw
Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Marcus Peters was on Friday fined US$24,309 by the NFL for throwing a penalty flag into the stands against the New York Jets. During the Jets’ go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs were called for three penalties to prolong the possession. The last of the penalties frustrated Peters, who picked up one of the flags and tossed it into the seats. Peters was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct and headed straight to the locker room thinking he had been ejected. However, he was not, and quickly re-emerged from the locker room without socks on. He ran back onto the Chiefs’ sideline to watch as Kansas City’s last-ditch comeback attempt fell short.
OLYMPICS
Vonn ‘has voice’ in politics
Lindsey Vonn says she will not stop expressing political views, although her main goal is regaining the Olympic downhill title. After a World Cup race, she said: “It’s not necessarily my place to be sticking my nose in politics, but as an athlete I do have a voice.” Vonn told CNN in an interview that aired on Thursday that she would “absolutely not” visit the White House if the US Olympic team gets a traditional post-Games invitation. She told CNN she hoped “to represent the people of the United States, not the president” at the Games.
RUGBY UNION
Warburton to miss season
Wales captain Sam Warburton looks set to miss the entire northern rugby season following knee surgery. Warburton has not played since July, when he led the British and Irish Lions against New Zealand in the third Test. After the tour he had neck surgery and was expected to return to club action in January and be available for the Six Nations, but Warburton and the Welsh Rugby Union decided that when he returns, he should do so free of all aches and pains, so he had a knee operated on.
CRICKET
Duckett dropped after scene
England’s Ashes tour was yesterday plunged into a fresh crisis with batsman Ben Duckett stood down from a tour game and suspended following an incident in a bar in Perth, Australia. Duckett, who was selected to open the batting in England’s two-day tour match against a Cricket Australia XI, was a late omission from the team. Reports said Duckett was late on Thursday involved in an incident where he is said to have poured a drink over a senior player following a heated row. It was the first night after England and Wales Cricket Board director of cricket Andrew Strauss agreed to a relaxing of the midnight curfew placed on the Test squad a fortnight ago.
GOLF
McIlroy plans busy 2018
Rory McIlroy has announced he is to play at least seven events early next year in a busy build-up to the US Masters, where he will attempt to complete the grand slam of major titles in April. McIlroy said on his Web site that he would start his campaign with two European Tour events in the Middle East in January — the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Dubai Desert Classic. The Northern Irishman will then switch his focus to the PGA Tour in the US, where he is to contest five tournaments in six weeks, starting at Pebble Beach in February. The former world No. 1 is having an extended break from competition after an injury-hampered season during which he did not win a tournament for the first time since 2008. McIlroy, 28, has slipped to 10th in the world rankings.
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