GOLF
Kaymer on wrist injury list
Wrist injuries are taking a toll on some of the world’s best golfers, with German Martin Kaymer the latest to announce he will be taking an enforced break. Two-times major winner Kaymer joins reigning US Open champion Brooks Koepka and Japanese world No. 6 Hideki Matsuyama on the sidelines. All three are in a race against time to return to competition and form for the year’s first major, the US Masters early next month. “The next time I’ll be back on the golf course? I don’t know yet, but hopefully sooner rather than later,” Kaymer said in a video posted on Twitter on Friday. “I’ve been in Munich, seen the doctor. He told me that one bone was misplaced in my right wrist and that caused malfunction in the wrist and that also caused irritation and inflammation.” Koepka has not played since early January, due to a partially torn tendon in his left wrist. He said he expected to be out for about 10 weeks. Matsuyama, meanwhile, has been off the course since withdrawing from the Phoenix Open four weeks ago due to a left wrist injury. He hopes to return to competition in two weeks at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
ICE SKATING
Amsterdam’s canals freeze
The freezing conditions gripping Europe have produced one unexpected upside: Parts of Amsterdam’s canals have frozen over, allowing locals to ice skate on the waterways. For the first time in about six years, part of the Prinsengracht and Keizersgracht canals froze hard enough to support the weight of dozens of sightseers, locals and ice skaters. Footage from the canals shows people on skates criss-crossing the ice while others stroll along enjoying the novelty of walking on what is normally flowing water. Photographs showed onlookers sitting on canal boats or standing on bridges to watch the spectacle. However, the unusual conditions on Thursday snared two skaters who took to the ice when it was not quite thick enough. According to local media, the pair fell through the ice and were rescued by passersby.
ICE HOCKEY
Panthers top Sabres 4-1
Aleksander Barkov scored his 24th goal of the season, James Reimer made 24 saves in his first start in six games and the surging Florida Panthers beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-1 on Friday night. The Panthers have won five straight and are 12-3-0 in their past 15. They began the night three points behind Columbus for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. Colton Sceviour, Aaron Ekblad and Mike Matheson also scored for the Panthers and Evgenii Dadanov had two assists. Sam Reinhart scored for the Sabres and Robin Lehner made 26 saves. Barkov stretched the Panthers’ lead to 3-1 when he flipped the puck over Lehner’s shoulder at six minutes and 49 seconds of the second period. Barkov has six goals and nine assists in his past 10 games and is tied with Vincent Trocheck for the team lead in goals. Sceviour made it 4-1 when he poked in a rebound with eight minutes and 44 seconds left in the second. Ekblad put the Panthers ahead 2-1 after he took a cross-ice pass from Keith Yandle in the right circle and wristed it past Lehner with three minutes and 19 seconds left in the first. Matheson gave Florida a 1-0 lead 1:25 in when he corralled the puck in the high slot and fired a shot that beat Lehner on the stick side. The goal was Matheson’s ninth, but first on home ice. Reinhart tied the score at 1 when he swept the puck in from the right side at five minutes and 34 seconds of the first.
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