COMMONWEALTHS
England incorrectly listed
A 130-page program for the Commonwealth Games has accidentally listed England as an African country. The program, which includes profiles on the 71 Games nations, labels England’s capital as “Banjul” with a population of 2 million. Banjul is the capital city of The Gambia. A spokeswoman for Goldoc, the company responsible for running this year’s Games, has apologized for a formatting error in the official program. “Goldoc is aware of a formatting error in the England team overview section of the official GC2018 program. The formatting error occurred when The Gambia was reinstated back in to the Commonwealth and subsequently the Games only a few weeks ago,” the company said.
COMMONWEALTHS
Games hit by assault case
The Commonwealth Games were yesterday hit by an indecent assault case as Australian police investigated a Mauritian athlete’s complaint of “inappropriate touching” by a team official. Queensland state police said they had launched a criminal probe after a complaint was made overnight. Mauritian media said chef de mission Kaysee Teeroovengadum had been accused of the offense and had stepped down, but that he remained on the Gold Coast, the Games’ host city. “The Queensland Police Service is currently investigating a complaint in relation to an allegation of assault of an aggravated nature involving an athlete and an official from the Mauritius team,” Deputy Queensland Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski told reporters.
RUGBY UNION
Folau post sparks outrage
Australia outside back Israel Folau has sparked outrage with a comment on social media suggesting that gay people would be condemned to “hell” unless they “repent” for their sins. Folau’s post was deleted, but the screen-grab was shared on social media. Folau made the comment on Instagram in reply to another user who asked what was “gods plan” for gay people. “HELL... Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God,” Folau wrote. The comment triggered a torrent of criticism from social media users on his account, though he was also supported for his stance by some.
CRICKET
South Africa to tour Sri Lanka
Cricket South Africa (CSA) have confirmed a two-Test tour of Sri Lanka in July along with five one-day Internationals (ODI) that would provide preparation for next year’s World Cup in England and Wales. The first Test will be played in Galle and the second in Colombo, followed by the five ODIs that start on July 29 in Dambulla. There is also to be a single Twenty20 International played in Colombo on Aug. 14. The original tour schedule reportedly had involved three Tests, but Sri Lanka Cricket asked for one of these to be replaced by an extended limited overs series that is more commercially viable. “This will be a very important tour for us,” CSA acting chief executive Thabang Moroe said in a statement. “We have a lot of exciting, young players coming into our side in all three formats and, with so much of our international cricket being played on the sub-continent these days it is important they get used to those conditions as soon as possible.”
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