BASKETBALL
Curry not hurt in crash
Two-time MVP Stephen Curry on Friday escaped serious injury after being involved in a multicar accident while en route to the Golden State Warriors’ practice facility. Curry was westbound on Highway 24 near Oakland at about 9am when his Porsche Panamera collided with two other vehicles, damaging both the front and back end of his vehicle, US media reported. An Oakland TV station reported a California Highway Patrol spokesman as saying a Lexus car spun out on the freeway and collided with the front of the Porsche before a second car rear-ended it. “Don’t need any reminders but All the Time God is Great and God is Great all the time! Appreciate all the texts,” Curry wrote on Twitter. Police said the wet weather was likely a factor and that no charges have been laid.
RUGBY UNION
Two dropped for hotel visit
Australia backs Kurtley Beale and Adam Ashley-Cooper were dropped for yesterday’s match against England at Twickenham after bringing women into their hotel room earlier on tour, coach Michael Cheika said on Friday. The incident took place following Australia’s 9-6 defeat by Wales on Nov. 10. Australian media reported that three women, one of whom was said to be Ashley-Cooper’s sister-in-law, were out of the hotel by 10:30pm GMT. Team rules state guests are not allowed in players’ rooms. The Wallabies were already reeling from knowing that David Pocock would miss the England game with a neck injury sustained against Italy.
RUGBY UNION
Rainbow laces ‘ill-fitting’
Several international teams planned to wear rainbow laces in support of former Wales captain Gareth Thomas this weekend, but England might avoid a similar gesture because they do not fit into their boots. Thomas on Sunday last week posted a video on Twitter saying he had been a victim of a homophobic assault in Cardiff. Wales and France have already said their players would be wearing rainbow laces this weekend, but England’s Sam Underhill, facing Australia yesterday, said: “I won’t be wearing them personally. That is more to do with — it sounds a bit ridiculous given the size of the issue they are representing — the thickness of the laces, they are actually really uncomfortable in my boots.” He added: “But it is an incredibly worthy cause, an incredibly important cause.”
ATHLETICS
Bett given four-year ban
Kenyan world 800m bronze medalist Kipyegon Bett has been handed a four-year ban for doping, the International Association of Athletics Federations Athletics Integrity Unit said in a statement on Friday. Bett, 20, refused to allow a urine sample to be taken in February and then in July, when a sample was taken, he tested positive for the prohibited substance erythropoeitin, an endurance-boosting hormone, the unit said. Unless he appeals, Bett is to be suspended until August 2022.
SOCCER
Alaves miss out on lead
Deportivo Alaves on Friday lost to relegation-threatened CD Leganes 1-0, missing an opportunity to take the Spanish league lead. Alaves could have passed Barcelona for the lead with a victory, but the hosts secured the three points with a goal by Youssef En-Nesyri shortly before halftime at Butarque Stadium. It was the first win in six matches for Leganes, allowing them to move out of the relegation zone ahead of the weekend matches.
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