CYCLING
Sky pulling out of sport
The future of Team Sky has been cast into doubt after their owner and sponsor, broadcaster Sky, said it would end involvement in professional cycling after next year’s season, the British-based outfit said yesterday. The decision means the team, who have won eight Grand Tours since 2012, would need to search for another sponsor to provide funding and continue to compete under a new name. 21st Century Fox, which owns a minority stake in Team Sky, has also confirmed that it would be the last year of their involvement in cycling. Team Sky was founded in 2010 with the goal of securing a Tour de France victory by a British cyclist for the first time, a feat they achieved just two years later when Bradley Wiggins triumphed. Chris Froome then claimed the first of four Tour de France wins a year later.
CYCLING
Varnish suing UK program
Former European team sprint champion Jess Varnish on Tuesday told an employment tribunal that British Cycling used to exert extreme control over their athletes, as she seeks to sue the body for wrongful dismissal and sexual discrimination. Varnish was dropped by the squad before the Rio Olympics. She has alleged that she was the victim of bullying and sexist language. The case could affect how UK Sport offers grants to British athletes, forcing the body to introduce benefits and increased protection in the event of disputes or grievances. British Cycling said that Varnish was dropped on performance issues, but she said she was akin to an employee and therefore entitled to basic workers rights. Her witness statement said that aspects of the program, such as regular blood tests and social media control, were examples of “extreme control exercised over the lives of cyclists.” She also said that coaches would “listen through the [hotel] door to see if you were still awake” at training camps.
BASKETBALL
Warriors win annual award
The Golden State Warriors have become only the fourth team in history to be awarded Sports Illustrated’s annual “Sportsperson of the Year,” the magazine announced on Monday. The Warriors, who won their third NBA crown in four seasons this year, were honored with the award in recognition of their collective feats on court over the past five years. The Warriors have also set records for wins in a regular season, with 73 in the 2015-2016 campaign, as well as the longest unbeaten streak to start a season (24-0). “They are a generational phenomenon, the likes of which we might not see again for decades, if at all,” editor-in-chief Chris Stone said.
BADMINTON
Tai wins opener in China
Taiwan’s world No. 1 Tai Tzu-ying was untroubled in her Badminton World Federation World Tour Finals opener yesterday against Zhang Beiwen of the US, defeating her 21-15, 21-17 in 30 minutes. On the men’s side, Kento Momota rampaged past India’s Sameer Verma 21-18, 21-6 in just 36 minutes in Guangzhou. The Japanese star is looking to put the seal on a breakthrough year in which he has risen to No. 1 and become world champion for the first time. It is a far cry from 2016, when he was expelled from Japan’s Olympic team and banned for more than a year for visiting an illegal casino.
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