BADMINTON
Tai makes Malaysia quarters
Tai Tzu-ying yesterday beat Line Kjaersfeldt of Denmark to advance to the women’s singles quarter-finals at the Malaysia Masters. After losing the first set, the world No. 1 ran away with the next two sets and in 41 minutes defeated her world No. 21 opponent 19-21, 21-12, 21-10. Tai has a 5-0 record against Kjaersfeldt and is the only Taiwanese player left in the tournament. The 24-year-old is to face either Chloe Birch of England or Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand in the quarter-finals. Tai reached the finals at last year’s Malaysia Masters, but lost to Intanon 21-16, 14-21, 24-22.
BASKETBALL
Turkey seeking arrest
Turkish prosecutors are seeking an international arrest warrant for New York Knicks player Enes Kanter, accusing him of membership in a terror organization. The Istanbul chief prosecutors’ office had also prepared an extradition request for the player, Sabah reported. Kanter, who did not go with the Knicks this week for yesterday’s game in London because he feared he could be killed over his opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Twitter that the Turkish government could not present “any single piece of evidence of my wrongdoing. I don’t even have a parking ticket in the US.” Sabah said that prosecutors are seeking an Interpol “Red Notice,” citing Kanter’s alleged ties to exiled Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for a failed coup in 2016. While the Knicks are overseas, Kanter has posted a number of photographs of himself meeting with US lawmakers. He also wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post explaining his reasons for standing against Erdogan.
BULL RIDING
Rider dies after trampling
A professional rider has died as a result of injuries sustained in a competition in Denver. Professional Bull Riders (PBR) in a statement confirmed that Mason Lowe died on Tuesday after he was thrown from a bull and trampled during Monday’s event at the Denver Coliseum. Lowe, 25, was immediately transported to Denver Health, where he succumbed to “massive heart, heart valve and aorta damage,” USA Today reported. Lowe, a native of Exeter, Missouri, was ranked 18th in the world by PBR and had earned nearly US$10,000 in prize money this year, his seventh as a professional.
SWIMMING
Malaysia bans Israelis
Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Saifuddin Abdullah on Wednesday said that the government would not budge over a ban on Israeli athletes in a para swimming competition and has decided that the country would not host any events involving Israel. The government has said that Israeli swimmers cannot join the competition in eastern Sarawak state in July, which serves as a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. The Cabinet last week affirmed that no Israeli delegates can enter Malaysia for sporting or other events in solidarity with the Palestinians, Saifuddin said. Israel’s Paralympic Committee said that together with the International Paralympic Committee, it hopes “to find the right solution before July.”
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