ATHLETICS
Javelin impales sprinter
A University of Georgia sprinter is expected to make a full recovery after he was impaled on a javelin during a practice session on Tuesday. Elija Godwin was participating in a drill in which he and his teammates were sprinting backward when he ran into the javelin, which had been left pointing out of the ground at an angle. The accident left Godwin with wounds to his back and shoulder, and collapsed his left lung. Georgia athletic director Greg McGarity said that no one was to blame for the incident. “It was truly an accident,” McGarity said. “Nobody threw anything or anything like that.” Godwin, unsurprisingly, is to miss the rest of the season.
RUGBY UNION
Folau could play in Asia
Australian billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest could offer Israel Folau a career lifeline in Asia if his Wallaby’s contract is terminated over his homophobic comments, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. Tonga coach Toutai Kefu has also said that he is keen for Folau to switch allegiance to his team, even though the fullback would have to serve a three-year stand-down period. Folau has limited options if his Rugby Australia contract is torn up, with the National Rugby League ruling out signing him and many overseas clubs shying away. However, the Telegraph reported that Forrest could find a spot for Folau in his Global Rapid Rugby competition, which is to begin next year. The competition was interested in making Folau a marquee signing for either the Hong Kong-based South China Tigers or the Singapore-based Asia Pacific Dragons, the paper said.
SOCCER
Chelsea ban appeal rejected
Chelsea’s appeal against a one-year transfer ban was rejected on Wednesday, leaving the club to prepare for their Champions League return without being able to add new players. The FIFA appeals committee upheld the ban imposed in February for breaking youth transfer rules, but added that Chelsea would be allowed to register players under 16. Although Chelsea can still sell players, any new signings must not be selected until the 2020-2021 season. Chelsea said they would challenge the decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They could also ask for an urgent interim ruling within weeks to freeze the ban during the appeal process. That would let Chelsea register any players signed during the off-season transfer window, which opens on June 11 in England.
SOCCER
Players jailed over assault
A Moscow court on Wednesday found Russian players Pavel Mamaev and Alexander Kokorin guilty of hooliganism over a night of drunken assaults and sentenced them to one-and-a-half years each in prison. The players have already served about seven months in detention, which would count toward their sentence. Kokorin’s lawyer Tatiana Stukalova told journalists that “we will definitely submit an appeal,” saying that the verdict was based solely on victims’ testimony. Mamaev and Kokorin attacked two officials in a Moscow cafe after a drunken night out in October last year. They also assaulted the chauffeur of a TV presenter as he waited in a parking lot. Both are Russia internationals, although Kokorin last played for the national side in late 2017, while Mamaev was last selected in 2016.
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