BASKETBALL
Australia name Cup squad
Philadephia 76ers star Ben Simmons headlines an NBA player-dominated preliminary Australia squad announced yesterday for this year’s World Cup in China. Nine US-based players form the core of the 17-man Boomers squad, including Andrew Bogut of NBA champions the Golden State Warriors, Joe Ingles of the Utah Jazz, Patty Mills of the San Antonio Spurs and another 76er, Jonah Bolden. The NBA has seen a record number of Australian players this year and the Boomers are being touted as the strongest from the country to play at a World Cup. “No doubt, we have the opportunity to put a great team on the floor and that’s exciting,” head coach Andrej Lemanis said in a statement. “The depth of talent in Australian basketball means that some tough decisions are made at this point and some very good players miss out,” referring to several hopefuls from Australia’s national competition who were overlooked. Simmons’ 76ers lost the Eastern Conference semi-finals after an incredible Game 7 buzzer-beater by the Toronto Raptor’s Kawhi Leonard this month. The former NBA rookie of the year took to social media this week to let 76er fans know he was energized for next year after a “tough way to finish the season.” Sudanese-Australian Thon Maker was pulled from the Boomers squad at the last minute, reportedly at the request of his NBA team the Detroit Pistons. The final 12-man squad is to be selected at a team camp in August. They face Canada and the US in warm-up matches in Perth and Melbourne that month, with their World Cup campaign beginning against Canada in Dongguan on Sept. 1.
MOTOR RACING
Haas drivers black flagged
Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were both shown a black flag after 20 minutes of yesterday’s opening free practice at the Monaco Grand Prix. The two returned immediately to the pits, obeying the rarely used flagged message, which is one of the most serious and often associated with a possible disqualification. However, Haas said that it was less alarming than feared and said that the sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), had acted on their behalf after the team had a communications failure. In a message, Haas said: “Telemetry and radio issue... We cannot communicate with drivers. FIA stepped in so we could get cars back to the pits as the pit boards weren’t doing the business.”
SOCCER
Carlsberg extend sponsorship
Danish brewer Carlsberg yesterday said that it had agreed with Liverpool to extend its sponsorship deal with the club until the 2023-2024 season, marking the longest-running partnership in the Premier League. Liverpool, who finished second behind Manchester City in the domestic English league this season and face Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League final on Saturday next week, have been sponsored by Carlsberg since 1992. “The relationship between Carlsberg and Liverpool FC is iconic and we’re extremely proud to have been a part of the family for over a quarter of a century,” Carlsberg chief commercial officer Jessica Spence said. Last month, Carlsberg released a limited-edition Liverpool beer with a red bottle and label to celebrate former manager Bill Shankly’s decision to play in an all red kit.
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