CRICKET
England cruise over NZ
England cruised to a seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in the opening Twenty20 international in Christchurch yesterday. James Vincent top-scored for the tourists with 59, his maiden T20 half-century as England chased down their 154-run target in 18.3 overs. A three-wicket haul from spinner Mitchell Santner was not enough to rescue the Black Caps, whose batting line-up failed to fire after England won the toss and opted to bowl.
CRICKET
Australia sweep series
Sri Lanka yesterday posted 142-6, with Kusal Perera hitting 57, but Australia cruised to the target to sweep their three-match Twenty20 series, with David Warner grinding out a third successive half-century in the seven-wicket win. The home team have been dominant throughout, winning by 134 runs in Adelaide and by nine wickets in Brisbane ahead of the clash in Melbourne.
ICE HOCKEY
Nifty Tkachuk helps Flames
Matthew Tkachuk tied the game in the final minute of regulation and scored the winning goal with just over a second left in overtime on a nifty shot between his legs, leading the Calgary Flames to a 6-5 win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. Calgary rallied from a three-goal deficit and ended Nashville’s four-game winning streak. On the winner, Tkachuk skated in front of the net against two Nashville defenders, let the puck slip between his legs and flipped a shot that beat Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne high to the stick side with 1.4 seconds left in overtime.
SOCCER
Lippi accused of neglect
Marcello Lippi was accused of neglect and delivering “a slap in the face” amid grumblings that China’s coach is not doing enough to justify one of the highest salaries in soccer management. Former Everton midfielder Li Tie is to temporarily take charge of China’s national team at an East Asian championships next month in South Korea instead of the 71-year-old Italian World Cup winner. Thursday’s announcement by the Chinese Football Association was greeted with anger by sections of local media, which yesterday said that it had nevertheless been long known that Lippi had opted to remain home in Italy for the tournament. “However, this doesn’t mean that this is not a problem,” the Oriental Sports Daily said. “Shouldn’t training the team be his job? Since he holds the salary of the position of the national football coach, he should do the work that the national football coach should do.”
OLYMPICS
Marathon, walking moved
The marathon and race-walking at the Tokyo Olympics next year are to be moved to northern Japan over heat concerns, officials said yesterday, after Tokyo’s governor offered her reluctant support. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) plan had caught Tokyo and organizers by surprise, with Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike repeatedly expressing her opposition. However, she said yesterday that the city would not stand in the way. “We cannot agree with the IOC, but we will not obstruct the decision made by the IOC, which has the final decisionmaking authority,” she said at a meeting with Olympic officials and organizers. “In other words, this is a decision without an agreement.”
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