SOCCER
Rennes score late winner
Champions League-chasing Stade Rennais equalized in the fifth minute of injury time and scored the winner three minutes later to beat Nantes 3-2 in Ligue 1 action on Friday. A tense Brittany derby looked to be won by Nantes, who took the lead for the second time when Nigeria winger Moses Simon made it 2-1 in the 80th minute. However, Rennes midfielder Benjamin Bourigeaud equalized with a slightly deflected strike from the edge of the penalty area in injury time before Raphinha netted his second moments later in a dramatic finale. The winner was ruled offside, but then awarded following a video review, sparking angry confrontations between opposing players in a heated match twice held up because of flares thrown from the stands.
SOCCER
Schalke’s prospects hurt
Schalke 04’s bid to qualify for the Champions League was dented after drawing with big-spending Hertha BSC 0-0 on Friday. Both teams struggled to create any quality chances in a drab contest. Michael Gregoritsch went closest with a wide header for Schalke in the 87th minute.
TENNIS
Cups merger sought
Tennis chiefs are committed to merging the Davis Cup and ATP Cup into a single men’s world team event and concrete plans could be in place by June, International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty said yesterday. The newly revamped Davis Cup, the ITF’s flagship men’s event, took place at the end of last year and was followed just six weeks later by the inaugural ATP Cup, run by the men’s tour, but there was near consensus among leading players that it made little sense to have two men’s team competitions on the calendar. “We are talking to the ATP, we’ve heard the players’ comments, we know that the ATP has as well,” Haggerty said in an interview at the Australian Open in Melbourne. “It would make sense to have one event that could be the team event for the men,” he said.
SKIING
Snow cancels event
The women’s World Cup downhill event at Rosa Khutor in Russia was canceled yesterday due to heavy snowfall, the Russian Alpine Ski Federation said. “Alas, like a year ago, the weather made it impossible to hold the women’s downhill speed event at Sochi’s Rosa Khutor,” said a statement posted on the federation’s Web site. “Yesterday, too much snow fell at the ski resort and in the mountains,” it said, with more than 40cm of fresh snow on the slope by Friday morning.
ATHLETICS
Advanced shoes approved
World Athletics cleared distance runners to keep wearing a favored Nike design, even though it said on Friday that shoe technology poses a risk to the sport. The governing body published updated guidelines that limited the use of prototype shoes like the high-tech Nike style worn in a sub-2-hour marathon run by Eliud Kipchoge in Vienna in October last year. Independent research showed “sufficient evidence to raise concerns that the integrity of the sport might be threatened by the recent developments in shoe technology,” the Monaco-based governing body said. Still, the more established Nike style called Vaporfly, increasingly favored by top marathon runners, can be worn. “If a shoe is not openly available to all then it will be deemed a prototype and use of it in competition will not be permitted,” the statement said.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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