CRICKET
Bangladesh face defeat
Pakistan took a 212-run lead on the first innings on day 3 of the first Test in Rawalpindi yesterday, with Babar Azam making 143. The visitors have a long way to go after reaching 126-6 at stumps, needing 86 further runs to make Pakistan bat again.
ATHLETICS
Pole vault record set
Armand Duplantis of Sweden set a world pole vault record of 6.17m at an indoor meeting in Poland on Saturday. He cleared the bar on his second attempt in Torun to break the previous record of 6.16m set by French vaulter Renaud Lavillenie in February 2014.
RUGBY UNION
Stormers move top
Seabelo Senatla scored a superb try for the Western Stormers as they ground out a 13-0 win over the Northern Bulls on Saturday to move atop the Super Rugby table. Slick handling set up the winger to race clear for a 50th-minute try. Golden Lions winger Courtnall Skosan scored the match-winning try in a 27-20 victory over the Queensland Reds in Johannesburg.
SOCCER
Everton enhance position
Everton’s chances of securing a Champions League berth improved after they beat Crystal Palace 3-1 on Saturday to climb to seventh place and within five points of Chelsea, who occupy the fourth and final qualification place. Watford conceded a late own-goal by defender Adrian Mariappa to draw 1-1 against Brighton & Hove Albion.
SOCCER
Can urges ‘win dirty’
Emre Can says his new Borussia Dortmund teammates must learn to “win dirty” after leaking two late goals to lose 4-3 against Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Saturday. Can, who marked his first start for Dortmund with a stunning long-range goal, said they only had themselves to blame after conceding twice in the dying stages. “When we take the lead, we have to be a little dirtier,” said the midfielder, who joined last month from Juventus. “That’s something the team has to learn, defensively we all have to be better together.” It was the first time striker Erling Braut Haaland had failed to score for his new club after hitting eight goals in his first four games.
SOCCER
Verona upset Juventus
Giampaolo Pazzini’s late penalty gave Hellas Verona a surprise 2-1 win over Serie A leaders Juventus on Saturday, despite Cristiano Ronaldo setting another record. Ronaldo became the first Juventus player to score in 10 successive matches, but his goal was canceled out by Fabio Borini before Leonardo Bonucci gave away a penalty, which substitute Pazzini converted. Elsewhere, UC Sampdoria scored three times in nine minutes to come from behind against Torino and claim a 3-1 victory.
SOCCER
Atletico Madrid win
Atletico Madrid beat Granada 1-0 on Saturday, moving into fourth place in La Liga, while Getafe continued their charge toward a Champions League berth, with Jorge Molina scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Valencia. Elsewhere, Villarreal were held to a 1-1 draw by Real Valladolid and Levante UD beat CD Leganes 2-0.
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