■SOCCER
Grenoble, Rennes in semis
Grenoble qualified for the French Cup semi-finals for the first time in their history after a comfortable 2-0 home win over Monaco on Wednesday. Grenoble took a 13th-minute lead through 31-year-old striker Daniel Moreira. Another old hand, 34-year-old Nassim Akrour, killed off Monaco’s hopes with a goal in the ninth minute of the second half. Later on Wednesday, Rennes ended third-division Rodez’s hopes of progressing further as they ran out 2-0 winners over the side that eliminated Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round.
■GOLF
Wu leads by a shot
Wu Weihuang made the most of local knowledge yesterday to shoot a six-under 66 for a one-stroke lead in the first round of the Dell Championship in Xiamen, the opening event of the Omega China Tour’s fifth season. Kunming-based Chen Jian surprised even himself with a 67, while Asian Tour star Alex Wu Ashun posted a 69 to share third with Omega Championship winner Zhou Jun, Wang Xu and James Su Dong, 19, and South Korea’s Eom Jae-woong, 18. Taiwan’s Lu Wen-teh Lin and Lin Keng-chi, the latter making his Tour debut, both shot 70 to finish tied eighth with Kong Weihai and 23-year-old American C.J. Gatto.
■CYCLING
Armstrong has bad hair day
Lance Armstrong literally had a bad hair day. A French anti-doping inspector armed with a pair of scissors this week took six clumps of the former Tour de France champion’s hair that will now be tested for signs of drug use. Armstrong says his hair was so “butchered” by the test that he had to get a buzz-cut afterward to hide the mess. In France, hair tests are now being used to hunt down the use of banned substances in sports. When anti-doping authorities say they want the scalps of cheats, they mean it. The sample-collector “flew down from Paris, he was a French doctor, couldn’t have been nicer. He was a total gentleman,” Armstrong said by phone on Wednesday. But “he didn’t make my hair look very good, that’s why I cut it after that, after he butchered it,” Armstrong said.
■SLED DOG RACING
Mackey wins three in a row
Lance Mackey cruised to victory in the 1,774km Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday, winning Alaska’s most popular sporting event for the third consecutive year. Mackey crossed the finish line, an arch erected on Front Street in the Bering Sea town of Nome, just before noon with 15 dogs pulling his sled. He finished the race across Alaska’s wilderness in nine days, 21 hours, 38 minutes and 46 seconds. For his victory, Mackey gets US$69,000 in prize money and a new truck. He also claims a spot in Iditarod history, becoming the third musher after the late Susan Butcher and Montanan Doug Swingley to win three races in a row.
■BASKETBALL
NBA teams to play in Taipei
Two NBA teams will visit Taiwan and China in October to play warm-up games before the start of the NBA season, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday. The Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers will play a pre-season game on Oct. 8 at the Taipei Arena. Taiwan’s basketball association will announce details of the game next month, the newspaper quoted an unnamed sports official as saying. The two teams will send a total of 30 players, including Denver forward Carmelo Anthony and Indiana forward Danny Granger.
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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