■BASKETBALL
Iverson out for season
All-Star guard Allen Iverson will miss the rest of the NBA season — and the playoffs if the Detroit Pistons make it — because of a sore back. “After talking with Allen and our medical staff, we feel that resting Allen for the remainder of the season is the best course of action at this time,” Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said in a statement on Friday. Iverson missed 16 games from Feb. 27 to March 28. He returned for the past three games and averaged 7.7 points and 2.7 assists in nearly 19 minutes. He complained about his role as a reserve, saying he would rather retire than come off the bench next season.
■BASEBALL
Ichiro treated for ulcer
Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki was being treated for a bleeding ulcer and placed on the 15-day disabled list on Friday, sending them into opening day minus one of Major League Baseball’s best players. The Mariners said the ulcer was no longer bleeding, but doctors have restricted the 35-year-old outfielder’s activity. Suzuki played for Japan in the World Classic. He complained of severe fatigue and missed Seattle’s final three spring training games in Arizona, and was diagnosed with the ulcer — a relatively rare condition for an athlete — after seeing doctors on Thursday. Seattle opens the season tomorrow at Minnesota.
■SOCCER
Mexico acquires Aguirre
The Mexican soccer federation said on Friday it had appointed former coach Javier Aguirre as their new handler a day after sacking ex-England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. Aguirre, 50, coached the Mexicans at the 2002 World Cup before moving to Spanish side Osasuna and thereafter to Atletico Madrid, who dispensed with his services in February. Eriksson, 61, was fired after barely 10 months in the job following Wednesday’s disappointing 3-1 loss to Honduras in a World Cup qualifier, which came after a previous defeat regional rivals the US. Media reports said Thursday that Eriksson is in line to receive a handsome payoff. “His sacking will cost the Mexican Federation US$3.5 million,” the El Universal daily reported.
■BOXING
Hurtado wins bloody bout
Former World Boxing Association super-lightweight champion Diobelys Hurtado of Cuba won a narrow split decision over Mexico’s Arturo Morua on Friday. Hurtado, who has fought only three times in the past five years, survived a physically intense and bloody 12-round welterweight match at Miami’s Miccosukee Resort against the brawling-minded Morua. Two judges scored the fight 114-113 for Hurtado and the other had Morua winning by the same margin. The 36-year-old Hurtado won the WBA super-lightweight title with a seventh-round knockout over Randall Bailey in May 2002, but was stopped in two rounds by Vivian Harris in his first defense five months later.
■FREEDIVING
Briton sets record of 96m
A 37-year-old British woman has set a new world record in freediving with a 96m ocean plunge on a single breath. Sara Campbell completed the dive in three minutes, 34 seconds in the Vertical Blue competition on Thursday off Long Island in the Bahamas. Campbell was competing in the constant weight discipline, which requires athletes to descend and surface using only the power of their body and a large fin attached to their feet. The previous record of 95m was held by Natalia Molchanova of Russia.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS