SOCCER
Mechelen held by Leuven
Taiwan international Xavier Chen’s KV Mechelen were held 2-2 at home by OH Leuven on Boxing Day. Jordan Remacle opened the scoring for the visitors 12 minutes after a mix-up between Chen and fellow defender Boris Pandza, but David Destorme pulled one back for the hosts after 29 minutes and the sides went in at halftime level. Leuven went ahead again a minute after the break when Derick Ogbu converted, but Destorme added a second for Mechelen in the 71st minute to grab a share of the points. Mechelen remain in 10th place in the Belgian Jupiler League, while Leuven are 11th. Chen played the full 90 minutes.
BASEBALL
Cubs sign right-handers
The Chicago Cubs bolstered their bullpen by signing right-handers Manny Corpas and Andy Sonnanstine to one-year contracts, the Major League Baseball team said on Monday. Sonnanstine, who spent all or parts of the last five seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, has a career record of 28-31 with one save and a 5.26 earned-run average. His best season was in 2008, when he was 13-9 in 32 starts, helping Tampa win the American League Championship. Corpas, who missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, has spent his entire career with the Colorado Rockies posting a record of 12-16 with 34 saves and 51 holds in all or part of five Major League seasons.
FOOTBALL
Peterson out for season
The Minnesota Vikings hope to have running back Adrian Peterson, who tore two ligaments in his left knee in a game on Saturday, back early in next year’s NFL season, coach Leslie Frazier said on Monday. “I’m pretty optimistic that’s a realistic goal,” Frazier said in a press conference at the team’s headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The team’s head athletic trainer, Eric Sugarman, said Peterson had already begun rehabilitation aimed at reducing swelling to prepare for surgery within a fortnight. Typically, he said, recovery time is eight to nine months and, like Frazier, he said he expected Peterson’s work ethic to see him through the difficult rehabilitation. “I think if anyone can get better quickly and safely in that time period, it would be Adrian Peterson,” Sugarman said. In September, Peterson signed a US$100 million seven-year contract extension. He was hurt when he was hit during the Vikings 33-26 victory over Washington.
RUGBY UNION
Sharks make play-offs
Nick Macleod kicked the Sale Sharks back into the Premiership play-off places as his impressive efforts inspired a 27-19 win over the bottom-of-the-table Newcastle Falcons on Monday. Sale had taken a 16-0 lead after 24 minutes through three Macleod penalties and a converted Tom Brady try, but Newcastle mounted a comeback. After Macleod and Jimmy Gopperth had traded further three-pointers, substitute Jeremy Manning went over to reduce the gap to 19-10 at halftime. Gopperth continued to boot the Falcons back into the game and narrowed the gap to three points before England wing Mark Cueto touched down to effectively seal the win. In the other Boxing Day game, Jonny May and Olly Morgan both scored two tries as Gloucester demolished Wasps 39-10 at Kingsholm. Gloucester thrilled a packed stadium with a dynamic display and Wasps had no answers to the power of the Gloucester pack and the potency of their backs. As well as Morgan and May’s four tries, Luke Narraway and Henry Trinder crossed for Gloucester.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
RSS