WEIGHTLIFTING
Taiwan’s Yao wins gold
Taiwan won one gold, one silver and one bronze medal at the International Weightlifting Federation’s 2012 Junior World Championships in Guatemala on Thursday. Yao Chi-ling, 19, took gold in the 75kg and over division, plus a silver medal for lifting 106kg in the same category of the snatch event. Chung Yun-ling, 18, took bronze in the same snatch division. Meanwhile, Chang Kang-ming, 20, took sixth place in the men’s 56kg division, which is the best result Taiwan has ever earned in this category in the past seven years at international competitions. At this year’s competition, male Taiwanese athletes competed in the 56kg, 62kg, 69kg and 75kg events, while female weightlifters participated in the 48kg, 53kg, 63kg and 75kg divisions. The championships ran from May 10 to 18 in Antigua City, and attracted 118 female and 154 male athletes from 51 countries.
SOCCER
Platini expects Merkel visit
UEFA president Michel Platini is confident German Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend the final of Euro 2012 in Ukraine — if Germany reach the tournament’s showpiece in Kiev on July 1. Together with EU commissioners and several other Western politicians, Merkel has threatened to boycott the month-long tournament, which Ukraine is co-hosting with Poland next month, in sympathy with jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko. “I’m not worried about the situation,” Platini told CNN in an exclusive interview ahead of yesterday’s Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Chelsea in the German city. “The politicians they are in their role and the Ukrainians they are in their role. I’m in my role and that is not to do politics, it’s not to do religion and not to interfere in everything. That means they can say what they want — we continue to organize the Euro [2012]. If Germany is in final of the Euro [2012] I would be sure that Madame Merkel would come to the final.”
MOUNTAINEERING
Woman, 73, climbs Everest
A 73-year-old Japanese woman has climbed Mount Everest, smashing her own record to again become the oldest woman to scale the world’s highest mountain. Ang Tshering of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association says Tamae Watanabe reached Everest’s 8,850m summit from the northern side of the mountain in Tibet yesterday morning with four other team members. Tshering says Watanabe and the other team members are in good condition and are on their way back to the base of the mountain. Watanabe had climbed Everest in 2002 at the age of 63 to become the oldest woman to scale the mountain.
BASEBALL
Manager, umpire get ban
Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel and umpire Bob Davidson were each banned for one game by Major League Baseball (MLB) on Friday following their nose-to-nose shouting match during a game earlier this week. Manuel was ejected in the eighth inning of the Phillies’ 4-3 win over the Houston Astros on Tuesday for disputing a call made by Davidson that allowed an opposing player to reach first base safely on a dropped third strike. The Phillies manager left the dugout to argue and came face-to-face with Davidson on the field for a heated argument that lasted about 40 seconds. Manuel was suspended for the on-field incident while Davidson was banned for “repeated violations of the Office of the Commissioner’s standards for situation handling,” MLB said in two separate statements.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS