CYCLING
Locke holds Tour lead
Briton Jonathan Tiernan-Locke had a lead of 18 seconds heading into yesterday’s final stage of the Tour of Britain after finishing eighth behind Spain’s Pablo Urtasun in the penultimate stage. Urtasun was part of a four-man breakaway, which included Euskaltel Euskadi team mate Samuel Sanchez and Ivan Basso, in Saturday’s 172.9km seventh stage from Barnstaple to Dartmouth. Tiernan-Locke was in a group which finished 46 seconds down, but he retained the gold jersey ahead of Australian Nathan Haas and Italy’s Damiano Caruso who is a further five seconds back. The 27-year-old Endura Racing rider, who now has a healthy lead over Haas, hopes to be Britain’s first winner of the race since Chris Lillywhite’s Milk Race triumph in 1993.
ICE HOCKEY
NHL lockdown enacted
With no fanfare and a similar lack of urgency, the NHL is locking out its players again and setting in motion the third work stoppage in pro sports in 18 months. This is nothing new for the NHL, which was hit with its fourth shutdown since 1992 — including a year-long dispute that forced the cancellation of the entire 2004-2005 season when the league held out for a salary cap. That eventual deal expired at midnight on Saturday, and Commissioner Gary Bettman followed through on his pledge to lock out the players with no new agreement in place. The sides are so far apart in their discussions that they could not even find enough common ground to meet face-to-face for negotiations on Saturday.
GOLF
Mulroy leads by one shot
South Africa’s Garth Mulroy will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Italian Open after holding off a triple Spanish threat and the Ryder Cup-bound Nicolas Colsaerts on Saturday. Mulroy shot seven birdies and one bogey in his six-under-par 66 in the third round at Royal Park in Turin. Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano is in second place after his five-under 67 on Saturday, while Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Pablo Larrazabal are a stroke further back after rounds of 65 and 66 respectively. Colsaerts, four shots off the pace at 13 under, stayed in contention with a dazzling seven-under round of 65 less than two weeks before the start of the Ryder Cup in Illinois.
CRICKET
Sangakkara named best
Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara was named ICC cricketer of the year and Test player of the year at the governing body’s annual awards ceremony in Colombo on Saturday. India’s Virat Kohli took the one-day player of the year honor and West Indies off-spinner Sunil Narine was named emerging cricketer of the year. Sangakkara scored 1,444 runs in 14 Test matches between August last year and last month at an average of 60.16, with five centuries and five half-centuries.
SWIMMING
Teenager sets 200m record
Japanese teenager Akihiro Yamaguchi set a world record in the 200-meter breaststroke on Saturday at a national swimming meet, nearly breaking the 2 minutes, 7 seconds barrier. The 18-year-old Yamaguchi clocked 2:07.01 at the event in Gifu, Japan, to shave 0.27 seconds off the mark set by Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta when he won gold at the London Olympics. Yamaguchi was left off the Japanese Olympic team after finishing behind four-time gold medalist Kosuke Kitajima in the national trials.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
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
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