TAIWAN
Women avoid wooden spoon
Taiwan’s women’s national team avoided picking up the wooden spoon in East Asian Cup qualifying in Shenzhen on Saturday by edging Hong Kong to finish in third place in the four-team tournament. Hosts China edged favorites Australia, also 2-1, to win the tournament and qualify for next year’s finals in South Korea, where they are set to face the hosts, North Korea and Japan. China’s Pu Wei won the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award, while Australia’s Kathryn Gill finished as the top scorer.
SPAIN
Barca could go French
Should Catalan voters back an independence drive then FC Barcelona may consider competing in the French league, city mayor Javier Trias said. He said that the club could continue to play on in the Spanish league or “perhaps, in the French league.” “We do not have the possibility of a competitive league” for Catalonia, which has a population just over seven million, Trias said. “There would be very few teams and we would have to join another league — we could adhere to the Spanish league or perhaps the French league,” he said. Asked if the club itself had a political facet, Trias said that that had been more the case in the past. “Years back, in the time of the [Franco] dictatorship, the club was a reference point for everyone in Catalonia and it was said that Barca was more than a club.”
SOUTH SUDAN
New boys lose to Ethiopia
South Sudan, the world’s newest soccer nation, lost their first competitive game 1-0 to Ethiopia in the opening match of the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup in Uganda on Saturday. Yonathan Kebede’s second-half goal condemned the nation to defeat at the start of the regional competition in Kampala. South Sudan had only played one match before — a 2-2 draw with Uganda in a July friendly. However, they delivered a solid performance until a defensive error allowed Kebede to score after an hour. Hosts Uganda beat Kenya 1-0 in the second Group A game on Saturday.
GERMANY
Klinsmann eyes US passport
Jurgen Klinsmann is considering taking US citizenship despite having played in West Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning team and later coaching the Germany national side, he has said. The 48-year-old, who has been the coach of the US national team since July last year, lives with his family in California. “It is quite possible that in the future I will take American citizenship,” he told German daily Bild. “I need to have plenty of time for it, it’s a lengthy process. [Soccer] here may have caught up with other sports, but it is not the top sport here and I can still live here relatively anonymously.”
ITALY
Palermo win Sicilian derby
US Citta di Palermo’s Fabrizio Miccoli scored his 100th Serie A goal and Josip Ilicic netted twice in a 3-1 win over in-form Sicilian rivals Catania. Palermo took the lead in the ninth minute when Catania’s Nicolas Spolli slipped while trying to cut out a cross, wrong-footing defender Nicola Legrottaglie in the process and allowing Miccoli space and time to place his shot into the net from the edge of the box. Ilicic made it 2-0 in the 48th minute, scoring with a right-foot shot from just inside the area. On the hour mark the Slovenian ran from the halfway line and hit an angled drive past the Mariano Andujar in the visitors’ goal. Francesco Lodi’s powerful 70th-minute free-kick provided Catania with a consolation goal.
Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev was the only athlete to “beat” a world record on Sunday at the Enhanced Games, winning the men’s 50m freestyle at the divisive competition where athletes were free to take performance-enhancing substances. His time of 20.81 seconds — which is not considered official — came in the final event of the night in Las Vegas, sparing the blushes of organizers who made claims that multiple world records would be surpassed due to a sophisticated doping regime. Gkolomeev, who was wearing a synthetic “supersuit” long banned at events such as the Olympics, outpaced Australia’s Cameron McEvoy’s 20.88 set in
Fred Kerley is competing unaugmented against drug-fuelled athletes at this weekend’s Enhanced Games and still hopes to race in the 2028 Olympics, the suspended former 100m world champion said on Friday. Arguably the biggest name at the divisive event in Las Vegas, where doping is permitted, the US sprinter said he had chosen not to take any of the banned substances including testosterone and steroids that his competitors have been using. “I don’t need it. God gave me fast feet for a reason. And I’m here to showcase my talent,” Kerley said. Kerley last September became the first US competitor and first track
VICTORY ABROAD: The team took home a fistful of medals and secured spots for the autumn’s Asian Games, scheduled for September in Nagoya Taiwan’s women’s team captured the overall title at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in Mongolia on Sunday, finishing with two golds, one silver and one bronze medal. The strong showing, led by gold medalists Wang Chieh-ling and Chang Jui-en secured the full quota of available spots for Taiwan at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, in September. Wang opened Taiwan’s medal run by winning gold in the women’s under-46kg class on Thursday, the first day of competition. Liu Yu-yun later earned a silver in the under-49kg class. On the final day on Sunday, Chang won Taiwan’s second gold medal in the under-62kg event, and
The manager of the Yomiuri Giants, one of Japan’s most popular baseball teams, resigned yesterday after he was arrested for allegedly physically attacking his teenage daughter. Shinnosuke Abe allegedly grabbed the 18-year-old and forced her to the floor at their home in central Tokyo on Monday evening, reported national broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News, citing unnamed police sources. “Leaving like this really means I’m causing you a lot of trouble, and I feel truly sorry about that,” Abe told a hastily arranged news conference, his eyes red with tears. The former star catcher, who is among baseball-obsessed Japan’s most recognized sports figures,
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