BASEBALL
Nationals cancel ceremony
The Washington Nationals on Saturday said that they were canceling plans for a virtual World Series ring ceremony. “The players collectively decided they would prefer to receive their rings when the team could be physically reunited,” a spokesman for the club said. “We support that decision.” With the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the start of the Major League Baseball season, the Nationals had made plans for a virtual presentation yesterday. The Nationals claimed their first World Series championship in October last year by beating the Houston Astros in seven games.
PREMIER LEAGUE
COVID-19 cases reported
Two people from two Premier League clubs have tested positive for COVID-19 after a second batch of testing, the Premier League said on Saturday. Since the players returned to limited group training on Tuesday, eight positive tests for the novel coronavirus have been confirmed from England’s top-flight clubs. “The Premier League can today confirm that on Tuesday 19 May, Thursday 21 May and Friday 22 May, 996 players and club staff were tested for COVID-19. Of these, two have tested positive from two clubs,” the statement said. “The Premier League is providing this aggregated information for the purposes of competition integrity and transparency. Players or club staff who have tested positive will now self-isolate for a period of seven days.” The Premier League said it would not be providing details of the identities of the two new positive tests. A total of 748 tests of players and club staff made up the initial round of testing on May 17 and 18. Watford’s Adrian Mariappa and two members of the club’s non-playing staff and Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan were among six positive tests. They were all still in their seven-day isolation period. No matches have been played in the Premier League since March, but the British government has given the green light for elite sport to resume from June 1. The Premier League’s “Project Restart” hopes to resume action next month, although no date has been fixed. Another round of tests are scheduled to take place today and tomorrow. All 20 clubs are to hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide whether they can move to phase 2 of the restart and allow full-contact training.
LA LIGA
Games get green light
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced that La Liga can resume from its COVID-19 lockdown in the week of June 8. “The resumption of major professional sporting competitions and in particular La Liga will be allowed from the week of June 8,” Sanchez told a news conference. La Liga president Javier Tebas has said the preferred date for games to resume is June 12 and Sanchez’s announcement means that plan has been given the green light from the government. “We are very happy with the decision. It is the result of the great work of clubs, players, coaches, but it is very important to follow the health protocol and respect the trajectory of the pandemic. We cannot lower our guard,” Tebas wrote on Twitter. More than two months after the COVID-19 pandemic halted the season in Spain, players have begun training in small groups.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but