SOCCER
Play resumes in Vietnam
Soccer was back and so were the spectators in Vietnam on Friday when the top domestic league resumed after a shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Fans were allowed into Ho Chi Minh City’s scoreless draw with Hai Phong among three matches, with more than 1,000 people at the V-League game. The number, affected by an inconvenient start time, was small compared with the league’s average attendance of more than 7,000 last year. Fans had their temperature checked as they entered the stadiums, which were limited to half of normal capacity. They were not required to wear masks. “Obviously we are happy to play in front of fans as this is what makes football special,” Ho Chi Minh coach Jung Hae-sung said. “We have been waiting a long time for the league to restart.” In the other matches, more than 3,000 saw Nam Dinh lose 2-1 at home to The Cong, while about 800 attended Sai Gon’s 0-0 draw with Binh Duong.
SOCCER
Bulgarian fans flout rules
The Bulgarian league resumed on Friday after an almost three-month break due to the COVID-19 pandemic with fans allowed at stadiums, but many of them violated a rule for occupying every third seat in the stands. On Tuesday, Bulgarian Minister of Sports Krasen Kralev issued an order allowing spectators at stadiums if they took up no more than 30 percent of a venue’s capacity and with supporters sitting on every third seat. However, television footage showed that at least several dozen fans failed to observe the rule in front of Kralev in Plovdiv, where second-placed Lokomotiv Plovdiv beat Etar Veliko Tarnovo 2-0. Striker Dominique Malonga scored his first goal for Bulgarian Cup winners Lokomotiv after coming on in the second half and the hosts needed an own-goal by Etar’s Anton Ognyanov to put the game beyond doubt. The ministry said in a statement issued after the final whistle that the match went ahead with fans observing the seats rule, adding that the stadium announcer called on all spectators to maintain their distance. There were also several seating violations during league leaders Ludogorets’ 1-0 win against Levski Sofia as the Razgrad-based club took a big step toward winning their ninth consecutive title.
GOLF
Fans approved for Memorial
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Friday approved a plan for Muirfield Village Golf Club to have at least some fans at the Memorial next month, which would make it the first PGA Tour event with a crowd since the tour was shut down March 13 by the COVID-19 pandemic. DeWine wrote on Twitter that casinos, racinos, amusement parks and water parks will be able to open on June 19. “In addition, we received safety plans for the Memorial Golf Tournament to be held July 13-19,” he wrote. “We are approving that plan.” DeWine wrote that the Memorial, parks and casinos “have come up plans that reduce the number of people, provide for sanitation, and in some cases, provide for one-way traffic. “They are elaborate plans that we believe are consistent with protecting the public,” he wrote. The PGA Tour resumes its schedule on Thursday with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. The tour said the opening four events would not have spectators. In a statement, the Memorial praised DeWine and his staff, and said it would work with state, county and city leaders to use the tournament “as an example of how public gathering events can be developed and implemented with approved and accepted protocols in place.”
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier