FORMULA ONE
Hamilton blasts Ecclestone
World champion Lewis Hamilton on Friday labeled Bernie Ecclestone as “ignorant and uneducated” after the former Formula One supremo said that “black people are [sometimes] more racist than white.” Ecclestone had been asked to comment on Hamilton’s recent anti-racism initiatives. While praising the six-time world champion for his campaigning, 89-year-old Ecclestone said that he doubted that the creation of the driver’s Hamilton Commission, which hopes to steer more black youngsters into motor racing, would have any great effect. “I don’t think it’s going to do anything bad or good for Formula One,” he told CNN. “It’ll just make people think which is more important. I think that’s the same for everybody... In lots of cases, black people are more racist than what white people are,” he said. Hamilton hit back at Ecclestone. “Bernie is out of the sport and of a different generation, but this is exactly what is wrong — ignorant and uneducated comments which show how far we as a society need to go before real equality can happen,” Hamilton wrote on Instagram. “If someone who has run the sport for decades has such a lack of understanding of the deep-rooted issues we as black people deal with every day, how can we expect all the people who work under him to understand?” he wrote.
GOLF
Mickelson leads by one shot
Phil Mickelson on Friday used a solid finish to seize a one-shot lead following the second round of the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut. Mickelson closed with a birdie at the last hole of the TPC River Highlands course for a seven-under-par 63 that brought him to 13 under on the week and one shot clear of first-round leader Mackenzie Hughes (68) and sponsor invite Will Gordon (62). Meanwhile, Denny McCarthy withdrew ahead of his second round after he became the third PGA Tour player to test positive for COVID-19. Bud Cauley, who played the first round with McCarthy, tested negative twice, but withdrew as a precautionary measure, bringing the number of coronavirus-related withdrawals this week to seven.
TENNIS
Anisimova turns tide
Amanda Anisimova saved a match point en route to a 5-7, 7-5, 10-2 victory over fellow American Caroline Dolehide at the invitational women’s tennis tournament in Charleston, South Carolina. Anisimova, 18, was staring at defeat when she trailed 5-7, 3-5 against her hard-hitting opponent, but the 2019 French Open semi-finalist blasted a forehand down the line to save match point and turned the tide, eventually triumphing in a 10-point tiebreaker. “That’s why I miss being out here, just trying to face challenges and get yourself back together mentally as quick as possible,” said Anisimova, who won 25 of the match’s final 28 points.
SOCCER
Fans ordered to go home
Police issued a dispersal order on Friday after crowds gathered for a second consecutive night at Liverpool’s center near the Mersey Ferry terminal to celebrate their team’s Premier League title win. “I am really concerned about scenes at Pier Head tonight. I appreciate LFC fans want to celebrate but please, for your own safety, and that of others, go home and celebrate at home,” Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson wrote on Twitter.
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