BASEBALL
All-Star Game canned
MLB on Friday officially canceled this year’s All-Star Game, the first time since World War II that the mid-season showcase has been scrapped. The exhibition was scheduled for July 14 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and the MLB said that the Dodgers would now host instead in 2022. The 2021 edition has already been awarded to the Atlanta Braves. “Based on the health circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic that are beyond MLB’s control along with governmental directives prohibiting large gatherings, the league determined it is unable to conduct the All-Star Game and its week of surrounding fan activities this year,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
BADMINTON
Lin Dan retires
China’s two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan yesterday announced his retirement aged 36. It means that Lin, who won gold at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games, will not compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which have been pushed back to next summer because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lin, who had something of a “bad boy” reputation during his younger days and has several tattoos — unusual for a Chinese athlete — ends with 666 singles wins. “My family, coaches, teammates and fans have accompanied me through many peaks and difficult troughs,” he said on social media. “Every forceful jump was a desire for victory. I have dedicated everything to this sport I love.”
CRICKET
Players, board reach deal
Australia’s top players have reached agreement with Cricket Australia that it should postpone its assessment of future revenue during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement announced yesterday ended a one-month impasse that followed the national body’s projection last month of an almost 50 percent drop in revenue in the 2020-2021 financial year. Cricket Australia has now removed the forecast and the Australian Cricketers’ Association has withdrawn its dispute over the Australian Cricket Revenue forecast.
CYCLING
Quintana hit by car
Former Giro d’Italia winner Nairo Quintana said he had not sustained any serious injuries after being hit by a car during training in Colombia on Friday. The 30-year-old Colombian, who won the Giro in 2014, the Vuelta a Espana in 2016 and twice finished runner-up on the Tour de France, was knocked down by a car that overtook him and his support team. His Arkea-Samsic team feared a possible knee injury, but Quintana said he had grazed his left arm and hurt his right knee and left leg. “I want to let you know that I am good,” a smiling Quintana said in a video posted on Twitter.
RUGBY UNION
Carter plays club match
Former All Blacks flyhalf Dan Carter gave himself a pass mark after his first game in New Zealand since 2015, but was not expecting to make a debut for the Auckland Blues next week against the Canterbury Crusaders. Carter joined the Blues last month for Super Rugby Aotearoa, but said he would need a few weeks to get up to speed and took his first tentative steps back yesterday, playing for boyhood club Southbridge in Canterbury. “If anyone saw that game today, I’d say myself that I’m a bit rusty,” Carter told reporters after he kicked six conversions and had a hand in two tries in Southbridge’s 54-14 victory over West Melton. “It’s good to make the first step in to potentially playing again.”
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