SOCCER
Sevilla in sight of top three
Sevilla on Monday gave themselves an outside chance of rejoining La Liga’s title race by winning a seven-goal thriller away at RC Celta de Vigo. A second-half double from Ivan Rakitic and Papu Gomez snatched a 4-3 victory for Sevilla, who twice had to come from behind at the Balaidos. The comeback puts Sevilla six points behind Atletico Madrid. For weeks it has looked like only Real Madrid and Barcelona could overhaul struggling Atletico, but 13 points from 15 has put Sevilla back in sight of the top three. Fourth place is all but secure for Julen Lopetegui’s side, who have a 14-point advantage over fifth-placed Real Sociedad, who they face next weekend. Celta stay 10th.
FOOTBALL
Patriots’ Edelman retires
New England Patriots star Julian Edelman on Monday announced his retirement from the NFL, bringing the curtain down on a career that spanned 12 seasons and included three Super Bowl victories. The 34-year-old receiver, named Most Valuable Player in the Patriots most recent Super Bowl victory in 2019, confirmed his retirement after his contract was terminated due to a failed physical. “I’ve always said I’m going until the wheels come off, and they’ve finally fallen off,” Edelman said in a recorded video on Twitter that showed him sitting on the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium field at Foxboro, Massachusetts. “Due to an injury last year, I’ll be making my official announcement of my retirement from football. It’s been the best 12 years of my life. It’s been a hell of a run.”
SOCCER
US women closer to equality
The US women’s soccer team on Monday vowed to press on with an appeal in their equal pay lawsuit after a federal judge in Los Angeles formally approved a deal with the US Soccer Federation over working conditions. US District Judge Gary Klausner inked a settlement reached in December last year that grants the US women’s team the same treatment as their male counterparts in areas such as flights, hotels, venue selection and support staff. It followed an earlier ruling by Klausner in May in which the judge dismissed a claim by the women’s team for pay equality. “Finally, giving these athletes access to facilities, training, care and professional support is the next step needed in the long and hard work to grow the game of women’s football,” said Molly Levinson a spokeswoman for the players.
CRICKET
SA level Pakistan T20 series
Pakistan opening batsman Mohammad Rizwan on Monday fell into a trap off the first ball of the match and the tourists never recovered as South Africa romped to a six-wicket win with six overs to spare in the second Twenty20 international at the Wanderers. Man-of-the-match George Linde revealed at the post-match presentation that South Africa deliberately placed mid-off Aiden Markram inside the 30m circle to tempt Rizwan to go over the top. Rizwan danced down the wicket and went for a big hit, but only succeeded in hitting a high catch to Markram. “We had a game plan to bring that guy up, and I was happy when he [Rizwan] came down the wicket,” said left-arm spinner Linde who went on to take 3-23. He also held three catches in the deep and Pakistan were restricted to 140-9.
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