SOCCER
Taiwan faces Australia
Taiwan last night was to face unbeaten Australia in their World Cup qualifier in Kuwait City. Australia coach Graham Arnold said he would look to pick players who were rested for last week’s 3-0 win over Kuwait after arriving late to the squad’s camp in the Middle East. “We’ll freshen the team up and play some players that are fresh and ready to go and add some great energy into the team,” he said. Australia thumped Taiwan 7-1 when they last met in October 2019. Winless from six games, Taiwan are already eliminated from qualifying. Australia are top of Group B in Asian qualifying on 15 points, five clear of Kuwait and Jordan.
OLYMPICS
Official killed by train: media
A senior official at the Japanese Olympic Committee jumped in front of an underground train in Tokyo in an apparent suicide on Monday morning, Nippon Television said, citing Tokyo metropolitan police sources. The police are investigating the details surrounding the death of Yasushi Moriya, 52, who worked in the committee’s accounting department, viewing it as an apparent suicide, the television network said. News of the incident was one of the top trending topics on Twitter in Japan.
RUGBY
‘Buck’ Shelford knighted
Former All Blacks captain Wayne “Buck” Shelford was awarded a knighthood in New Zealand’s honors list published yesterday. Making his debut in 1985, Shelford played 48 games for New Zealand, including 22 tests, and captained the team on 31 occasions before being controversially axed in 1990. The 63-year-old, who is credited with revitalizing the performance of the All Blacks’ traditional haka, was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to rugby and the community. “It’s a great accolade, a great honor,” said Shelford, part of the All Blacks’ 1987 squad that won the World Cup. “It’s one of those things you never think will happen — I’d never thought about it before.” “I’ll wear it with pride for the family and all the organizations I work with,” he added.
HOCKEY
Canada wins 27th world title
Nick Paul on Sunday night scored in overtime on a 2-and-1 break with Ottawa Senators teammate Connor Brown, as Canada won its 27th world title, beating Finland 3-2. Brown slid the puck over to Paul and he beat goaltender Jussi Olkinuora 6 minutes and 26 seconds into the extra frame. Maxime Comtois and Adam Henrique also scored for Canada, which looked down-and-out after losing its first three games in Riga before going on an improbable run to the top of the podium. Earlier, the US beat Germany 6-1 to claim the bronze. Cal Petersen made 33 saves for the Americans.
BASKETBALL
Clippers advance to round 2
Kawhi Leonard on Sunday finished with 28 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, as the Los Angeles Clippers won game seven at home with a 126-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks to punch their ticket to the second round of the NBA playoffs. Los Angeles withstood a 46-point performance from Mavericks star Luka Doncic to take the Western Conference series 4-3. The Clippers are the sixth team in NBA history to lose the first two games of a series at home and win a series.
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