SOCCER
Cherries earn promotion
AFC Bournemouth on Tuesday beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 to earn automatic promotion to the English Premier League after two seasons in the second-tier EFL Championship. Substitute Kieffer Moore scored the only goal of the game in the 83rd minute as manager Scott Parker’s side joined champions Fulham in the English top flight next season. It was only the Wales international’s third goal of an injury-ravaged Bournemouth career since his January transfer from Cardiff City. “I’m delighted for the fans, and my players. They deserve this position. It means a lot,” Parker told Sky Sports. Forest, who needed a win to leapfrog the Cherries in the table, now have to try to end their 23-year Premier League exile via the playoffs.
FORMULA ONE
Pioneer Tony Brooks dies
Motorsport pioneer Tony Brooks, who won six Formula One grands prix in the 1950s and was nicknamed the “Racing Dentist,” has died aged 90. The Briton had been the last surviving Formula One race winner of the 1950s. He won on his F1 debut at the non-championship 1955 Syracuse Grand Prix, where he was a last-minute entry and took time off from studying to become a dentist. “He was part of a special group of drivers who were pioneers and pushed the boundaries at a time of great risk,” F1 chief executive officer Stefano Domenicali said. “He will be missed and our thoughts are with his family at this time.”
BASKETBALL
Griner ‘wrongfully detained’
US President Joe Biden’s administration has determined that WNBA star Brittney Griner is being wrongfully detained in Russia, meaning the US would work more aggressively to secure her release even as the legal case against her plays out, the US Department of State said on Tuesday. “The US government will continue to undertake efforts to provide appropriate support to Ms Griner,” the department said. Griner was detained at an airport in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis. “Brittney has been detained for 75 days and our expectation is that the White House do whatever is necessary to bring her home,” said Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas.
ATHLETICS
Pentathlons to change for TV
Modern pentathlon’s governing body said making TV-friendly obstacle racing the sport’s fifth discipline would help build its future amid fierce opposition to its move to drop the equestrian element from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Starting in late June, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) is to test two variations of obstacle racing after selecting the sport from more than 60 options. Pentathlon United, a group formed to block the removal of equestrianism, wrote to the International Olympic Committee seeking intervention, saying the UIPM’s consultation process was “illusory at best.” The group said that in a survey last month of 310 athletes — 168 of whom are active — 77 percent said it was unlikely they would stay in the sport if equestrianism is removed. “We understand that some are unhappy, but we have far more people who want to embrace the change,” UIPM vice president Joel Bouzou told the Guardian. “That’s ideal for a live program on American TV.”
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