SWIMMING
Taiwan wins open water gold
Taiwan’s Teng Yu-wen on Saturday won gold in the women’s 10km race at the Asian Open Water Swimming Championships in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, while compatriot Cho Cheng-chi clinched silver in the men’s 10km event. Teng swam 2 hours, 7 minutes, 27 seconds to win the team’s first open water gold and the first Taiwanese woman to win in the event. She earlier finished fourth in the women’s 5km on the first day of the championships. Cho, who won silver in 2017 and 2019, was leading after 5km, but was edged out by Japan’s Taishin Minamide in the last 400m to lose by 0.3 seconds. Cho also won bronze in the men’s 5km event.
RUGBY
NZ win Rugby Championship
A relieved Ian Foster yesterday said he was satisfied after his All Blacks side took “a very different journey” to retain their Rugby Championship crown by winning their last three matches following a stuttering start to the campaign. New Zealand beat Australia 40-14 in Auckland on Saturday, then had to wait about eight hours to be confirmed champions when South Africa failed to record the landslide win they needed against Argentina in the final match of the four-nation southern hemisphere tournament. South Africa had needed to score three more tries and 40 more points than the Pumas, but managed neither in a 38-21 victory. It gave the All Blacks the championship on 19 points, one ahead of the Springboks, the 2019 World Cup winners. Australia were third on 10 points with Argentina a point further back. “I’m very satisfied,” Foster told reporters in Auckland, having stayed up to watch the South Africa match early yesterday morning in New Zealand. “We did it the hard way, but we put ourselves in with a chance last night and it was enough.”
CHESS
FIDE rebukes Carlsen
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) last week rebuked world champion Magnus Carlsen for abruptly conceding an online game against Hans Niemann, while adding it shared the Norwegian’s concerns surrounding cheating. Carlsen on Monday last week resigned after just one move against American Niemann, who lags almost 200 Elo points behind him, at the Julius Baer Generation Cup this week, just days after he left an over-the-board tournament following a loss to the same opponent. The surprise defeat and Carlsen’s subsequent withdrawal from the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis sparked a furor of comments and allegations that the 19-year-old Niemann had cheated, including from American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. It was Carlsen’s first defeat with white pieces in a classical game since he lost to Levon Aronian in October 2020. Niemann denied any wrongdoing. FIDE on Friday said it was its duty to protect the integrity of chess given recent events involving the two players, but added: “We strongly believe that there were better ways to handle this situation.” It said it was prepared to task its Fair Play Commission with a thorough investigation of the incident once adequate initial proof is provided. “We share his deep concerns about the damage that cheating brings to chess,” it said. Niemann had previously been banned from chess.com for cheating online, having admitted he had not played fairly in noncompetitive games on the Web site in his youth.
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care
Caitlin Clark on Thursday walked into her new home arena with No. 22 shirts and jerseys peppered from floor to ceiling. She left as a first-time WNBA winner. A late-arriving, but louder-than-usual crowd roared during her official introduction to Fever fans and again when Clark made her first basket, a layup with 7 minutes left in the first quarter. The cheers grew when she completed a three-point play a few minutes later and hit a crescendo when she finally made a long three-pointer from the edge of the fieldhouse logo late in the third quarter. Clark successfully navigated the city’s most anticipated rookie
TO REAL MADRID? Kylian Mbappe informed PSG privately in February of his intention to depart when his contract expires, but this was the first time he acknowledged it publicly French soccer player Kylian Mbappe on Friday confirmed that he is to leave French champions Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season, with Real Madrid widely expected to be his next destination. The announcement brings an end to a prolific association with his hometown team, which began when he signed from AS Monaco in 2017 in a deal worth 180 million euros (US$194 million). “I wanted to announce to you all that it’s my last year at Paris Saint-Germain. I will not extend and the adventure will come to an end in a few weeks,” Mbappe, 25, said in a video
Novak Djokovic on Sunday described his shock third-round elimination from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia by Alejandro Tabilo as “concerning,” two days after he was hit on the head by a bottle, which he said has caused nausea and dizzy spells. Djokovic’s bid for a record-extending 41st Masters 1000 title was ended in just more than an hour by Chilean Tabilo, who is ranked 32nd in the world and claimed his first win over a top-10 opponent, 6-2, 6-3. The 24-time Grand Slam winner said that his subdued performance on a court where he has won six titles might have been due to