■EQUESTRIAN
Aussies out in front
Australia’s Lucinda Fredericks guided her team to the lead in the equestrian three-day eventing yesterday, spurred by on her biggest fan, yet biggest competitor — her husband Clayton. Lucinda topped the list of riders in the dressage, putting the Australians in first place with 102.80 penalty points. “Team Fredericks,” as Lucinda and Clayton are often called, are credited with boosting the Australians to the top of the eventing dressage table, with the magic ingredient being their eagerness to support, and out-do, each other. “I will be out there to help her to get a better score. I have always said that she is going to be my biggest competitor,” Clayton said. While Clayton had given his wife a few pointers before her dressage round on Saturday, they were clearly not necessary as she into first place with 30.40 penalties, and stayed there. Clayton, who had started off in provisional second place with 37 penalties, watched his ranking slide to sixth yesterday, pushed lower by Belgium’s Karin Donckers and Germany’s Ingrid Klimke, who are now in second and third place. The cross-country phase takes place today.
■Shooting China grabs gold
Guo Wenjun of China won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol yesterday in a final that produced an Olympic showdown between Russia and Georgia against the backdrop of military conflict. Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze, who almost left the Games earlier yesterday with her 35-member team over the conflict with Russia, took bronze behind Russia’s Natalia Paderina. After her final shot she wiped tears from her eyes and moments later embraced her Russian rival. “It’s a small victory for my people,” Salukvadze said. “If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did there would never be any wars ... We shouldn’t really stoop so low to wage wars against each other.” Meanwhile, David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic won the gold medal in trap shooting yesterday. He finished with a final score of 146. Giovanni Pellielo of Italy won the silver and Alexey Alipov of Russia won bronze.
■fencing Italian beats Frenchman
Matteo Tagliariol of Italy won the gold medal in men’s epee yesterday, beating Fabrice Jeannet of France 15-9. Tagliariol took control with an early six-point run to lead 8-3, and never looked back. Jeannet won the silver, and Jose Luis Abajo of Spain took the bronze. Tagliariol won Italy’s first gold medal of the Games to give his country’s fencing fans something to cheer about. Andrea Baldini, Italy’s men’s foil star, lost his spot on the Olympic team because of a positive test for a banned substance.
■GYMNASTICS China upstages US team
A crash landing off the asymmetric bars by He Kexin failed to stop China from upstaging an injury-hit US team in women’s qualifying yesterday. She executed four stunning release-and-catch combinations in a high-flying routine but slipped off while attempting to glide from the higher to the lower bar. After remounting the apparatus and completing her dismount she burst into tears. She still scored a respectable 15.725. Americans Nastia Liukin and Chellsie Memmel also came to grief on the asymmetric bars. Memmel fell off mid-routine and Liukin mistimed her dismount and landed awkwardly before rolling backwards. But like He, she was rewarded for her daring content and stayed on course for the apparatus final with 15.950. The Chinese set a benchmark with a combined total of 248.275 points. The US earned 246.800 and Russia were third with 244.400.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
San Francisco Giants pitcher Teng Kai-wei impressed against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday despite an 8-1 loss in the opener of the team’s nine-game road trip. Teng, the only Taiwanese pitcher active in MLB, struck out five while allowing two hits and one walk over four innings at Chase Field to finish with a no decision, as the teams were tied 1-1 when he finished his outing. He surrendered the lone run of his outing in the bottom of the first, which began with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts. Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo advanced to third on
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