Unseeded Japanese Kenichi Tago shocked Danish seventh seed Joachim Persson 16-21, 21-14, 21-13 in the men’s singles first round at the world badminton championships yesterday.
Tago fought back from a game down to win in 57 minutes on a day when the championships were hit by an (A)H1N1 virus threat, with a Malaysian coach quarantined with swine flu symptoms.
Eight people have died of swine flu in India, with hundreds infected. The southern state of Andhra Pradesh, of which Hyderabad is the capital, has recorded 76 positive cases.
PHOTO: AFP
Ninth-seeded Hsieh Yu-hsing of Taiwan scraped past India’s Arvind Bhat 21-14, 19-21, 24-22 in just over an hour in another first round match.
Indonesia’s former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat and Chinese second seed Chen Jin were scheduled to open their campaigns later.
Also yesterday, Chen Hsiao-huan of Taiwan lost to Hong Kong’s Wang Chen 21-14, 19-21, 24-22, and in mixed doubles play, Taiwan’s Fang Chieh’min and Cheng Wen-hsing were defeated by China’s Zhang Yawen and Xie Zhongbo.
The championships are being played under tight security after England pulled out citing a “specific terrorist threat,” following media reports the event could be targeted by the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The group has been blamed for the raid on Mumbai in November in which 166 people were killed.
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Polish partner Jan Zielinski on Saturday survived a tough 90-minute round-of-16 match to advance to the mixed doubles quarter-finals of the US Open and stay in contention for a third Grand Slam title, while Jannik Sinner stormed into the last 16 as fellow world No. 1 Iga Swiatek stayed on course for a second New York triumph. Seventh seeds and Australian Open winners Hsieh and Zielinksi took 1 hour, 29 minutes to beat Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos and Santiago Gonzalez 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 10-6. Hsieh, 38, and Zielinski, 27, are eyeing their third Grand Slam title this year, after