Tue, Sep 15, 2009 page19

• Sport Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■RUGBY UNION

  S Korea win Asian sevens

  South Korea beat top seeds Japan 42-19 in the final to claim the first Asian Series sevens event in Shanghai at the weekend. A second victory in two days against their traditional rivals at the Shanghai Rugby Club saw the South Koreans win a fiercely competitive tournament, while Hong Kong beat Taiwan 31-10 to claim third place. China were eliminated from the cup competition by Japan but rallied to claim the plate with a 59-5 victory over Thailand. The series will run until the end of November with further rounds in the Philippines, Brunei, Borneo, Iran and Sri Lanka.

  ■ATHLETICS

  S Africa official back in post

  South Africa’s top track official is returning to the international athletics body’s board, saying he was needed to fight from the inside for a world champion runner whose sex has been questioned. Athletics South Africa announced on Sunday that its president, Leonard Chuene, was rejoining the board of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which Chuene has accused of humiliating runner Caster Semenya and violating its own privacy rules in its handling of her case. Semenya won the 800m at the world championships in Berlin on Aug. 19. Chuene left the IAAF board shortly after it announced last month it had ordered sex tests on Semenya. On Sunday, Chuene said: “I took the [initial] decision as an individual, emotionally.” He said that during a special Athletics South Africa meeting on Saturday in Pretoria, other officials said he had a duty to represent both South Africa and Africa on the IAAF board. “They still want to see me contributing,” he said. “I can make a contribution inside” on Semenya’s case.

  ■RUGBY UNION

  Pumas receive invitation

  Southern hemisphere rugby chiefs on yesterday moved to revitalize the Tri-Nations series by handing Argentina a long-awaited invitation to form a “Four Nations” championship from 2012. The move, just days after South Africa wrapped up the 14th Tri-Nations title, is conditional on Argentina sending their best players and confirming financial arrangements with SANZAR, the tournament’s organizers. “To have the Pumas ... join with the three top-ranked international teams in world rugby will be exciting for fans, players, sponsors and broadcasters across our four countries and beyond,” SANZAR chief Andy Marinos said. “They play a different style to the All Blacks, Springboks and Wallabies and their inclusion will see the Tri-Nations evolve to be a truly southern hemisphere championship.” In the new format, each team would play the others home and away — a total of six matches and 12 for the tournament overall. Currently, the Tri-Nations teams play the others three times each.

  ■CYCLING

  Sutton happy with progress

  Australia’s Chris Sutton surrendered the yellow jersey at the end of the second stage of the Tour of Britain on Sunday but still insisted his weekend could not have gone any better. Sutton followed-up his first stage win with ninth place on day two from Darlington to Gateshead as Dutchman Kai Reus won his first stage since a 2007 crash that left him in a coma. Reus’ comfortable nine second margin of victory was enough to earn him yellow and Sutton admitted his opening exploits in York had taken their toll. “The day went pretty well for me considering how much effort I put into the first day,” he said. “I was never going to go out there and race from the front if I could help it but the lads in the team all worked hard for me and things are looking good.

  ■CYCLING

  Zabriskie wins in Missouri

  American David Zabriskie won the first professional stage race of his career on Sunday, holding on to his 30-second lead during a 115km ride through the streets of downtown Kansas City in what could be the final stage of the Tour of Missouri. “It’d be very disappointing if it didn’t continue,” Zabriskie said. “It’s important to have races like this in America, it’s continued to grow. The fans, as you can tell, love it, the riders definitely like it — everyone really enjoys racing here.” With its three-year sponsorship deal with the state complete, the Tour of Missouri will have to convince state legislators to continue funding a cycling race at a time when they’re trying trim expenditures. Shielded by his Garmin-­Slipstream teammates, Zabriskie hovered in the main pack, keeping an eye on Sweden’s Gustav Larsson, who was second overall entering the final stage. Zabriskie finished 3 seconds behind stage winner Martin Gilbert of Canada, who completed seven laps of a 16.4km circuit in 2 hours, 33 minutes, 11 seconds. Larsson remained in second overall and Marco Pinotti was third in the 985km race that started on Monday in St Louis.

  ■BASKETBALL

  Russia slip past Greece

  Defending champion Russia slipped past Greece 68-65 on Sunday and France beat Croatia 87-79 to stay unbeaten at the European basketball championship in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Russia, which has only three players from the team that upset Spain in the 2007 final, struggled in the first round of this year’s tournament, and has clearly missed its two top players from the 2007 squad — Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko and J.R. Holden. France remained perfect at the tournament behind a strong performance from its NBA trio of Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw. Earlier on Sunday in Group E, point guard Vrbica Stefanov scored 25 points to lead Macedonia past Germany 86-75. Macedonia plays Russia in its final second-round group game today, Germany takes on Croatia and group-leader France faces Greece.

  ■GOLF

  US amateurs win Walker Cup

  The US amateurs won the Walker Cup for a third consecutive time on Sunday, crushing Britain and Ireland by 16.5 points to 9.5 at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Leading 8-4 going into the final day of the biennial competition and needing just five more points to retain the trophy, the home team tightened their grip by clinching the morning foursomes 3-1. Ricky Fowler and Peter Uihlein each won their afternoon singles matches to end the weekend with perfect 4-0 records, Uihlein’s 3&1 triumph over Stiggy Hodgson sealing outright victory for the rampant Americans. The US, who edged Britain and Ireland by a point at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland two years ago, lead the series 34-7-1.

  ■CYCLING

  Valverde retains Vuelta lead

  Italian rider Damiano Cunego won the 14th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Sunday, and Alejandro Valverde maintained his overall lead after finishing fifth. Cunego took the third consecutive mountain stage of the Spanish classic in a time of 4 hours, 4 minutes, 23 seconds on Sunday — 2:23 faster than Denmark’s Jacob Fuglsang. It was the Lampre-NGC rider’s second stage win. Samuel Sanchez was third ahead of fellow Spanish rider Ezequiel Mosquera, while Valverde was 3:22 back. Closest overall rival Robert Gesink of Rabobank was sixth, four seconds behind Valverde who increased his lead over the Dutch cyclist to 31 seconds with six stages to race.
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