■TENNIS
Peer wins Guangzhou title
Israel’s Shahar Peer won her first WTA singles title in three years yesterday, overcoming Italy’s Alberta Brianti 6-3, 6-4 to claim the Guangzhou Open. Ranked 57 in the world, the 22-year-old, whose claim to fame this year was being denied a visa to compete in the Dubai Open, made her move in the sixth game, breaking Brianti to lead 4-2. She then held serve and took the first set 6-3. The fifth seed kept her momentum going in the second set, exploiting some inconsistent serving by the Italian to grab an early break. She didn’t look back, racing to the title in 88 minutes. Eighth seed Brianti, 29, was playing in her first ever Tour final.
■ATHLETICS
Runner ‘forced to drink blood’
A former track athlete at Central Connecticut State University has sued the school, saying a coach forced him to drink blood as a kind of “tribal ritual.” The lawsuit filed this week by Kenyan Charles Ngetich claims that in 2005, track coach George Kawecki told Ngetich he’d seen a documentary in which a Kenyan group drank blood, and he wanted Ngetich to drink it. Ngetich refused, but claims Kawecki later gave him a cup of blood and demanded he drink it, which Ngetich did. Ngetich claims the incident was the start of mocking from his coach and teammates about his heritage. He claims resulting depression affected his performance, and he lost his scholarship. He is seeking damages of at least US$15,000.
■BOXING
Autopsy finds Gatti hanged
A second autopsy in Canada on Arturo Gatti found that the fighter died by hanging, not strangling, the daily La Presse reported on Saturday. Gatti, a former world champion, was found dead on July 11 in an apartment he was renting with his family in the Brazilian city of Recife. He was 37. Police initially arrested his Brazilian wife, Amanda Rodrigues, on suspicion of strangling him with her handbag strap as he slept following a drunken row. Rodrigues maintained her innocence, and was released when a judge ruled that Gatti likely committed suicide. But Gatti’s relatives claimed there was a coverup, and shipped his remains to Montreal last month for a second autopsy. According to the new postmortem examination, there were no injuries showing one or more other people could have hung the boxer, La Presse reported, without citing sources. There was no sign that Gatti was tied up or beaten, although investigators did not rule out the possibility that the boxer could have been drugged and then hung — “a difficult but not impossible operation,” La Presse said. Toxicologists found in Gatti’s body a substance that causes drowsiness that is sold in Brazil but not in Canada. Canadian specialists still need to contact their Brazilian counterparts to determine whether the amount of the product Gatti had taken was powerful enough to put him to sleep, the paper reported. Gatti, born in Italy but a naturalized Canadian citizen, had lived in the US with his wife and son.
■FOOTBALL
USC suffer surprise loss
The University of Southern California was beaten 16-13 by unranked upstart Washington in college football on Saturday, beaten by a late drive that must have looked familiar to the No. 3-ranked Trojans. Erik Folk kicked a 22-yard field goal with three seconds remaining and Washington’s fired-up defense stymied USC’s fill-in quarterback Aaron Corp. Regular USC quarterback Matt Barkley, who directed an epic game-winning drive to beat Ohio State last week, was out with a sore shoulder.
Not even a tense tete-a-tete in the gold-medal game on Friday could spoil the vibe at Paris’ biggest beach party. Canada’s Brandie Wilkerson and Brazil’s Ana Patricia got into a shouting match on either side of the net in the tiebreaking third set of the beach volleyball final of the Paris Olympics. The referee tried to keep the peace, but it was the Eiffel Tower Stadium DJ who cooled tempers on the sand by playing John Lennon’s Imagine over the PA system. The players laughed and clapped, the crowd applauded and sang along, Wilkerson was shown a yellow card and the top-ranked Brazilians
China yesterday celebrated one of its best Olympic performances, while some supporters declared China the true winners, if medals won by Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan were included. “We are number one out of sovereign countries,” read one comment with more than 1,300 likes on Sina Weibo. Many similar posts included images of an adjusted medal table with medals won by Hong Kong and Taiwan added to the Chinese total. Since Taiwan’s Olympic debut in 1956, its athletes have competed as “Formosa,” “Taiwan,” “the Republic of China,” and since 1984 as “Chinese Taipei.” Hong Kong competes separately from China. Team China racked up 40 gold
PARIS SCOREBOARD: With Lin Yu-ting guaranteed to win a medal, Taiwan has secured at least seven medals in Paris, its second-most after the 12 it won in Tokyo Taiwan boosted its medal total at the Paris Olympics to one gold and five bronzes on Thursday after weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun’s third-place finish in the women’s 59kg weight class, but it was shut out in taekwondo. Kuo, who won gold in Tokyo Games, took the bronze medal in her weight division with a total lift of 235kg, 1kg behind silver medalist Maude Charron of Canada. China’s Luo Shifang was crowned champion with a new Olympic record total lift of 241kg. She also set a new Olympic record in her third attempt at the snatch by lifting 107kg. Entering her last lift in the
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo was the toast of Africa after winning the Olympic 200m gold on Thursday, but his immediate thoughts were much closer to home, as he dedicated his victory to his mother who died in May. Tebogo became the first African to win the event when he ran 19.46 seconds to beat the US’ Kenny Bednarek and a COVID-19-hit Noah Lyles to claim Botswana’s first Olympic gold medal and become the fifth-fastest man in history over the half-lap. He did it wearing spikes bearing his mother’s date of birth. “It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take,” Tebego told