JUDO
Taiwanese qualify for Games
Three Taiwanese judoka have qualified to compete at the Tokyo Olympics Games, a list released on Tuesday by the International Judo Federation (IJF) showed. Lien Chen-ling, who was fifth in the women’s under-57kg event at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, would be competing in the same division again in Tokyo. Yang Yung-wei would be competing in the men’s under-60kg event and Lin Chen-hao in the women’s under-48kg event. Taiwan had only two athletes qualify in the 14 Olympic judo weight classes at the 2016 Games. Qualification for the Tokyo Olympics was determined by how many points judoka earned during competitions from May 2018 to this month, with those ranking in the top 18 qualifying for the Games. Athletes could also qualify through a continental quota. Lien placed eighth and Yang 11th in their respective weight classes, thus qualifying for the Games, the IJF’s rankings showed. Lin, who ranks 42nd in her class, earned a continental quota for Asia. Lien said on Facebook that she felt honored to be able to compete at the Olympics for a second time, and that “no matter what happens, I will not waver in my goal of more than 20 years.”
CRICKET
Batsman smashes own car
Hitting the ball out of the park for a six is the dream of every batsman, but British amateur cricketer Asif Ali’s huge heave backfired on Sunday when the ball shattered the rear windscreen of his own car. Playing for Illingworth St Mary’s Cricket Club against Sowerby St Peter’s in West Yorkshire, Ali was at the crease in the 37th over when he sent the ball soaring through the air. An “Oooooh” could be heard from the crowd as as the ball could be heard crashing through the window of his Vauxhall Zafira.
SWIMMING
Sun Yang banned until 2023
China’s Sun Yang did not break doping rules, his lawyer said, after a ban of more than four years put the 1,500m freestyle world record holder out of the Tokyo Olympics. The three-time Olympic champion’s career was in tatters on Tuesday after the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s suspension for refusing to give a sample to doping inspectors. At the end of a long-running and controversial case, the Lausanne, Switzerland-based court reduced its original ban of eight years to four years and three months, backdated to February last year. “Sun Yang fulfilled his responsibilities, but he has become a victim of political posturing in this international case,” his lawyer, Zhang Qihuai, wrote on social media.
SOCCER
Maradona goal remembered
It was 35 years ago today that Diego Maradona taught England to play, and the date did not go unnoticed in Argentina, where his compatriots remembered his “goal of the century” with a nationwide celebration of cheers and applause. Maradona scored twice against England in a 2-1 win in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup, the second of which was a solo goal often classed as the greatest goal ever scored. To remember the feat, Argentines took to their windows, balconies, and gardens to shout “Gooooooooool” at precisely 4:09pm, the exact moment the ball hit the net at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on June 22, 1986.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier