Digest

Badminton

Chen and mixed pair fight to Fuzhou golds

Chinese shuttlers repeated last year's performance at the BWF Fuzhou China Open in Fujian province by claiming the women's singles and mixed doubles titles on Sunday.

Defending champion Chen Yufei overcame Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 2-1(9-21, 21-12, 21-18), while mixed pair Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping beat world No 1 compatriots Zheng Siwei and Huang Yaqiong.

The 21-year-old Chen allayed fears that a medical timeout in the third set was due to a recurrence of an injury that forced her to withdraw from last month's Denmark Open.

"I didn't twist my ankle again. It was just because of a scratch on my foot," Chen said.

In the men's singles final, Japan's world No 1 Kento Momota defeated Chou Tien-chen of Chinese Taipei 2-1(21-15, 17-21, 21-18).

Japanese duo Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota overcame South Korean pair Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan 2-0 in the women's doubles final, while Indonesia's Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo won the men's doubles competition.

Table Tennis

China's women reign at Team World Cup

China defeated Japan 3-0 in the women's final at the 2019 Table Tennis Team World Cup in Tokyo on Sunday.

This year's tournament is serving as a test event for the Tokyo Olympics, adopting the same best-of-five format as the Games, with one doubles contest followed by four singles matches.

Chen Meng and Liu Shiwen defeated Kasumi Ishikawa and Miu Hirano 3-0(11-7, 11-9, 12-10) in the opening doubles clash to get China off to a flier.

A hard-fought 3-2(8-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10) win for 19-year-old Sun Yingsha against Japan's Mima Ito doubled China's lead before Liu secured gold by easily seeing off Hirano 3-0(11-3, 11-8, 11-5).

Earlier in the day, the Chinese men's team also topped the podium by beating South Korea 3-1.

Rugby

Magnificent sevens book Tokyo ticket

The Chinese women's sevens team sealed a spot at the Tokyo Olympics by beating Hong Kong 33-0 in the final of the Asian qualification competition in Guangzhou on Sunday.

No Chinese rugby team, male or female, has ever competed at an Olympics before.

With eight of the top Asian teams fighting for only one ticket to the Tokyo Games, China utterly dominated all five of its matches, conceding just seven points in total.

Team China swatted aside Thailand 34-0 in the semifinals after topping its group by trouncing South Korea 49-0, Hong Kong 42-7 and Sri Lanka 55-0.

Rugby Sevens will make its second appearance in the Olympics following its debut at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Basketball

Jilin stuns Guangdong, Zhou stars for Xinjiang

Dominique Jones powered the Jilin Northeast Tigers with a triple-double to topple the defending champion Guangdong Southeast Tigers 120-115, while Zhou Qi scored a career-high 35 points as the Xinjiang Flying Tigers defeated the Fujian Sturgeons in the fourth round of Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) action on Sunday.

Jones had 49 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists for the host in Changchun, while Guangdong's Yi Jianlian registered a game-high 14 rebounds and scored 27 points.

In Jinjiang, Team China international centers Zhou and Wang Zhelin faced off, with Zhou just edging their battle with 35 points for Xinjiang, eight more than Fujian's Wang. Both grabbed nine rebounds apiece.

The victory means Xinjiang stays perfect, with four wins, while Fujian remains winless.

Miami bans Waiters over in-flight incident

Miami Heat reserve guard Dion Waiters was suspended for 10 games without pay on Sunday by the NBA club for "conduct detrimental to the team" after an airplane incident.

The ban began with the Heat's loss on Friday at the Los Angeles Lakers and will sideline the 27-year-old American until a Dec 1 game at Brooklyn.

Waiters, who signed a four-year deal worth $52 million with the Heat in 2017, had also been suspended for Miami's season-opening victory last month over Memphis, costing him $83,448.

According to multiple reports, Waiters was involved in an incident on the flight from Phoenix to LA on Thursday night, supposedly involving the ingestion of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

NBA drug policy prevents teams from commenting on such matters, but the Heat issued a statement on Sunday announcing the ban on Waiters.

Xinhua - Agencies