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Tuesday August 1, 2017

DOU ZECHENG had a career-changing 36-hole run Sunday in the rain-delayed Digital Ally Open to become the fi rst Chinese player to earn a PGA Tour card and win a Web.com Tour event.

The 20-year-old Dou was 15 under in the fi nal two rounds in the rain-delayed tournament at Nicklaus Golf Club at Lions Gate, shooting a 10-under 61 in the morning and adding a 66 in the afternoon for a three-stroke victory.

“It’s a big honor to represent China and come play in the United States,” said Dou, known as Marty. “Playing and learning from the best, competing and earning my tour card, it feels amazing right now. ...

“I was talking to my team and I didn’t know if I needed to keep practicing or get more experience on the Web.com Tour instead of trying to get to the PGA Tour so fast. I never thought I could win this year.”

Dou earned US$117,000 to jump from 53rd to 15th on the money list with US$185,594, more than enough to wrap up a PGA Tour card with only four events left in the race for 25 spots.

“It’s going to be pretty big,” said Dou, who travels with fellow Chinese player Zhang Xinjun. “We’ve been talking to the Chinese media this year about a Chinese player poten-tially getting to the PGA Tour. ‘How soon will they get their card?’ and I just did it here.”

He fi nished with a 25-under 259 total. Kyle Thompson (63-65), Luke Guthrie (62-67) and Billy Kennerly (63-66) tied for second.

Dou won four times last year on the PGA Tour China and topped the money list to earn a Web.com Tour card.

The third-round 61 was the best of his career. “The 61 beat my low-record by two shots,” Dou said. “It was amazing. I did everything perfect. I don’t know what to say. I feel like my game is in pretty good shape.”

At age 20 years, 6 months, 8 days, Dou is the third-young-est winner in the history of the tour. (SD-Agencies)

NEYMAR greeted fans in Shanghai yesterday as specula-tion mounted that the Brazil star could be set to quit Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record fee.

The 25-year-old striker is at the center of an apparent tug of war between the two European giants in what would be the most expensive transfer fee in soccer history.

FERRARI’S Sebastian Vettel overcame steering diffi cul-ties to win a tense Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday and extend his championship lead over rival Lewis Hamilton to 14 points heading into the summer break.

The four-time Formula One champion made a decent start from pole position, crucially holding off teammate Kimi Rai-kkonen on the long straight into Turn 1. On a Hungaroring track where overtaking is notoriously hard, there were limited chances to catch him after that.

But Vettel was hampered by a steering issue for more than half the race, allowing the Mercedes cars to close the gap on him and Raikkonen, who in turn was being slowed down by Vettel.

“I’m over the moon. It was a really diffi cult race. I had my hands full,” Vettel said. “The steering started to go sideways and it got worse. I really had to stay focused the whole race.”

Vettel held on for his 46th career win, while Raikkonen expertly defended his posi-tion for a Ferrari 1-2. “Grazie! Forza Ferrari!” a jubilant Vettel shouted on the team radio after crossing the line for his fourth win of the season.

This one owed much to

TWO more world records fell during the fi nal day of compe-tition at the 17th FINA World Championships in Budapest on Sunday while American Caeleb Remel Dressel made a splash by collecting his seventh gold medal.

China’s Sun Yang did not par-ticipate in the men’s 4x100m medley relay as expected.

Sun took home two gold medals in 200 meters and 400 meters. When summing up the performance of the world championships, Sun said he could give himself between 85 and 90 points.

Lilly King started off Sunday evening by winning the women’s 50m breaststroke with a new world record of 29.40, besting the previous one by 0.08 sec-onds. Russia’s Yulia Efi mova King’s teammate Katie Meili followed behind with times of 29.48 and 29.99 respectively.

Less than two hours later, the 20-year-old King lined up with teammates Kathleen Baker, Kelsi Worrell and Simone Manuel to smash the world record in the women’s 4x100m medley relay.

They triumphed in 3:51.55, improving their team’s own global mark of 3:52.05, which was set up at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Together with the 100m breaststroke gold and the mixed 4x100m medley relay, King bagged a total of four golds in Budapest.

However, the breaststroke specialist’s achievement seemed

More records for FINA worlds final day

humble in comparison to Dres-sel. Actually, even talented Katie Ledecky, with fi ve gold medals on her neck, was less success-ful than her rookie teammate in Budapest.

After leading the U.S. men’s team to clinch the title of the 4x100m medley relay in a time of 3:27.91, the 20-year-old Dres-sel earned his seventh gold at his very fi rst World Champion-ships.

He became the second swim-mer to win seven gold medals at a single World Championships, after Michael Phelps in 2007.

On Saturday, Dressel even managed to achieve something

that Phelps had never done. He became the fi rst swimmer to win three golds on a single night at either the worlds or the Olympics.

Chase Kalisz also contributed to the gold haul of the U.S. team as he dominated the men’s 400m individual medley by touching the wall fi rst in a new Champi-onships record of 4:05.90.

In addition to the women’s 4x100m medley relay gold, the U.S. powerhouse grabbed four out of eight golds Sunday, leading the medal table with a total of 38 medals, 18 of which were golds.

In other results, Sarah Sjos-

trom from Sweden won her third gold in the women’s 50m freestyle in 23.69. Earlier this week, she also set the world records in the 50m and 100m freestyle.

Camille Lacourt triumphed in the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.35, giving France their fi rst swimming gold in Budapest.

Hungarian Katinka Hosszu led in the women’s 400m individual medley in 4:29.33, earning her second gold in front of a pas-sionate home crowd. Olympic champion Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy defended his title in the men’s 1,500m race by clocking in 14:35.85. (SD-Xinhua)

Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas attempts to block the ball from Barce-lona striker Neymar (top) during their International Champions Cup match at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, the United States, on Saturday. SD-Agencies

(From left) Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes, Caeleb Remel Dressel and Nathan Adrian of the U.S. celebrate on the podium after winning the men’s 4x100m medley relay in Budapest, Hungary, on Sunday. SD-Agencies

Vettel wins to extend lead in F1

Raikkonen’s cagey driving, and Vettel in turn owes his Finnish teammate a favor after this. He patted Raikkonen on the arm in appreciation as they prepared to mount the podium.

Raikkonen used all of his expe-rience to fend off Hamilton, who eventually fi nished fourth behind Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Earlier, Bottas had let Ham-ilton past in order to attack the Ferraris. Hamilton then sportingly gave him third place back right at the end. “Thanks to Lewis for keeping his promise,” Bottas said, underlining the feel-ing of mutual respect between the teammates. (SD-Agencies)

Neymar in China as rumors grow

Dou Zecheng

Dou first player in China to earn PGA Tour card

A training spat with new Bar-celona signing Nelson Semedo during a pre-season tour in Miami ramped up chatter that Neymar could be about to swap Spain for the French capital.

Neymar, who has remained tight-lipped about the transfer rumors, posted a message for Chinese fans on Weibo, after arriving for a promotional visit.

“Ni Hao China! I’m Neymar Jr. and I’ve just arrived in China,” he wrote yesterday.

“I’m in Shanghai at the moment. I would like to send a huge hug to all my Chinese fans, thank you very much for your support.”

He posted messages in English and Chinese and asked for sug-gestions as to what he should do while in Shanghai, where he was scheduled to appear at an event for a fashion brand later yesterday.

Separately, China’s biggest online travel company Ctrip had said it was canceling an event with Neymar in Shanghai because he and his advisers were “busy with transfer issues.”

People close to the player subsequently told media there had never been an arrangement with the fi rm.

(SD-Agencies)

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel celebrates winning the race on the podium with the trophy in Budapest, Hungary, on Sunday. SD-Agencies