SPORTS SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2014 CALIFORNIA: Taylor Phinney of the BMC Racing Team rides during the Amgen Tour of California second stage individual time trial in Folsom, Calif. — AP Phinney wins 5th stage; Wiggins keeps the lead LOS ANGELES: Taylor Phinney won the fifth stage of the Tour of California Thursday as Bradley Campbell-Brown returns after doping row Wiggins retained the overall lead after the 174-kilometer stage from SHANGHAI: Veronica Campbell-Brown will and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell hit with an 18- their magic after a poor season last year. Felix, Pismo Beach to Santa Barbara. take on world and Olympic 200m champion month suspension. Campbell-Brown turned 32 28, won the 200m Olympic title in 2012 but she BMC’s Phinney attacked on the Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in Shanghai tomorrow on Thursday and but she will be getting no crashed out of the race at last year’s Moscow descent from the San Marcos Pass as she returns to the Diamond League circuit gifts on the track from compatriot Fraser-Pryce, world championships with a hamstring injury. climb to take a long-range solo vic- after her doping controversy. The Jamaican for- who comfortably won the 100m at the She will run the 400m in Shanghai. Merritt suf- tory 12 seconds ahead of his pur- mer Olympic champion spent 10 months on Diamond League season-opener in Doha. fered an injury scare last year in Shanghai, and suers led by Cannondale rider the sidelines before having a two-year ban Justin Gatlin, who came back from a four- the Olympic 110m hurdles gold-medallist Peter Sagan. Slovakia’s Sagan took overturned in February, and said she is still year doping ban in 2010, said he was hoping to placed only sixth in Moscow behind winner the sprint for second ahead of working her way back to full fitness. “I’m work- run 100m below 10 seconds for the first time David Oliver-whom he will face on Sunday. Orica rider Matthew Goss of ing on getting back into a competitive spirit this year as he takes aim at Gay’s US record of In the field events, France’s indoor world Australia. “I’m from Colorado, but I and getting race-sharp again,” Campbell- 9.69sec. “This is a down year in terms of there record pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie will com- spend a lot of time in Santa Brown said, according to the International being no world championships or Olympics, so pete in China for the first time as he launches Barbara and I’ve done that descent Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) I want to set the tempo as some opponents his campaign for a fifth straight Diamond race. many times,” Phinney, a former US website. “I just want to get better technically, take it easier, and then carry that dominance “I’m very happy to jump in Shanghai,” he said. time trial champion, told because it’s all about preparing myself for the on to the world championships in 2015 and “It will be my first time in China and I’m excited Cyclingnews.com. next two years... It’s good to be here in China Olympic year,” he said. “I believe as athletes we about that.” Olympic triple jump champion “It’s always special to win, but to with the world championships in Beijing next have a duty to train as hard as we can and look Christian Taylor said he was eyeing an attempt win like that is the best way.” year.” for opportunities to break records. Records that to become just the fourth man to break the 18 Wiggins, Britain’s 2012 Tour de Campbell-Brown was cleared because of stand for a long time put an event on pause. meters barrier, after France’s Teddy Tamgho France winner, went into the stage procedural breaches when her urine sample “For me, I want to go out and break the US achieved the feat to win the world title in with a 28-second lead over was collected by Jamaican authorities last May, record. That’s my focus for this year and the Moscow. “Before that the world record seemed Australian Rohan Dennis and a failing slammed as “deplorable” by the Court next.” unattainable, now it doesn’t. But it’s about tak- emerged with that lead intact after of Arbitration for Sport. Athletics has suffered Other big names on the track include ing baby steps towards it. Hopefully, I won’t he and his closest rivals finished in other high-profile doping cases recently with Olympic champions Aries Merritt and Allyson need too many before I can get the big one,” the chasing group. Team Sky US sprinter Tyson Gay handed a one-year ban Felix, who are both hoping to reclaim some of he said.—AFP sports director Servais Knaven told TeamSky.com that he was pleased with the performance in a stage on which temperatures again reached into the upper 30s Celsius. Super Dan lights up China’s record bid A six-man break was swept up on the early slopes of the first-cate- NEW DELHI: Semi-retired superstar Lin Dan will Long, Du Pengyu and Tian Houwei, but is widely and wrest back the title. World number one Lee gory ascent, with some 40 riders in return to the courts in a bid to create more bad- expected to be pushed ahead for the third sin- Chong Wei leads Malaysia’s Thomas Cup hopes, the bunch as they crossed the minton history as China go for a record sixth gles. India’s coach Pullela Gopichand said Lin’s but 13-time champions Indonesia, Japan and summit before Phinney made his straight Thomas Cup win in New Delhi from presence showed how seriously China were tak- Denmark are expected to be China’s main chal- brave move. “It was a pretty hard tomorrow. Dominant China are the overwhelm- ing the competition. “You take Lin lightly at your lengers. Fifth-ranked Tommy Sugiarto, Dionysius one, especially with the speed they ing favorites for both the men’s event and the own peril. Never write him off,” the former All- Hayom Rumbaka and Simon Santoso head went up it and a lot of guys got Uber Cup for women, which also takes place at England champion said. “That they have got him Indonesia’s singles squad, while reigning world dropped,” Knaven said, adding the Siri Fort complex in the Indian capital until to play shows how keen China are to win again.” champions Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra that he expected a similar scenario May 25. Lin, arguably the greatest player of all Looking for their 10th Thomas Cup title, the Setiawan could be unbeatable in the doubles. to unfold on Friday’s sixth stage, time with five world, two Olympic and five all- Chinese men have been drawn alongside Japan have one of the most balanced squads which takes the riders 152 kilome- England titles under his belt, enjoys cult status Taiwan, Russia and France in Group D, with two with world number four Kenichi Tago, Kento ters from Santa Clarita to Mountain despite his now-limited appearances on the cir- teams qualifying for the knock-out rounds. If the Momota and Sho Sasaki playing singles and the High in the San Gabriel Mountains cuit. The 30-year-old left-hander came out of an men are formidable, the Chinese women seem third-ranked pair of Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi northeast of Los Angeles. “We’ll be eight-month lay-off to win the China Masters almost unassailable in the Uber Cup with the Hayakawa leading the doubles. Denmark, drawn looking to make sure Brad saves as and Asian titles last month, indicating his skills world’s top three singles players-Li Xuerui, Wang with Japan in group B and widely regarded as much energy as possible before had not diminished and he still remained the Shixian and Wang Yihan-in their ranks. China the best nation never to have won the Thomas riding hard on the long climb to man to beat. have won seven of the last eight Uber Cup com- Cup, appear strong with world number three the summit. He’s in great form at With China poised to surpass former power- petitions since 1998, the awe-inspiring Jan O Jorgensen in their ranks but will miss dou- the moment and we’re really house Indonesia’s five successive Cup wins sequence being broken only by South Korea’s bles specialist Mathias Boe due to injury. Both impressed with how he’s perform- between 1994 and 2002, Lin was picked for the stunning 3-1 win in the final in Kuala Lumpur in the Thomas and Uber Cup events this year have ing.” The race concludes tomorrow trip to New Delhi even though his ranking is a 2010. been expanded to 16 nations from 12 in previ- in Thousand Oaks, in rolling coun- lowly 58th. Lin has been entered as China’s The Chinese girls hit back to rout the Koreans ous years, with four preliminary groups sending tryside west of Los Angeles.— AFP fourth singles player behind number two Chen 3-0 in the final at home in Wuhan two years later two teams each into the quarter-finals.— AFP .