Korea set to take on Australia

Park In-bee, a former world No. 1 in women’s golf, will lead the South Korean team against Australia to open an international competition to be inaugurated by the LPGA Tour on Thursday in Maryland.Park will be one of the four golfers on the South Korean squad at the first edition of the International Crown, which will open at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, a suburb of Baltimore, on Thursday, local time.The four highest-ranked players from eight countries, based on their world ranking po

GolfJuly 23, 2014

Head of nat'l Olympic body to act as interim chief of PyeongChang

The president of the national Olympic body will serve as an interim head of South Korea's first Winter Games, officials said Wednesday, two days after a sudden resignation of the former chief organizer.Kim Jung-haeng, who heads the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC), will also oversee operations of the organizing committee of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, an alpine town about 180 kilometers east of Seoul, until it finds a full-time replacement for the former president of the committee, Ki

Olympic GamesJuly 23, 2014

McIlroy seeks green jacket

HOYLAKE, England (AP) ― Rory McIlroy clutched the treasured piece of silverware, his reward for winning golf’s oldest major championship.Now he’s got his eyes on a new jacket. Something in green, preferably.With a grind-it-out performance on the final day of the British Open, McIlroy checked off another requirement for joining perhaps the most exclusive club in the game.U.S. Open? He’s won that. PGA Championship? Yep, got one of those too.British Open? Took care of that on Sunday.“I’m immensely

GolfJuly 22, 2014

KBO managers want umpire review to precede video replay

When the second half of the South Korean professional baseball season starts on Tuesday, the league will have a new twist to its review system. Ahead of last Friday’s All-Star Game at the Korea Baseball Organization, the nine managers agreed to adopt a “four-man review” system that will precede expanded video replay starting in the season’s second half.Earlier this month, executives from the KBO teams had agreed to expand video replay for the remainder of the season to cover safe-out, fair-foul

BaseballJuly 21, 2014

Park Tae-hwan wins sixth race at national trials

Korean swimming star Park Tae-hwan on Monday won his sixth race at the ongoing national team trials for the upcoming Asian Games, taking the 400-meter individual medley with a meet record.In Gimcheon, about 230 kilometers southeast of Seoul, Park came in first with a time of 4:23.21, shedding 0.22 second off the previous mark.The winners of each race here will qualify for this year’s Asian Games, which will be held in the South Korean city of Incheon from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.Last week, Park finis

More SportsJuly 21, 2014

Father cashes in

HOYLAKE, England (AP) ― Rory McIlroy was not the only winner at the British Open on Sunday.The BBC said McIlroy’s father, Gerry, and three of Gerry’s friends placed a combined bet of 400 pounds (now $680) in 2004 on McIlroy winning the British Open before he turned 26.McIlroy was 15 at the time of the wager and is now 25.The odds were 500-1, so the syndicate looks to collect 200,000 pounds ($340,000) now that McIlroy has lifted the claret jug. He won by two strokes over Sergio Garcia and Rickie

More SportsJuly 21, 2014

Chief organizer of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics offers to resign

The chief organizer of South Korea's first Winter Olympics has offered to resign, a government official said Monday.The official said Kim Jin-sun, head of the organizing committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, recently expressed his intention to quit and that his resignation offer has been accepted, without offering specific time frames.Kim, 67, has been the top organizer of the Winter Games since November 2011, four months after Pyeongchang, an alpine town in the eastern province

Olympic GamesJuly 21, 2014

Pace, Diaz share lead at Marathon

SYLVANIA, Ohio (AP) ― South Africa’s Lee-Anne Pace, seeking a breakthrough win in the U.S., shot a 3-under 68 to grab a share of the lead with Laura Diaz in the Marathon Classic on Saturday.Pace, an eight-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, bounced back from bogeys at holes 11 and 12 to join Diaz at 11-under 202. She can barely express what a breakthrough win on the LPGA Tour might bring.“It’ll mean quite a lot to be able to come out here and play well,” she said. “It already has made my we

More SportsJuly 20, 2014

Rory McIlroy builds 6-shot lead at Open

HOYLAKE, England (AP) ― Rory McIlroy looked as though he had just thrown a knockout punch at the British Open, and it was only Saturday.When he rolled in a 10-foot eagle putt on the final hole for a 4-under 68, he straightened his back, stared defiantly at thousands of fans crammed into the horseshoe arena around the 18th green at Royal Liverpool and lightly pumped his fist.He went from being tied for the lead to six shots ahead of Rickie Fowler in just over an hour.And suddenly, the biggest cha

More SportsJuly 20, 2014

Brazil eyes Dunga as Scolari successor

RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) ― Brazil could appoint former coach Dunga to replace Luiz Felipe Scolari as national team boss, media reports indicated Saturday, despite ex-Corinthians coach Tite being considered the longtime favorite. The Brazilian Football Confederation earlier confirmed it will unveil its choice of Scolari’s successor on Tuesday at 11 a.m. in western Rio and a clutch of Brazilian newspapers said Dunga, 50, would return for a second spell.The front-runner, at least until Saturday, was be

SoccerJuly 20, 2014

N. Korea’s Kim has ‘great expectations’ for Asian Games

SEOUL (AFP) ― North Korea’s Kim Jong-un expressed “great expectations” for their athletes at the upcoming Asian Games in the South, state media said Sunday, despite Pyongyang’s earlier threat to boycott the event.The North had announced plans to send athletes and cheerleaders to the Games to be held in Incheon from Sept. 19 to Oct. 4.But inter-Korea talks on Thursday to coordinate their visit broke down due to disagreement over issues including who was going to shoulder the cost of the trip, pro

More SportsJuly 20, 2014

S. Korea to meet Venezuela in first A match after FIFA World Cup disappointment

South Korea's national football team is expected to take on Venezuela in its first A match since its early shutout in the Brazil FIFA World Cup, the country's governing body for the popular sport said Saturday.According to the Korea Football Association, the friendly versus the South American team will take place on Sept. 5. It likely will be the first one for Korea's new head coach, who has yet to be selected.There has been speculation that a candidate is being sought among K League coaches but

SoccerJuly 19, 2014