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JAKARTA : Singapore's Lam Chih Bing produced a gutsy performance on Saturday to win the inaugural Mercedes-Benz Masters Indonesia at Emeralda Golf and Country Club.
Lam triumphed by three strokes over Angelo Que from the Philippines to complete a brilliant wire-to-wire victory in the 50,000-dollar tournament.
But a dose of food poisoning meant it was no stroll in the park for the 31-year-old.
"It's just as well I had a five-shot lead at the start of the day. I really wasn't very well last night and threw up a couple of times after dinner. I am relieved it's over," said Lam.
His final round one-over-par 73 saw him finish with an impressive four-round aggregate of 17-under 271.
"It's definitely some of the best golf I have played. I have never finished 17 under before. The first three rounds were really good," added Lam, who opened with rounds of 65, 65 and 68.
JAKARTA - Indonesia's shock defeat to South Korea in the semi-finals of the Thomas Cup was met Saturday by disbelief.
The Indonesians, who have won the title a record 13 times, were widely expected to beat the Koreans who had never made the final before in its 60-year history.
Indonesia's tame 0-3 loss in front of a home crowd deprived them, and their boisterous fans, of another crack at defending champions China, who showed fighting spirit to beat Malaysia 3-2.
ROME : Russia's Maria Sharapova advanced to the semi-finals of the WTA Rome International on Friday after staving off a stiff challenge from veteran Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-2.
The 21-year-old second seed, who will next week reclaim the world number one ranking following Justine Henin's retirement, moved into high gear to overcome a flagging Schnyder in the third set.
A match of breathtaking power also produced some of the most daring gambles, especially in the run-up to the first-set tiebreaker, when both players came up with daring drop shots.
HAMBURG, Germany : Defending champion Roger Federer, clay-court king Rafael Nadal and Australian Open winner Novak Djokovic all cruised into the Hamburg Masters semi-finals on Friday with straight-set wins.
Nadal saw off compatriot and 11th-seed Carlos Moya 6-1, 6-3 to set up a showdown with Djokovic in Saturday's semi-final.
The double prize of a place in Sunday's final and the world number two ranking are both at stake.
NEW YORK : Disgraced former 100m world record-holder Tim Montgomery was sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison Friday for his role in a check fraud scheme that also led to the downfall of Marion Jones.
US District Court Judge Kenneth Karas imposed the sentence upon Montgomery, once considered the world's fastest man before being banned from athletics as a dope cheat and having his record-setting run stricken from the books.
Montgomery, facing a July trial in Virginia on heroin distribution charges, had pleaded guilty 13 months ago to conspring to commit bank fraud and two counts of bank fraud in a multi-million-dollar counterfeiting scheme.
ADARE MANOR, Ireland : French rookie Michael Lorenzo-Vera opened up a one-shot lead after the second round of the Irish Open here on Friday to confirm the promise he showed on the Challenge Tour in 2007.
The 23-year-old from Biarritz carded a second round two under par 70 to post the leading score of six under 138.
That put him one shot clear of Germany's Marcel Siem and two ahead of joint overnight leader Richard Green of Australia and Pablo Larrazabal of Spain.
BERLIN : Italian cyclist Alessandro Petacchi was sacked by his German team on Friday after he was banned for doping.
The Milram team said they had decided to cancel the 34-year-old sprinter's contract after he tested positive for salbutamol during the 2007 Tour of Italy.
"All infractions of internal rules are the object of a sanction and this is also true for Alessandro Petacchi," Milram general manager Gerry van Gerwen said in a statement.
OLBIA, Italy: Four-time world champion Sebastien Loeb put his Jordanian desert nightmare confidently behind him to open up a commanding 35.7sec lead after the first day of the Rally of Sardinia on Friday.
The Frenchman saw his hopes of victory in Jordan last month shattered after a freak accident but it was business as usual here as the Citroen driver clinched three of the day's six stages.
Teammate Dani Sordo is in second place with former world champion Petter Solberg, in a Subaru, back in third place 53.8sec off the lead.
ROME : South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius sets his sights on an historic appearance at the Beijing Olympics on Friday after winning a landmark appeal over a ban on his artificial legs.
The 21-year-old, who runs on specially adapted carbon fibre blades after having his legs amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old, saw the ban imposed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The 400m runner was barred from all competitions involving able-bodied athletes because of claims that the artificial legs he uses give him an unfair advantage.
DULUTH, Georgia : Five American players remained deadlocked atop the leaderboard after Friday's conclusion of the rain-disputed opening round of the 5.5 million-dollar US PGA AT and T Classic.
Of the five atop the leaderboard on six-under 66, only veteran Kenny Perry teed off in the afternoon, when heavy rain wreaked havoc on the course.
He remained on six-under after six holes of his second round, which began while those unable to finish Thursday due to darkness were completing their first tour at the TPC Sugarloaf layout.
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin : Major League Baseball club owners have given unanimous Baseball: Major League Baseball club owners approve tougher doping policy procedures final approval to tougher doping policy procedures that were negotiated last month with the league's players union.
Players are in the process of ratifying the third amending of the policy in the past four years, each time under the threat of action from US lawmakers if the national pastime did not tighten the rules to patrol dope cheats.
More random tests and a more powerful administrator overseeing the program are among the major new changes, although the move falls short of the fully independent oversight former US Senator George Mitchell recommended after his probe into major league doping ended last December.
ROME : Veteran Brazilian defender Cafu, a World Cup winner in 1994 and 2002, said on Friday he was quitting Italian giants AC Milan after six years with the club.
"It is time to leave," the 37-year-old Cafu, who moved to Milan from AS Roma in 2003, told Milan Television. "It's sad, it's tough but I knew that one day or another the time would come to go home to Brazil," added the ex-captain.
"I don't know whether I will continue to play or if I have stopped indefinitely.
MUNICH, Germany : Germany defender Philipp Lahm said Friday conversations with new coach Jurgen Klinsmann had persuaded him to extended his contract at Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich until 2012.
Lahm, 24, was on Friday named in the Germany squad for Euro 2008 next month and ex-Germany coach Klinsmann will take over from Ottmar Hitzfeld as coach of Bayern on July 1.
Contract negotiations between Bayern and Lahm broke down in April, leading to speculation Lahm was heading for Barcelona, but he has now signed on for another four years.
ROME : Serbian fourth seed, and defending champion, Jelena Jankovic dismantled Venus Williams' power game on Friday to advance to the semi-finals of the WTA Rome International, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
"I was fighting for every point," Jankovic said. "Venus is really strong, and to win you have to really play your best."
While Williams, 27, impressed with her trademark power forehand and high-percentage net play, her forehand let her down in the end, with just too many sailing over the baseline.
PESCOCOSTANZO, Italy : Gabriele Bosisio of LPR won the seventh stage of the Tour of Italy here on Friday on a day when Giovanni Visconti retained the overall lead and Danilo di Luca and Riccardo Ricco went on the attack.
Those Italian riders had an impressive day in the saddle during this 176km mountain stage from Vasto to Pescocostanzo though Visconti had a tough time on the hardest climb about 20km from the finish line.
Bosisio got away from his breakaway companions to win by 46 seconds from Belarussian Vasili Kiryienka with Italy's Emanuele Sella third, just over a minute behind and who lost all chances of a stage victory following his puncture in the final section. Colombia's Felix Cardenas was fourth.
LONDON : Dwain Chambers was taking a cocktail of seven banned drugs when he was caught doping, the disgraced British sprinter told UK Sport on Friday as he moved closer to a court action aimed at securing a place in the Beijing Olympics.
Chambers received a two-year ban as a result of a positive test for the designer steroid THG in 2003.
But according to a letter written by his drugs supplier, Victor Conte, he was also taking human growth hormone, the blood-boosting drug EPO, insulin, a testosterone/epitestosterone cream, a drug called modafinil used to promote alertness, and liothryonine, a synthetic form of thyroid hormone.
ROME : World number six Serena Williams pulled out of the WTA Rome International on Friday after hurting her back while training, but thinks she will recover in time for the French Open less than two weeks away.
"It just happened all of a sudden in practice. I just went for a shot and then my back got a little stuck, that's basically how it happened," fifth-seeded Williams, 26, told a news conference.
"I don't expect this to cause any problems in my preparations for the French," which begins on May 25 in Paris, she said.
ZAGREB : European football's ruling body will investigate the sale of luxury VIP packages by Croatian travel agencies for the upcoming Euro 2008 tournament, a UEFA official told a Croatian business daily Friday.
At least two local agencies have been advertising VIP football 'packages' for the tournament to be held in Austria and Switzerland, one of which claims to have obtained tickets from an American company specialising in major events.
However UEFA said the re-sale of such tickets, including as part of package deals, is forbidden.
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