Sport Today

The clinical and merciless world champions on Saturday recovered from conceding an early try to score four and build a 32-8 half-time advantage at a packed Estadio Ciudad de La Plata.

Argentina also started the second half well and scored another try only for the men in black to once again wrest control and right wing Cory Jane completed the rout in the final minute with his third touchdown.

Fellow wing Julian Savea crossed the line twice and scrum-half Aaron Smith and centre Ma'a Nonu once each with the rest of the points coming from the boots of fit-again Dan Carter and the man who replaceed him at fly-half, Aaron Cruden.

Carter, who missed the last two rounds of the southern hemisphere championship due to a calf injury, slotted three conversions and two penalties and Cruden two conversions and a penalty.

Scrum-half Martin Landajo, who had an outstanding game, and right wing Gonzalo Camacho scored a try each for Argentina and fly-half Juan Martin Hernandez kicked one conversion and one penalty.

It was a sad night for the Pumas, who entered the game hoping to test the All Blacks after holding South Africa in Mendoza, matching the All Blacks for 60 minutes in Wellington and nearly defeating Australia on the Gold Coast.

They failed in Australasia because they could not last the pace, but that was irrelevant in this city south of Buenos Aires as the All Blacks gave their finest performance of the Championship to record a fifth consecutive victory.

Winning with a bonus point lifted New Zealand to 21 points followed by South Africa (12), Australia (eight) and Argentina (three) with the final fixtures scheduled for next weekend.

Spaniard knocks out Japan's Ito at Thailand Open

Muay thai fan Fernando Verdasco rebounded after losing the first set to beat Japan's Tatsuma Ito and advance to the second round of the US$608,500 ATP Thailand Open at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, yesterday.

The Spanish base-liner had to summon up his A game to stop the inspired Japanese, ranked world No 73, and clinch the first-round match 3-6 6-0 6-2 after two hours and three minutes.

"It's always difficult to play someone you have never seen before. He was serving unbelievably, moving well, hitting good forehands and backhands and changing the direction of the ball easily in the first set. I was surprised. But after that I knew I had to play 100 per cent to come back and win. In the end I played better and was physically better,'' said the lefthander, who fell in love with Thai boxing on his first visit here, in 2007.

"I love martial arts. I've been here many times but I have never seen a real Thai boxing match. If I have time today, I would love to see a muay thai fight,'' said Verdasco, who took a lesson in the martial art from Olympic gold medallist Somjit Jongjohor during a tournament activity two years ago.

Home pairing face tough quarter-final in Thailand Open

"Amazing Twins" Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana kept the Thai flag flying at Impact Arena yesterday, using superior teamwork to overcome Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Australia's Marinko Matosevic 6-4 6-3 in the US$608,000 Thailand Open doubles first round.

The siblings, who made history by becoming the first locals to win the title here in 2007, needed just 59 minutes to power past first-time pairing Garcia-Lopez and Matosevic. This is only the second time the world No 70 have made it through the first round.

"We have never won a first-round match here, except in 2007, so victory today is very satisfying. The other team are more used to playing singles, while we have been playing doubles for a long time which gave us the edge,'' said elder sibling Sonchat.

"We were lucky to win crucial points and miss very few shots. We are playing pretty consistently this year and have a lot of confidence. But we want to focus on one match at a time,'' said younger brother Sanchai.

Onuma Sittrak, the face of the Thai volleyball team, has signed a US$150,000 (around Bt4.5 million) professional league contract with Azerbaijan's Ignisadchi Baku Volleyball Club on Friday.

The volleyball club also handed over contracts to six other Thai players at Alexander Hotel on Ramkhamhaeng Road. Somporn Chaibangyang, president of the Thailand Volleyball Association, and Shahin Bayramov, representative of Ignisadchi Baku, were present at the ceremony.

The Azerbaijani club has put their faith in the Thailand women's volleyball team after they made a tremendous impact in the Olympic Qualification Tournament when they beat the likes of Cuba, Taiwan and European champions Serbia.

The Thai squad continued their brilliant form in the FIVB World Grand Prix where they ended fourth, thrashing Dominican Republic, Japan, Serbia and China, who all made it to the London Olympics.

Bodybuilders grab five-gold haul at Asian Championship

Thai bodybuilders returned from the 46th Asian Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Championships yesterday toting 12 medals including five gold.

The Thai team finished the Guangzhou competition in third place overall. Hosts China captured the overall title, with Vietnam in second place.

Among the five gold medal-winners were Kittipong Chansuwan (under-165kg, Athletic Physique); Jiraphan Pongkam (under-60kg bodybuilding); Somkit Sumethowetchakul (under-65kg bodybuilding); Sakorn Mahtwangsang (under-50 year Men's Masters); Roongtawan Jindasing (under-155kg Women's Fitness Physique).

Thailand will host the World Bodybuilding & Physique Sports Championships from December 4 to 10.

Young gun Kittipong Wachiramanowong scored a scintillating 6-4 6-4 win over New Zealand's Daniel King-Turner 6-4 6-4 in the Thailand Open qualifying round at the Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani yesterday.

The 22-year-old Kittipong, ranked No 594 on the ATP list, had a daunting task in his first qualifying round against No 383 King-Turner, whose best singles results were quarter-final appearances in the 2005 Futures in the US and Japan.

King-Turner, 28, came out firing, hitting six ace serves yesterday, but his game was riddled with unforced mistakes and a couple of double faults, which cost him dearly. The Thai fared better with his hard pinpoint groundstrokes and returns, making life difficult for the Kiwi. King-Turner eventually succumbed and made an early exit.

Today, Kittipong goes up against Japan's Hiroki Moriya in his second qualifying round match. Moriya yesterday pulled off a 6-4 6-3 victory over India's N Vijay Sundar Prashanth in the other first round qualification match.