■ Field Hockey
Dutch land second title
The Netherlands romped to its second straight Champions Trophy win by defeating Australia 5-3 and Pakistan edged Argentina 6-5 in thrilling matches at Amsterdam's Wagenar Stadium on Sunday. Eight-time Olympic champion India, without a major title triumph in two decades, staged a late rally to prevail 3-2 over World Cup holder Germany, which has fielded a second-string team in the tournament. Netherlands leads the six-team event's league standings with six points from two games, followed by Pakistan with four from two matches. India has three points from two outings, while the Aussies have picked just one point from two games.
■ Horse racing
Jockey on the mend
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens remained hospitalized on Sunday, a day after he was thrown to the turf and nearly trampled in the Arlington Million. Stevens, whose left shoulder was stepped on, was in fair condition, a spokesman at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights said on Sunday. He declined to release the results of X-rays. Stevens, who has a starring role in the movie Seabiscuit, fell off Storming Home a few strides past the finish line in Saturday's race. After he remained motionless for five minutes, Stevens sat up and moved his legs before he was carried off the track on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.
■ Cricket
Test reaches climax
Confidence was high in both the England and South Africa camps after another engrossing day at the third test on Sunday. South Africa, chasing 202 for a victory that would put them 2-0 up in the series, had reached 63 for five when bad light ended the fourth day's play prematurely, setting up an exciting climax. "It is a vital stage in the series and a really important day for us tomorrow," said South African fast bowler Shaun Pollock, who completed figures of six for 39 to help bowl out England for just 118 and give his side a scent of victory. "England will be really happy to have taken five wickets," added Pollock. "But when things get down the final straight it's all about pressure and who deals with it."
■ Baseball
Russia bag first LLWS win
First, Anton Chekalin ruined Peter Perez's perfect game. Then, he helped make history. Chekalin scored the go-ahead run in Russia's first-ever Little League World Series win as Khovrino Little League of Moscow beat Central Little League of Agana, Guam, 2-0 in pool play Sunday night. With two out in the sixth, Chekalin hit a single to left, ruining what would have been the first perfect game in the Little League World Series since 1976. After advancing on Alexey Kozin's single, Chekalin scored the game's first run on Kirill Starodubov's RBI single to center. Kozin later scored on an error. Khovrino Little League (1-1) is in its third consecutive Little League World Series, but had yet to win a game.
■ Olympics
Loose slab injures spectator
A spectator at a pre-Olympic archery competition was seriously injured by a marble slab that came loose at the stadium that hosted the first modern Olympiad, police said yesterday. Olympic organizers claim Chrisanthos Marinos, 24, wandered Thursday into an area where workers are refurbishing the stadium used for the 1896 Olympics. The marble slab apparently fell and hit Marinos' leg after he leaned on it to take a photograph, police said. "There was a sign and bar prohibiting entry to the area," Athens organizers said in a statement.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB