■ Rowing
Oxford wins boat race
Sporting the heaviest crew in history, Oxford won Sunday's Boat Race on the Thames near London, easily beating Cambridge in the 6.8km classic through west London. Bigger and stronger, Oxford also showed better technique and led from the start. Cambridge leads the series 78-72. One race, in 1877, ended in a draw. Oxford has also won three of the last four. Oxford's eight-man crew averaged 98.5kg (217 pounds) at Tuesday's weigh-in. Cambridge averaged 88.6kg. Oxford beat the previous weight record -- set by Cambridge in 1998 -- by 3.2kg per man.
■ Curling
Sweden takes title
Sweden beat the US 10-4 to win the World Women's Curling Championship in Paisley, Scotland on Sunday. Cassie Johnson's US team was ahead 3-1 after six ends but the Swedes, led by Anette Norberg, took the lead for the first time with a triple on the seventh. The Americans pulled one back on the following end to draw level at 4-4, only for their opponents to score a double on the ninth for a 6-4 lead. The US looked upbeat going into the final end but Sweden scored four points, while the Americans remained scoreless in the decider to concede defeat.
■ Cycling
Britain wins madison
Germany's Rene Wolff won the men's match sprint and Britain took the men's madison as crashes marred the Track Cycling World Championships in Carson, California on Sunday. The duo of Mark Cavendish and Robert Hayes didn't earn a point in getting Britain's fourth title of the four-day competition at the ADT Event Center at Cal State-Dominguez Hills. But they finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the 200-lap, 50km madison in 55 minutes, 28.49 seconds. Second place went to the Netherlands and third to Belgium. Wolff, the 2003 world sprint bronze medalist, beat Mickael Bourgain of France in two straight rides in the best-of-three final. Jobie Dajka of Australia defeated France's Gregory Bauge, an earlier crash victim, also in two straight rides, to finish third.
■ Hockey
NHL files lawsuit
The NHL filed an unfair labor practice charge with the US National Labor Relations Board in New York, claiming that a players' association policy that would penalize members who became replacements is coercive and in violation of their rights. The league and the union have been unable to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement, and the lockout imposed by the NHL in September forced the cancellation of the entire top North American ice hockey season. If a new deal can't be reached in time for next season, the NHL said it would explore the use of replacement players. Union members currently receive between US$5,000 and US$10,000 per month during the lockout. "The practice of conditioning the receipt of work stoppage benefits on a player's agreement not to return to the NHL without a new CBA was coercive, and in violation of the player's rights under the labor laws," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said. The players' association denied the charges. "We are confident the NHL's actions and allegations are without merit," the union 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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite