■ Handball
Croatia beat Morocco
Two-time Olympic champion Croatia beat Morocco 35-22 in its opening game on Saturday at the handball World Championship. Croatia, the 2003 world champion, played without injured goalkeeper Vlado Sola and defender Davor Dominikovic, whose "A" sample tested positive for an unspecified banned substance after a game with his Spanish club Portland San Antonio. But Morocco was no match for the handball powerhouse in the Group F game in Stuttgart. In Magdeburg, Gudjon Sigurdsson scored 15 goals to pace Iceland's 45-20 rout of Australia in a Group B game. The Czech Republic got seven goals apiece from Jan Filip and Filip Jicha in a 37-23 win over Qatar in a Group D game in Bremen. Ahmed Al-Saad led Qatar, also with seven goals.
■ Motorsport
Sebastien Loeb leads
Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb held the lead of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally after Saturday's third leg. The Frenchman, the defending three-time world rally champion, finished on Saturday about 31 seconds ahead of Spain's Daniel Sordo, a fellow Citroen rider. Marcus Gronholm of Finland, a Ford driver, was more than 1 minute and 23 seconds back. Saturday's leg covered 460.23km, of which 128.72km were timed. The race began on Thursday and was to end yesterday. Loeb, 32, won last year's title despite missing the final four races after breaking his arm in a cycling accident. He is looking to equal the record set by Finland's Tommi Makinen, who won four straight overall titles from 1996-1999. Most of the Monte Carlo rally has been moved three hours away to Valence, after road closures along the usual course made access too difficult for competitors.
■ Athletics
Koskela, Friesinger lead
Pekka Koskela and Anni Friesinger took the lead at the halfway stage of the ISU world sprint speed skating championship in Norway's Hamar Olympic Hall on Saturday. Race favorite Koskela of Finland won the men's 500m sprint and finished seventh in the 1,000m. He was timed at 34.80 seconds and 1 minute, 9.03 seconds to score a total 69.315 points. South Korea's Lee Kyou-hyuk was in second place, just 0.08 points behind after coming in fourth in the 500 and second in the 1,000m. Dutch sprinter Erben Wennemars was third, with 0.22 points fewer than the winning Finn. Germany's double Olympic champion Friesinger edged her Dutch runner-up Ireen Wust by 0.63 points in the women's race with a total 75.980 points. She was fifth in the 500m and first in the 1,000m, clocking 38.42 and 1:15.12. Wust finished 14th in the 500m, but climbed up to second in the 1,000m, putting her ahead of third-place Chiara Simionato of Italy.
■ Motorsport
Sainz wins 14th stage
Carlos Sainz of Spain won the penultimate 14th stage of the Dakar Rally on Saturday, with the cross-continental race marred by the death of a French motorcyclist. Yamaha motorcyclist Eric Aubijoux had a heart attack, rally director Etienne Lavigne said. A statement issued by race organizers said Aubijoux, 42, had already completed Saturday's stage and was finishing an untimed section near Dakar. He stopped his bike "feeling faint" before collapsing, the statement said. The death was the second of this year's race. South African motorcyclist Elmer Symons, 29, died on Jan. 9 in a crash during the fourth stage from Er Rachidia to Ouarzazate in Morocco.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was