■BASEBALL
Waipahu win world series
Tanner Tokunaga smacked two homers and Iolana Akau added a solo blast as the boys from Waipahu, Hawaii, defeated Matamoros, Mexico, 12-3 in the Little League World Series final on Sunday. Waipahu were also helped by three Matamoros errors. Two Waipahu runs were scored on passed balls and another came in on a bases-loaded walk. But the Matamoros’ line-up was loaded with dangerous hitters, so the lead wasn’t safe until reliever Christian Donahue got Fernando Villegas to ground out to short-stop, giving the US their fourth straight win. In the third-place game, Tsuyoki Setoguchi scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning to lead Tokyo to a 4-3 victory over Lake Charles, Louisiana.
■CRICKET
Hayden ruled out of series
Veteran opener Matthew Hayden has been ruled out of Australia’s one-day series against Bangladesh in Darwin because of injury. The three-match series starts on Saturday and Hayden had been named in Australia’s initial 14-man squad despite the fact he was still recovering from an Achilles injury suffered during the Indian Twenty20 Premier League. The series was to have provided preparation for the Champions Trophy, but with that tournament now delayed, the Australians decided against trying to hurry him back into action. Team officials announced Hayden would not play at a team training camp yesterday, with the Australians scheduled to fly to Darwin today. Hayden’s withdrawal means Australia will be without three of their big guns for the series. Australian captain Ricky Ponting is recovering from wrist surgery and Brett Lee will miss the series for personal reasons, the star pace man dealing with the collapse of his marriage.
■CRICKET
West Indies win Tri-Series
West Indies captain Chris Gayle top-scored with a swashbuckling 110 not out to lead his team to a seven-wicket victory over the host nation in the Canada Cup Tri-Series final in King City, Ontario, on Sunday. The left-hander struck 14 fours and six sixes in only 77 balls as the title favorites cruised to 181 for three in reply to Canada’s 179 all out in 46.5 overs. Gayle recorded his 16th century in one-day internationals to set up a commanding win for the West Indies with 22.3 overs to spare. Canada, beaten by 49 runs when the two teams met in the round-robin stage on Friday, lost wickets at regular intervals after being asked to bat first. Opener Rizwan Cheema provided the only significant resistance with a whirlwind 61 off 45 balls, while fast bowler Jerome Taylor led the West Indian attack with three for 33 in 6.5 overs.
■OLYMPICS
Chavez acts after failure
Venezuela’s poor performance at the Beijing Olympics moved Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to order the national oil company to start helping to train athletes. Venezuela’s delegation of more than 100 athletes won only a bronze medal in Beijing — an effort that prompted harsh criticism from the local media. Chavez told Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) on Sunday to “open an office of competitive sports” and asked the company’s president, Rafael Ramirez, to meet with members of Venezuela’s Olympic squad “to analyze the sports situation.” PDVSA has already expanded its activities far beyond petroleum production to include food distribution, social welfare management and building housing. Dalia Contreras Rivero won a bronze in women’s taekwondo in Beijing.
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