■SOCCER
Lyon’s lead cut to a point
Ligue 1 leaders Lyon lost 2-0 to Lille at the Stade de France on Saturday and saw their advantage at the top cut to just one point. Second-placed Paris Saint-Germain won 1-0 at Lorient to put the pressure on Lyon. Third-placed Marseille drew 0-0 at home to lowly Valenciennes, while Toulouse beat Girondins Bordeaux 3-0. Lyon striker Karim Benzema, who was carrying a slight hip injury, went off after the first half, while captain Juninho was also substituted in the second period. Lille went ahead just before the hour mark when their Brazilian forward Michel Bastos crossed from the left wing and Slovakian striker Robert Vittek got in between the two central defenders to head the ball into the net. Bastos himself scored the second goal in the 90th minute, capitalizing on hesitancy in the Lyon defense to intercept the ball and chip it over the keeper. Caen slipped closer to the relegation zone after losing 2-1 at Grenoble, while the Riviera derby between Nice and Monaco ended in a goalless draw.
■BADMINTON
Lee to face Lin in final
World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia raced into his first All-England final on Saturday with a devastating 21-8, 21-13 semi-final victory over former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. His opponent in a much anticipated re-run of the Beijing Games final last August will be world and Olympic champion Lin Dan of China. Lin secured his place when last year’s All-England winner Chen Jin had to retire from their semi-final with a back strain when he trailed 12-21, 6-11. In the women’s event, world No. 1 and defending champion Tine Rasmussen of Denmark survived two match points to battle past unseeded Jiang Yanjiao of China 22-24, 25-23, 21-15. Rasmussen, suffering a heel injury, trailed 4-14 in the second game, but clawed back heroically to 18-18 and then survived match points at 19-20 and 22-23 before leveling and going on to clinch a captivating match. Her opponent in the final will be another unseeded Chinese, Wang Yihan, who breezed past Danish qualifier Nanna Brosolat Jensen 21-11, 21-7.
■ATHLETICS
Briton Mo Farah wins gold
Mo Farah broke the championship record in winning the 3,000m gold at the European Indoors on Saturday. The Briton crossed the line in a time of 7 minutes, 40.17 seconds. Fabrizio Donato set a new championship record of 17.59m to win the triple jump gold, while Sweden’s Johan Wissman won the men’s 400m and Antonina Krivoshapka of Russia won the women’s event. Ivan Ukhov lived up to his billing as pre-competition favorite by winning the high jump gold medal, clearing a height of 2.32m. Russia’s Yuliya Golubchikova took the pole vault title with a clearance of 4.75m, while Estonia’s Ksenija Balta needed to jump a national record of 6.87m to win the women’s long jump. In the women’s 1,500m, Anna Alminova of Russia kicked at the bell to leave the rest of the field behind and finish with gold in 4 minutes, 7.76 seconds. Meanwhile, Britain’s Dwain Chambers demonstrated why he is favorite for the men’s 60m when he set a European indoor record of 6.42 seconds.
■TENNIS
Bartoli sets up clash with Li
Marion Bartoli of France reached her second final of the year when she beat Zheng Jie 7-5, 6-3 in the Monterrey Open on Saturday. In the final, second-seeded Bartoli will face another Chinese, unseeded Li Na. Li took care of sixth-seeded Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 in their semi-final.
■ALPINE SKIING
Kroll win’s Cup downhill
Austria’s Klaus Kroll won the men’s alpine skiing World Cup downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway, on Saturday, beating his compatriot Michael Walchhofer and Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Canada. Walchhofer, who came in 0.27 seconds adrift, holds a 75-point advantage over Kroll in the World Cup downhill standings with the season finale in Are, Sweden, to come on Wednesday. In the race for the overall men’s World Cup title the lead is shared by Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic and Austrian Benjamin Raich, who both failed to figure in Kvitfjell. Raich was disqualified while Kostelic was outside the points in 32nd place.
■FIELD HOCKEY
Argentina wallops Uruguay
Argentina and Canada enjoyed big wins while the US upset Trinidad and Tobago 4-3 on the first day of Pan American Cup field hockey in Santiago on Saturday. Argentina, the highest-ranked side at No. 9, walloped inexperienced Uruguay 18-0. Canada, which beat Argentina in a penalty shootout for the title two years ago, nailed Brazil 10-1. The pair is favored to contest the final on next Monday at Prince of Wales Country Club. The winner qualifies for next year’s World Cup in New Delhi. Also, Chile, third in 2007, defeated Mexico 7-2. For Argentina, Lucas Vila scored five goals, three off penalty corners, and Mario Almada claimed four in his 242nd cap.
■ALPINE SKIING
Vonn crashes out of slalom
American Lindsey Vonn crashed as she was going for her second World Cup title in a slalom on Saturday won by France’s Sandrine Aubert in Ofterschwang, Germany. Vonn, who had clocked the fastest time in the morning leg, only needed to finish in front of Germany’s Maria Riesch to retain her overall World Cup crystal globe. But the American winner of seven World Cup races and two world titles this season slid out of contention close to the finish line and must wait for the next race to be crowned. Aubert gave the French their first victory in a World Cup slalom for seven years in a nail-biting race. The 26-year-old, who had never made it on to a World Cup podium before, took advantage of Vonn’s and Austrian Kathrin Zettel’s misfortunes to bag her maiden victory in a combined time of one minut, 46.28 seconds.
■SNOWBOARDING
Gimpl dominates Big Air
Defending champion Stefan Gimpl dominated the final snowboarding Big Air event in Moscow on Saturday to earn his third career overall World Cup title. The 29-year-old Austrian topped two runs of three for a total of 50.4 points, four points ahead of second-placed Thomas Franc of Switzerland. Slovenia’s Marco Grilc had 45.5 for third.
■SKI JUMPING
Austria wins third straight
Austria won its third straight team event in the ski jumping World Cup in Lahti, Finland, on Saturday. The quartet of Wolgang Loitzl, Martin Koch, Thomas Morgenstern and Gregor Schlierenzauer secured a total of 1,017.5 points to beat Finland by 2.7 points. Norway was third, 20.7 points behind Austria. The same Austrian team won the world championship title in Liberec, Czech Republic, last month. Austria has dominated team jumping during the last years, winning the world titles in the normal and large hills in Oberstdorf 2005, taking the Olympic gold medal in Turin 2006, and the world title in Sapporo 2007. Schlierenzauer leads the individual World Cup standings, with Loitzl in third and Morgenstern in fourth. Koch is in 11th place.
Taiwan’s Lee Hao-yu on Friday went 0-for-3 in his MLB debut for the Detroit Tigers against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, becoming the 19th Taiwan-born player to reach the big leagues. The Tigers ultimately lost 1-0 in 10 innings, ending their six-game winning streak. The 23-year-old started at third base and batted eighth for Detroit. He was promoted from Triple-A Toledo ahead of the four-game series against the Red Sox at the latter’s home stadium, replacing injured utility player Zach McKinstry. “Being right-handed, and given our schedule, I think six of the next 12 games are going to
Matheus Cunha on Saturday fired Manchester United toward the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win at Chelsea, while Tottenham Hotspur remain in the relegation zone after twice blowing the lead to draw with Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea failed to take advantage of a United defense ravaged by injury and suspension as a fourth straight league defeat for the Blues left their Champions League hopes in ruins. United have missed out on the riches of Europe’s elite competition for the past two seasons, but are closing in on a return thanks to an upturn in fortunes under interim manager
Denmark’s double Olympic badminton champion Viktor Axelsen, long a rival of Taiwan’s former world No. 2 Chou Tien-chen, yesterday announced his retirement at age 32, saying back problems meant he could no longer “compete and train at the highest level.” Axelsen, who won gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and again in Paris in 2024, had back surgery in April last year and said he had not overcome his physical issues. “Accepting this situation has been incredibly difficult,” he said in a statement. “But I have now reached a point where my body won’t allow me to continue.” Axelsen retires as one
Italian soccer is at its lowest ebb in nearly 40 years after a wholesale European exodus at club level followed the nation’s failure for the third successive time to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, and compounded a leadership and structural crisis. The exits suffered by Bologna and ACF Fiorentina on Thursday in the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League respectively meant no Italian teams are left in European competition this season. Italy’s last remaining UEFA Champions League contenders, Atalanta BC, went out in the round of 16 last month. It is the first time since the 1986-1987 campaign that Italian clubs
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