■SOCCER
Alkmaar fight back to win
AZ Alkmaar moved closer to their first Dutch league title in nearly 30 years on Saturday by beating ADO The Hague 4-1. Alkmaar need just five more points in the last five games to secure the championship after second-place FC Twente lost ground by drawing 1-1 at NEC Nijmegen on Friday. ADO The Hague took a surprise lead in the 40th minute when Christiaan Kum headed in Richard Knopper’s free kick, before the hosts rallied in the second half. Moussa Dembele equalized in the 50th before Maarten Martens put AZ ahead in the 61st. Mounir El Hamdaoui added the third in the 79th from a cross by Nick van der Velden. El Hamdaoui then returned the favor by setting up Van der Velden for his first career league goal in the 83rd. AZ, led by veteran coach Louis van Gaal, have 73 points to lead Twente by 11. Elsewhere, Evgeniy Levchenko scored in stoppage time to give FC Groningen a 1-0 win over FC Utrecht. Heerenveen drew 1-1 with Heracles Almelo and PSV beat Sparta Rotterdam 2-0.
■SOCCER
Porto lead by seven points
A second-half rally saw FC Porto beat Guimaraes 3-1 to open up a seven-point lead atop the Portuguese league on Saturday. Roberto Felix fired Guimaraes ahead in the 19th minute but the Portuguese champions battled back after the break with Ernesto Farias drawing the visitors level with a 52nd-minute header. Mariano Gonzalez scored six minutes later before Rolando sealed Porto’s victory in the 88th.
■CRICKET
Kenya defeat Afghanistan
Kenya halted the victory roll of giant-killers Afghanistan on Saturday with a 107-run win in the 2011 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. The east Africans compiled a daunting 282-5 in their alloted 50 overs with Kennedy Obuya hitting an undefeated 109 in Potchefstroom. Facing their first major test of the final qualifying tournament for the World Cup, Afghanistan surrendered five wickets for 62 runs and were all out for 175 after 47 overs.
■HORSE RACING
Rank outsider wins National
Liam Treadwell rode 100-1 shot Mon Mome to a 12-length victory in the Grand National on Saturday.
The nine-year-old horse equaled Foinavon in 1967 as the biggest-priced winner in the 7.2km, 30-fence slog around Aintree. In a race delayed by two false starts, the outsider stretched away from his rivals after jumping the last of the fences. Comply or Die, last year’s winner, was second in the 162nd running of the world’s most famous steeplechase. The race was marred by a death, as Hear The Echo collapsed and died just a few hundred meters from the winning post. He was the fifth horse to die this year in the three-day meeting.
■SUPERBIKES
Rider dies in Tasmania
A motorcycle rider was killed yesterday and another injured during a race at an Australian Superbikes meet, emergency and race officials said. The accident occurred at Symmons Plains Raceway near Launceston on the island state of Tasmania during the second round of the domestic Superbikes championships. Racing was stopped for the day following the fatal crash, which involved two motorcycles hitting a fallen rider. Tasmania Police confirmed a 29-year-old had died in the incident. His name was not immediately released. “That part of the track is quite challenging as you’re trying to get hard on the throttle for the run down the straight,” said reigning Australian Superbike champion Glenn Allerton.
■BASKETBALL
N Carolina to face Michigan
Ty Lawson scored 22 points and Wayne Ellington had 20 more as North Carolina eased to an 83-69 win over Villanova on Saturday and into a national title game against Michigan State. Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points and 11 rebounds to mark a successful return to the Final Four after a remarkable dud last year in a semi-final loss to Kansas. North Carolina go for their second title in five years today when they meet Michigan State, 82-73 winners over Connecticut. It’s Michigan State’s first appearance in the title game since 2000, when the Spartans won their second title. The loss is the latest blow for Connecticut, the best team in the country until Jerome Dyson went down with a knee injury in February.
■BOXING
Bradley wins unification bout
Timothy Bradley got up from a first-round knockdown to score a unanimous decision over fellow American Kendall Holt and unify two titles in the light welterweight division early yesterday morning. Bradley (24-0) added Holt’s WBO title to his own WBC belt in the unification bout between the two Americans. Holt dropped to 25-3. The stocky Bradley was the aggressor throughout the 12-round fight. Holt caught Bradley with a right during a first-round flurry and sent him to the canvas, but the Palm Springs, California, fighter shook it off and won the next two rounds, attacking the body at every chance. By the seventh, he had taken control.
■BOXING
Valero claims vacant title
Venezuelan knockout artist Edwin Valero remained unbeaten on Saturday as he stopped Colombian Antonio Pitalua to claim the vacant WBC lightweight title. With the technical knockout, Valero, a southpaw, notched his 25th win inside the distance in 25 professional fights. The 27-year-old sent Colombia’s Pitalua to the canvas with a short right early in the second and moments later put him down again with a combination. Pitalua regained his feet, but Valero was punishing him again when referee Laurence Cole called a halt after 49 seconds of the second round. “This is the beginning of big things,” Valero said. “No man can take my punch.”
■BOXING
Povetkin defeats Estrada
Russia’s Alexander Povetkin warmed-up for his IBF world heavyweight title fight against champion Wladimir Klitschko with a unanimous points win over Jason Estrada of the US on Saturday. “The fight went well in principle and after my time away from the ring with injury, this was good preparation,” Povetkin said. “I want to beat Klitschko and I want to be world champion — that is my dream.” The 29-year-old from Moscow was scheduled to face IBF and WBO champion Klitschko in December last year, but a twisted ankle in training forced him to postpone the showdown. Povetkin remains the IBF mandatory challenger and all three judges awarded him the win against Estrada, who struggled to contain the hard-hitting Russian.
■ICE HOCKEY
US, Canada win openers
Julie Chu and Hilary Knight scored three goals each as defending champions the US routed Japan 8-0 on Saturday in their opening game of the women’s World Hockey Championship. The Americans outshot Japan 74-8. Japan didn’t manage a single shot in the first period, as the US took a 4-0 lead after accumulating 29 shots. In Group B, Canada crushed China 13-1. Rebecca Johnston, Hayley Wickenheiser, Gillian Apps and Sarah Vaillancourt led the scoring with two apiece.
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