■CRICKET
Sussex win Twenty20 Cup
Sussex won the English Twenty20 Cup for the first time on Saturday when they defeated Somerset by 63 runs in the final at Edgbaston. West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Smith hammered 59 off only 26 deliveries with seven fours and three sixes to help Sussex reach 172 for seven after being put into bat. Somerset never seriously threatened to achieve the highest ever score to win a domestic Twenty20 final once Marcus Trescothick had been dismissed for 33, but they have the consolation of qualifying with Sussex for the Champions League, which takes place in India in October, where a US$6 million jackpot awaits the winners.
■CRICKET
Trott to play Ashes final
Uncapped batsman Jonathan Trott was named yesterday in England’s 14-man squad for the Ashes decider against Australia. Ravi Bopara, who has struggled throughout the series and managed just one run in two innings at Headingley where Australia leveled the series 1-1, was omitted. “The final Test match is an absolutely vital game for the team with so much at stake and we have had to make some difficult selection decisions in choosing our squad for Oval,” ECB selector Geoff Miller said. “Ravi Bopara has been going through a tough time with the bat in this series and we have decided to leave him out of the squad for this game.”
■CYCLING
Armstrong wins Leadville
Lance Armstrong won the Leadville 100 in a record time on Saturday, finishing the US’ highest-altitude mountain bike race on a flat tire. Armstrong, on a flat back tire for the final 16km, dethroned six-time defending champion Dave Wiens in 6 hours, 28 minutes, 50 seconds, nearly 17 minutes better than Wiens’ 6:45:45 record last year. Wiens was second in 6:57:01 a year after holding off the seven-time Tour de France champ by about two minutes. “He’s Lance Armstrong,” Wiens said.
■TRIATHLON
Brownlee wins London leg
Britain’s Alistair Brownlee won the London leg of the Triathlon ITU World Championships Series on Saturday to claim the world No. 1 spot. The 21-year-old will now travel to the season’s Grand Final in Australia next month as favorite to be crowned world champion having won four of this season’s races. Brownlee pulled away with one lap to go of the running section at Hyde Park, which will host the 2012 Olympics event, winning in 1 hour 41.50 minutes. In the women’s elite race, British world champion Helen Jenkins was edged into bronze by European champion Nicola Spirig of Switzerland and Sweden’s Lisa Norden.
■RUGBY UNION
Carter flies to Sydney
Star fly half Dan Carter completed the formality of his return to the All Blacks squad when he flew to Sydney with the team yesterday for next weekend’s Tri-Nations Test against Australia. After a six-month enforced lay-off because of an Achilles tendon injury, Carter was reunited with the team on Wednesday for a one-day training session before being confirmed yesterday in the Test squad. The 27-year-old Carter, rated the world’s best No. 10, has played in domestic games in recent weeks. He was injured while playing for the French side Perpignan in February. Missing from the 26-man All Blacks squad are prop Neemia Tialata, who has been replaced by Wyatt Crockett, and injured halfback Piri Weepu. The All Blacks will train in Sydney today, with the team to play Australia to be named the following day.
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