Australia’s Casey Stoner led from start to finish to win the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix by 1.9 seconds from MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi yesterday.
Stoner, riding a Ducati, started from pole position and held off Yamaha’s Rossi to win his home GP for the third straight year. Spain’s Dani Pedrosa was third on a Honda, 22.618 seconds behind world championship leader Rossi.
Stoner, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Friday, was making just his second start after a three-race break from the MotoGP circuit caused by a debilitating illness. He finished second on his comeback at the Oct. 4 Portuguese GP.
PHOTO: AFP
He said his decision to take a 10-week break to overcome his mystery ailment was now paying off, with his win yesterday moving him into third place on the world standings.
“I think without taking that time off we wouldn’t be anywhere near the podium step today, things would have been too difficult for me and physically I wouldn’t have been able to last the race,” Stoner said.
After capturing his second straight pole position at the Phillip Island circuit, Stoner was able to dominate Rossi to claim his third race of the season.
WORLD LEADER
Rossi’s second placing allowed him to stretch his lead in the world championship to 38 points over Fiat Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo of Spain, who crashed quickly out of the race on turn one.
Pedrosa secured his first podium finish in the Australian GP MotoGP class, while Alex de Angelis was fourth and American Colin Edwards on a Yamaha took fifth place.
Two rounds of the world championship remain — at Malaysia and Valencia — with Rossi on course to claim his seventh world championship.
HALTED
Italian Marco Simoncelli, riding a Gilera, won yesterday’s 250cc race, which was halted after Italy’s several falls with six of 25 laps remaining. Hector Barbera of Spain was second and Raffaele de Rosa was third.
Spaniard Julian Simon clinched the 125cc world championship when he passed British Aprilia teammate Bradley Smith on the final lap to win by .313 of a second. His victory gave him an unassailable 55.5 point lead over Smith with two championship rounds remaining.
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