Olympic champion Didier Defago completed a brilliant return to form with victory in the World Cup downhill in Bormio yesterday, his first win since his gold medal last year.
Sidelined by a knee injury for the whole of last season, Defago also ended a long Swiss jinx in the Italian resort since Pirmin Zurbriggen won at the 1985 world championships.
Defago led a Swiss one-two in 2 minutes, 1.81 seconds, ahead of Patrick Kueng, who was 0.29 seconds slower.
Pre-race favourite Klaus Kroell of Austria, impressive in training, had to settle for third place, 0.42 seconds off the pace.
At 34 and after 15 years on the circuit, Defago has only won four World Cup races and four major downhills.
However, those World Cup races are all the ones that matter: Kitzbuehel, Wengen, Bormio and the Olympic title.
The skier from Morgins had shown he was not far off from his best level in the eight races he entered since the start of the winter, finishing ninth in the demanding Alta Badia giant slalom last week.
American Bode Miller finished fifth to take charge of the downhill World Cup standings and sixth-placed Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway returned to the top of the overall standings.
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