CRICKET
Aussies retain world title
Jess Cameron’s show with the bat and Lisa Sthalekar’s all-round skills helped Australia retain the women’s World Twenty20 title with a close four-run victory over England in the final on Sunday. Put in to bat, the defending champions, who won the last edition of the tournament in the West Indies, made 142 for four from their 20 overs, riding on a strong opening partnership. England lost wickets at regular intervals during their chase and required 16 off the last over, but managed 11 to reach 138 for nine. Danielle Hazel needed to hit a six off the last ball for victory, but she could just get a single. Jess Jonassen picked up three wickets for 25, while Sthalekar and Julie Hunter shared four wickets between them as Australia dropped a number of catches. Skipper Charlotte Edwards (28) top-scored for England and kept the team in the hunt with four boundaries and a six, but the 2009 champions lost their way after her dismissal. Meg Lanning (25) and Alyssa Healy (26) notched up 51 for the opening wicket for Australia to build a solid platform, and then Cameron (45) and Sthalekar (23 not out) added another 51.
RUGBY LEAGUE
Wolves’ Wood loses testicle
Warrington Wolves prop forward Paul Wood has revealed he had to have a ruptured testicle removed after his team’s 26-18 defeat to the Leeds Rhinos in the Super League Grand Final. Wood was kneed in the groin early in the second half at Old Trafford in Manchester, England, on Saturday and played on despite the injury, before discovering the extent of the damage after the match. The 30-year-old father of two went to hospital for surgery on Saturday evening and even managed to joke about the incident on Sunday. “Ruptured my right testicle, got a knee 1 minute into the second half, had to have it removed,” he wrote on Twitter. “Just coming out the hospital to go home ... Seriously feel like I’ve left something?”
BASEBALL
Rockies’ manager quits
Colorado Rockies manager Jim Tracy resigned on Sunday, less than a week after the club finished last in the National League Western Division with a franchise-worst 64-98 record. Just three years ago, Tracy was the manager of the year after leading the Rockies to a playoff berth with a franchise-best 92-70 finish. Tracy, who took the job when Clint Hurdle was let go in May 2009, compiled a 294-308 record.
ATHLETICS
Kebede wins in Chicago
Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede shattered the course record in winning the Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Kebede pulled away late and was all alone, waving to the crowd as he approached the finish at Grant Park and crossing the line in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 38 seconds. That easily eclipsed the previous mark of 2:05:37 set by Kenya’s Moses Mosop last year and was more than enough to beat countryman Feyisa Lilesa. The women’s race was also a thriller, with Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia edging Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo by about a step.
HORSE RACING
Outsider Solemia wins Arc
Long-shot Solemia came through with a dramatic finish and edged tiring favorite Orfevre in the final strides to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris on Sunday. Orfevre looked to be a sure winner when he took the lead with about 300m to go, but Solemia, urged on by jockey Olivier Peslier, moved past Orfevre on the outside two strides from the finish line to give the French rider his fourth win in the Arc.
RUSSIA
Ten-man Anzhi beat Dynamo
Anzhi Makhachkala overcame the ninth-minute sending off of Brazilian defender Joao Carlos to defeat Dynamo Moscow 2-0 on Sunday and stay top of the Russian Premier League. Anzhi have 26 points from 11 matches and remain two points ahead of second-placed CSKA Moscow, who beat city rivals Spartak 2-0, while Terek Grozny are third on 22 points. Anzhi were rocked by the early loss of Carlos, who was shown a straight red card for a professional foul on Dynamo striker Alexander Kokorin, but Dynamo were unable to make their one-man advantage count and were then also reduced to 10 men when Croatian fullback Gordon Schildenfeld was sent off just six minutes after the interval for handball. Anzhi upped the tempo and in the 75th minute Yury Zhirkov gave them the lead, beating Dynamo goalkeeper Anton Shunin with a close-range shot after a one-two combination with Belgian teammate Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez. Skipper Samuel Eto’o added the second in the 87th minutes. CSKA clinched the lead against Spartak in the 16th minute through Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa, who scored from just inside the area from Keisuke Honda’s precise pass. The Red Army side continued their domination at the Luzhniki Stadium and in the 52nd minute Honda made it 2-0 after beating the Spartak defense on a breakaway. Meanwhile, reigning champions Zenit St Petersburg stopped their six-match winless streak, beating Krasnodar 2-0 to go fourth in the table. Midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov put Zenit into the lead in the 69th minute, firing the ball home from a corner. In the 78th minute, midfielder Viktor Faizulin grabbed the second from Zyryanov’s cross.
NETHERLANDS
Twente beat AZ to go clear
Twente went three points clear at the top of the Dutch league on Sunday after a 3-0 victory over nine-man AZ. AZ, trailing to Belgium international Nacer Chadli’s goal on 20 minutes, had Jozy Altidore and Adam Maher dismissed within a minute early in the second half. The match flared up when the visitors were denied a penalty after a foul on Maher. Midfielder Maher was shown a straight red card for kicking a Twente player, then US international Altidore got his marching orders for dissent. Twente compounded AZ’s woes by adding to their lead through Dusan Tadic’s penalty and a Luc Castaignos strike. Steve McClaren’s side have 21 points after eight matches, three ahead of PSV Eindhoven, who cruised to a 4-0 home win over NAC Breda, with Jeremain Lens opening the scoring, before delivering three assists. Vitesse, who drew 3-3 with Heerenveen on Saturday, are third on 18 points, above Ajax, who slipped to fourth after being held to 1-1 draw by Utrecht. Ryan Babel finished a well-executed attack after six minutes to put Ajax ahead, but early in the second half Fabian Sporkslede headed into his own goal.
PORTUGAL
Porto win the Lisbon derby
Porto’s Jackson Martinez scored a superb back-heel goal that set up a deserved 2-0 home win over Lisbon rivals Sporting and sent the champions back to the top of the Portuguese Premier League on Sunday. Sporting, who sacked coach Ricardo Sa Pinto on Friday, never stood a chance against a confident Porto side. Martinez opened the scoring after 10 minutes, cushioning a long pass with his knee and, as he turned on goal, applying a neat back-heel that left goalkeeper Rui Patricio stranded. Lucho Gonzalez missed a penalty for Porto and Sporting had Marcos Rojo sent off, before James Rodriguez added a second from the penalty spot with seven minutes to go.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite