BASKETBALL
Belinelli wins NBA contest
The San Antonio Spurs’ Marco Belinelli won the NBA All-Star three-point contest on Saturday. The Italian needed to win a tiebreaker round in the final to beat the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal. Beal had made his final six shots to tie Belinelli’s final-round score of 19. The Italian then racked up an event-high score of 24 for the win. There were four shooters from the Eastern and Western conferences. Belinelli had a score of 19 to win the West, beating Damian Lillard’s 18. Beal had a score of 21 to win the East, easily eclipsing defending champ Kyrie Irving’s total of 16. Earlier, the tandem of Portland’s Damian Lillard and Utah’s Trey Burke won the skills challenge, while Team Bosh — consisting of Miami’s Chris Bosh, former NBA star Dominique Wilkins and WNBA player Swin Cash — won the shooting stars event.
GOLF
McGirt in first at Riviera
William McGirt’s red-hot start at the Riviera Country Club on Saturday saw the American seize the lead in the Northern Trust Open, where he was to vie for his first US PGA Tour title yesterday. The 34-year-old birdied the first three holes and five of his first six, finishing with eight birdies in his six-under-par 65 for a 12-under-par total of 201. McGirt had a two-stroke lead over George McNeill and Charlie Beljan in the US$6.7 million event. McNeill posted a third-round 66 and Beljan posted a 68 for a 203 total. A stroke back was Brian Harman, whose 68 included an eagle at the first, and Jason Allred, a Monday qualifier who followed a second-round 64 with a 67 to stay in the hunt at 204. The lesser-known names on the leaderboard had a bevy of big names well within striking distance in a group of seven players on eight-under 205. They included former Masters champions Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel, rising US star Jordan Spieth, eight-time US Tour winner Dustin Johnson and early-season sensation Jimmy Walker.
GOLF
Grillo takes Africa Open lead
Argentine Emiliano Grillo fired a third-round 62 on Saturday to take a two-shot lead after three rounds at the Africa Open. The Florida-based golfer leads from Englishman Oliver Fisher (66), with South African Thomas Aiken (66), Richard Bland (64) of England and American John Hahn (71) two shots further back. Grillo, 21, is the third leader of the European Tour-Sunshine Tour cosanctioned event in as many days at the par-71 East London Golf Club in South Africa, after Ricardo Santos of Portugal and Hahn. Santos slumped to a third-round 73 and lies eight shots adrift of the lead. Defending champion Darren Fichardt of South Africa also has considerable catching up to do, with a second successive 67 leaving him seven strokes behind Grillo.
ATHLETICS
Lavillenie sets pole record
Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie of France set a pole vault indoor world record by clearing 6.16m at a meet in Donetsk, the Ukraine, on Saturday. “World Record ! 6.16 at my first attempt ! That’s incredible, I’m still in the air,” Lavillenie wrote on Twitter after the French Athletics Federation flagged the new record. The previous mark of 6.15 was set by Sergei Bubka at the same event in 1993. Six-time outdoor world champion and 1998 Olympic gold medalist Bubka still holds the outdoor world record of 6.14m. The 27-year-old Lavillenie became the second-highest man in history two weeks ago with a 6.08m effort. On Saturday — in full view of Bubka — he was on the brink of a disappointment after two failures at 6.01m, but eventually succeeded.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but