CYCLING
Quintana wins Tirreno stage
Movistar’s Colombian rider Nairo Quintana won the snowbound fifth stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico on Sunday. The Colombian, last year’s Giro d’Italia winner and 2013 Tour de France runner-up, finished the 197km stage between Esanatoglia and Terminillo 41 seconds ahead of the chasing peloton to take the race leader’s blue jersey from overnight pace-setter Wouter Poels of the Netherlands. Crossing in second was Bauke Mollema, who came in ahead of a group including race favorites Joaquin Rodriguez, Rigoberto Uran and Alberto Contador. Quintana made a decisive move on the final climb of the day, among those left trailing in his wake the man who won last year’s Tour de France, Vincenzo Nibali. Quintana leads the overall standings by 39 seconds from Mollema, with Uran at 48 seconds and France’s Thibault Pinot in fourth. Poels, successful in Saturday’s fourth stage, folded on the day’s last climb to slip back to tenth in the overall standings at 1 minute and 13 seconds.
SOCCER
Villa leads NYC to 2-0 win
Spanish striker David Villa scored one goal and set up another to help New York City beat a 10-man New England Revolution 2-0 on Sunday in their Major League Soccer home debut at Yankee Stadium. Villa dribbled the ball up the left side of the field in the 19th minute and touched it to Ned Grabavoy, who fed it ahead. Villa split two defenders and chipped the ball inside the far post. Patrick Mullins made it 2-0 in the 84th minute after Villa used some nifty footwork to create space and sent a cross to an open Mullins at the far post. Jose Goncalves was shown a red card in the 66th minute after a hard tackle on Khiry Shelton just outside the area. In Portland, Oregon, Alan Gordon scored the equalizer in stoppage time to give the Los Angeles Galaxy a 2-2 draw with the Timbers. Fanendo Adi scored twice for Portland, the second in the 90th minutes. Gyasi Zardes scored in the 65th minute to level it at 1-1 for the Galaxy.
SOCCER
Ibrahimovic facing penalty
Paris Saint-Germain’s star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is facing a suspension after losing his temper following the champions’ 3-2 loss against Girondins de Bordeaux in the French league on Sunday. Speaking in English, Ibrahimovic said “in 15 years I’ve never seen a referee” like Lionel Jaffredo in Sunday’s game. He then used an expletive to describe France as he walked past reporters after the game. The Swedish forward later said he was sorry, after the French sports ministry asked him to apologize for the comments, which were caught on camera and then shown widely on social media. The Sweden forward scored twice in Sunday’s match, but could not prevent his team from slumping to its third league defeat this season.
SKIING
Kearney wins double globes
Hannah Kearney, the world’s most consistent moguls skier for the past decade, closed her World Cup career on Sunday with a victory in a dual moguls contest in France, giving her 46 wins to tie US skier Donna Weinbrecht’s 18-year-old record for most career moguls victories. The 29-year-old Kearney, who plans to retire after US championships this month, also won the season title in both moguls and the overall freestyle race. She now has 10 crystal globes — six for moguls and four for the overall title — over a World Cup career that has spanned 13 seasons. Kearney won the Olympic gold medal in 2010, but settled for bronze last year.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
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