BASKETBALL
Cousins out for season
New Orleans Pelicans forward LaMarcus Cousins, set for a starting appearance in the NBA All-Star Game next month, is to miss the remainder of the season, the club announced on Saturday. Cousins is to undergo surgery to repair a ruptured left Achilles tendon suffered when he was going for a rebound late in the Pelicans’ 115-113 victory over Houston on Friday. Cousins’ spot on the LeBron James All-Star roster is to be taken by Oklahoma City’s Paul George, but it will be James who decides which player replaces Cousins as a starter. Cousins is averaging 25.2 points and 1.6 blocked shots a game, as well as career highs of 12.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists a game. He ranked third in the league in rebounds and eighth in scoring.
CYCLING
Local rider wins ocean race
Jay McCarthy yesterday became the first local rider to win the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong, Australia, battling through extreme heat to finish in a sprint ahead of Italian Elia Viviani. McCarthy took the fourth edition of the 164km race in 4 hours, 4 minutes. Viviani and South Africa’s Daryl Impey were in second and third place respectively with the same time. McCarthy, 25, said he was speechless at finishing his last race in Australia with a win before heading back to Europe. He had talked up his chances of a win before the race as teammate and three-time world cycling champion Peter Sagan had left Australia after the Tour Down Under. The riders endured searing heat conditions that saw the mercury soar above 40°C. Race commentators said road surface temperatures rose to 50°C.
GOLF
Hsu in third in Bahamas
Canada’s Brooke Henderson on Saturday battled another day of windy conditions to finish her second round five-under-par overall and with a one-stroke lead at the season-opening Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic. Strong winds, which have already forced organizers to cut the competition from 72 to 54 holes, delayed the start of play at the Paradise Island Ocean Golf Club before the second round was suspended due to darkness. On the last shot of the day, Feng Shanshan sank a putt on the par-five 18th for birdie to give her sole possession of second place with nine holes of her second round left to play yesterday. Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling shot a 69 to gain a share of a five-way tie for third place that includes Americans Lexi Thompson, Danielle Kang and Ryann O’Toole, as well as rookie Luna Sobron Galmes of Spain.
CRICKET
Pakistan downs NZ by 18
Pakistan yesterday beat New Zealand by 18 runs in the series-deciding Twenty20 match at Mount Maunganui. The victory gave Pakistan a come-from-behind 2-1 series win that will see them overtake New Zealand at the top of the world rankings. Pakistan made 181-6 batting first with Fakhar Zaman making 46, while Umar Amin clipped 21 off seven deliveries. New Zealand were 163-6 after their 20 overs with Martin Guptill making 59. The consecutive defeats, following an 13-match winning streak across all formats against the West Indies and Pakistan, put a dampener on New Zealand’s preparation for next month’s triangular series with Australia and England.
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
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