CRICKET
New Zealand women dominate
New Zealand women on Sunday overpowered their Irish counterparts by once more piling up a total in excess of 400 for another win by more than 300 runs in the second of three one-day internationals in Dublin. Friday saw New Zealand post a mammoth 490 for four, a record total in both men’s and women’s one-day internationals, in a match they won by a colossal 346 runs. New Zealand’s Sophie Devine on Sunday completed a 59-ball hundred on the way to 108 after her captain, Suzie Bates, made 151 two days earlier. On Sunday, New Zealand, long one of the leading teams in international women’s cricket, posted a total of 418 and then saw minnows Ireland collapse to 112 all out as the tourists won by 306 runs.
GOLF
Finn wins event on 146th try
Journeyman Mikko Korhonen on Sunday cruised to his first European Tour victory at the 146th attempt when he posted a final-day 69 to win the Shot Clock Masters in Austria. The 37-year-old Finn, who made his Tour debut in 2010 and has been to the qualifying school 12 times, overcame two weather delays to finish on 16-under-par, six shots ahead of Scotland’s Connor Syme at Diamond Country Club. Korhonen held a five-shot overnight advantage and always looked in control as he posted five birdies in his three-under-par final round. The experimental tournament saw players being timed on every shot, allowed either 40 or 50 seconds, in an attempt to speed up play.
CYCLING
Thomas wins Criterium
Team Sky rider Geraint Thomas on Sunday won the Criterium du Dauphine ahead of Adam Yates, who claimed victory on the final stage in the French Alps. Yates finished the punishing 136km ride from Moutiers to Saint-Gervais four seconds ahead of Spaniard Daniel Navarro, with Frenchman Romain Bardet in third place, nine seconds behind the stage winner. Thomas, who had two punctures, ended the stage in fifth place, but the Welshman stayed one minute ahead of Yates in the general classification of what is the final warm-up race for the Tour de France. “I can rest a little bit now and wait for July. This is a confidence booster for the Tour,” Thomas was quoted as saying by the BBC.
WORLD CUP
Russia recruits volunteers
She is not a big fan of soccer, but Viktoria is ready to spend a month of her time helping visitors attending the World Cup in Russia. “Of course the World Cup is an enormous, important event, but for me personally it is more about helping people. That’s the reason I became a volunteer,” economics student Viktoria Astanina said. The 22-year-old and her friends are among the 3,500 volunteers recruited in St Petersburg alone for the June 14 to July 15 tournament. The numbers swell to more than 15,000 across the 11 Russian cities hosting matches at soccer’s showpiece event. Volunteers will help visitors find their way around and be stationed at airports, train stations and main tourist spots. A native of the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, Viktoria is to be a team leader at the fan zone in Saint Petersburg. The smiling, helpful volunteers were well appreciated by visitors to the Confederations Cup last year, which served as a trial run for the much larger World Cup.
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