■ Cycling
Armstrong keeps pace
Lance Armstrong kept up with the pace in the third stage of the Tour of Murcia cycling race in Yelca, Spain on Friday, finishing among the pack in the same time as winner Max van Heeswijk of the Netherlands. Van Heeswijk, a US Postal Service teammate of Armstrong's, completed the 156km route which began and ended in this southeastern town in 3 hours, 32 minutes, 23 seconds, followed by German Erik Zabel of the T-Mobile team. Armstrong, preparing to win a sixth consecutive Tour of France title this year, stayed second in the overall standings, 29 seconds behind leader Jose Ivan Gutierrez of Spain. Armstrong's Tour de France rival Jan Ullrich of Germany also finished among the pack, and was 61st overall, 9:10 behind Gutierrez. Saturday's second-to-last stage is the toughest of the tour's five, a 169km route which includes three mountain climbs.
■ Diving
Huang, Richter on top
China's Qiang Huang won the men's 3m springboard and Austrian Anja Richter the women's 10m platform at a diving grand prix in Rostock, Germany on Friday. The Chinese swept four of the six podium places on the opening day of the three-day event, the second grand prix of the season. Qiang was awarded 493.50 points, followed by countryman Shauyun Tang with 464.18 and Germany's Andreas Wels at 432.60. Richter scored 355.56 and edged China's Dongjin Jia at 345.42 and Na Lin with 338.43. "We saw high-class finals with extreme difficult programs, especially from the Chinese," German coach Lutz Buschkow said.
■ Boxing
Phillips wastes no time
Verno Phillips stopped Julio Garcia with a second left in the first round of their junior middleweight bout at Pala Casino in Pala, California on Friday night. Phillips, who improved to 37-9-1 with his 19th knockout, floored Garcia twice before referee Jack Reiss halted the scheduled 12-round fight. Both fighters weighed in at 153 1/2 pounds. Phillips is ranked No. 3 in the world by the International Boxing Federation. Garcia is 25-3-2. In an earlier 10-round bout, Carlos Quintana of Puerto Rico stopped Edwin Cassiani of Miami in the third round. Quintana is 16-0 with 12 knockouts, and Cassiani is 26-4.
■ Baseball
Selig has zero tolerance
Commissioner Bud Selig hopes major league baseball can institute a zero-tolerance policy on steroid use similar to one that covers players with minor league contracts. Selig recently sent a directive to all 30 teams, telling them to decline comment on steroids and the federal grand jury that indicted the trainer of San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds. "There's been enough comment," he said. "We know what we have to do and we're going to do it." Selig, attending Anaheim's game against San Diego, sought to put baseball's focus back on the field. He said baseball could set an attendance mark this season, based on preseason ticket sales.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
In-form teenager Mirra Andreeva on Thursday crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, after going down in straight sets to fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last 16. World No. 7 Andreeva, who already has two titles under her belt this season, lost 6-3, 6-2 against the 22nd-ranked Alexandrova in just over an hour. The 17-year-old Andreeva had defeated her elder sister Erika in the previous round on Wednesday, but Alexandrova quickly took control as she claimed her fourth win over a top-10 player this season. The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva in February became the youngest winner of a WTA
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