■ Rowing
Oxford wins boat race
Sporting the heaviest crew in history, Oxford won Sunday's Boat Race on the Thames near London, easily beating Cambridge in the 6.8km classic through west London. Bigger and stronger, Oxford also showed better technique and led from the start. Cambridge leads the series 78-72. One race, in 1877, ended in a draw. Oxford has also won three of the last four. Oxford's eight-man crew averaged 98.5kg (217 pounds) at Tuesday's weigh-in. Cambridge averaged 88.6kg. Oxford beat the previous weight record -- set by Cambridge in 1998 -- by 3.2kg per man.
■ Curling
Sweden takes title
Sweden beat the US 10-4 to win the World Women's Curling Championship in Paisley, Scotland on Sunday. Cassie Johnson's US team was ahead 3-1 after six ends but the Swedes, led by Anette Norberg, took the lead for the first time with a triple on the seventh. The Americans pulled one back on the following end to draw level at 4-4, only for their opponents to score a double on the ninth for a 6-4 lead. The US looked upbeat going into the final end but Sweden scored four points, while the Americans remained scoreless in the decider to concede defeat.
■ Cycling
Britain wins madison
Germany's Rene Wolff won the men's match sprint and Britain took the men's madison as crashes marred the Track Cycling World Championships in Carson, California on Sunday. The duo of Mark Cavendish and Robert Hayes didn't earn a point in getting Britain's fourth title of the four-day competition at the ADT Event Center at Cal State-Dominguez Hills. But they finished one lap ahead of the field to claim the 200-lap, 50km madison in 55 minutes, 28.49 seconds. Second place went to the Netherlands and third to Belgium. Wolff, the 2003 world sprint bronze medalist, beat Mickael Bourgain of France in two straight rides in the best-of-three final. Jobie Dajka of Australia defeated France's Gregory Bauge, an earlier crash victim, also in two straight rides, to finish third.
■ Hockey
NHL files lawsuit
The NHL filed an unfair labor practice charge with the US National Labor Relations Board in New York, claiming that a players' association policy that would penalize members who became replacements is coercive and in violation of their rights. The league and the union have been unable to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement, and the lockout imposed by the NHL in September forced the cancellation of the entire top North American ice hockey season. If a new deal can't be reached in time for next season, the NHL said it would explore the use of replacement players. Union members currently receive between US$5,000 and US$10,000 per month during the lockout. "The practice of conditioning the receipt of work stoppage benefits on a player's agreement not to return to the NHL without a new CBA was coercive, and in violation of the player's rights under the labor laws," NHL chief legal officer Bill Daly said. The players' association denied the charges. "We are confident the NHL's actions and allegations are without merit," the union said in a statement.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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