■ Rugby Union
Smith to captain Australia
Flanker George Smith will captain Australia for the first time in their European tour opener against Neath-Swansea Ospreys in Swansea tomorrow. "Smithy will be captain. He's an experienced player. I think he deserves it and he's responded very well," Wallabies coach John Connolly told reporters in Cardiff. The 26-year-old ACT Brumbie has played 69 Tests and will be the 74th player to have captained the Australian national side. "It's the first time I've been captain in my professional career, so it's a great honor," Smith said. Australia play four Tests on their tour of Europe starting against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.
■ Soccer
Firefighter injured at match
A firefighter lost two fingers on Sunday when a homemade bomb exploded in his hand after he picked up the device, apparently thrown from the crowd at the Nice-Marseille French league game. "It was a homemade bomb," Nice security director Andre Bloch said. "The fire officer thought it was a flare. So, he picked it up to place it in a bucket of water ... and it exploded in his hand." Marseille fans were detained for two hours after the match while police with sniffer dogs conducted extensive searches. Each fan was asked to provide proof of identification. "It is a deplorable incident," Nice president Maurice Cohen said.
■ Soccer
President wants team KOed
The president of Serie A club Livorno says he hopes his team gets knocked out of the UEFA Cup soon so they can focus on their domestic campaign. After Sunday's disappointing goalless draw with Empoli, Livorno owner Aldo Spinelli questioned coach Daniele Arrigoni's decision not to play a weakened side in the UEFA Cup this season. "I don't want to criticize Arrigoni but the fact is that we don't have the strength to play in both the UEFA Cup and Serie A. I hope will be out of Europe soon," Spinelli told Italy's Sky Sport television.
■ Skiing
Bjorgen wins second sprint
Marit Bjorgen of Norway won her second sprint on Sunday at a cross-country skiing World Cup race in Germany. Bjorgen, who won the individual sprint on Saturday, combined with Ella Gjomle to win the women's 6x0.8km freestyle team sprint race for Norway in 10 minutes, 50.1 seconds. Bjorn Lind and Peter Larsson of Sweden captured the men's 6x1.5 event in 19:52.4. Organizers called the crowd of 350,000 for the World Cup season opener a record for the sport. Held in the city center instead of the woods, the artificial snow track for the event was built along a river bank.
■ Running
Ongeri wins in Detroit
Kenya's Josephat Ongeri won the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon on Sunday, beating last year's champion Andrei Gordeev of Belarus by four seconds. Ongeri, the 26-year-old runner who was not on the organizers' invitation list and paid his own way to Detroit, finished in 2 hours, 18 minutes, 22 seconds. He earned US$5,000 for his first career victory after finishing second in three previous marathons. Elena Orlova, a 36-year-old Russian who lives in the US, took the women's race for the second time in three years, finishing in 2:41:26.
■ Running
Man dies in Corps marathon
An unidentified man collapsed more than halfway through the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington and died on Sunday and another runner had a heart attack near the starting line. The race featured 32,118 runners and was won by Ruben Garcia, a corporal in the Mexican Navy, and US runner Laura Thompson. The man who died collapsed before reaching the 27km mark near the 14th Street Bridge and was airlifted by helicopter to Washington Hospital Center, race spokesman Beth Cline said. It appears he had a heart attack, District of Columbia Police spokesman Sergeant Joe Gentile said.
■ Golf
Thorpe wins in Sonoma
Jim Thorpe won the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Sonoma, California, with supremely steady play down the stretch on Sunday. And Loren Roberts lost US$500,000 by missing one short putt. Thorpe rallied in the final holes to stay on top of a tight field with a 4-under 68 in the US Champions Tour's season-ending event, cruising to a two-stroke victory over Tom Kite and his second win at Sonoma Golf Club in four years. But Roberts, Thorpe's playing partner, provided the real drama when he missed a four-and-a-half-foot putt on the tournament's final hole.
■ Basketball
US to host Olympic qualifier
The US team learned on Sunday that it can qualify for the 2008 Olympics without leaving home when FIBA Americas announced that next summer's qualifying tournament would be staged in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the US team holds its training camp. Las Vegas edged San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the right to host the FIBA Americas tournament, which will run from Aug. 22 until Sept. 2 next year. The top two teams in the 10-team field will earn berths for the Beijing Olympics. The tournament was originally awarded to Venezuela, but FIBA Americas reopened the bidding when the Venezuelans missed their payment deadline.
■ Xterra Triathlon
Kiwi wins championship
Hamish Carter of New Zealand won the Xterra World Championship in Maui, Hawaii, finishing the 42.5km off-road triathlon he called "the meanest and most brutal" in 2 hours, 42 minutes and 36 seconds on Sunday. "It was really tough, a lot tougher than I thought," said the 35-year-old from Auckland, winner of the 2004 Olympic triathlon gold medal. "At one point during the run I didn't even know if I could finish." Carter, who rode the last mile of the bike stage with a flat, was the fourth person to start the run and caught Olivier Marceau of France a mile before the finish. Marceau came in second in 2:42:55. Melanie McQuaid of Canada won her second consecutive and third overall women's title in 3:07:53.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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