■ 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.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
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