■ Handball
Croatia beat Morocco
Two-time Olympic champion Croatia beat Morocco 35-22 in its opening game on Saturday at the handball World Championship. Croatia, the 2003 world champion, played without injured goalkeeper Vlado Sola and defender Davor Dominikovic, whose "A" sample tested positive for an unspecified banned substance after a game with his Spanish club Portland San Antonio. But Morocco was no match for the handball powerhouse in the Group F game in Stuttgart. In Magdeburg, Gudjon Sigurdsson scored 15 goals to pace Iceland's 45-20 rout of Australia in a Group B game. The Czech Republic got seven goals apiece from Jan Filip and Filip Jicha in a 37-23 win over Qatar in a Group D game in Bremen. Ahmed Al-Saad led Qatar, also with seven goals.
■ Motorsport
Sebastien Loeb leads
Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb held the lead of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally after Saturday's third leg. The Frenchman, the defending three-time world rally champion, finished on Saturday about 31 seconds ahead of Spain's Daniel Sordo, a fellow Citroen rider. Marcus Gronholm of Finland, a Ford driver, was more than 1 minute and 23 seconds back. Saturday's leg covered 460.23km, of which 128.72km were timed. The race began on Thursday and was to end yesterday. Loeb, 32, won last year's title despite missing the final four races after breaking his arm in a cycling accident. He is looking to equal the record set by Finland's Tommi Makinen, who won four straight overall titles from 1996-1999. Most of the Monte Carlo rally has been moved three hours away to Valence, after road closures along the usual course made access too difficult for competitors.
■ Athletics
Koskela, Friesinger lead
Pekka Koskela and Anni Friesinger took the lead at the halfway stage of the ISU world sprint speed skating championship in Norway's Hamar Olympic Hall on Saturday. Race favorite Koskela of Finland won the men's 500m sprint and finished seventh in the 1,000m. He was timed at 34.80 seconds and 1 minute, 9.03 seconds to score a total 69.315 points. South Korea's Lee Kyou-hyuk was in second place, just 0.08 points behind after coming in fourth in the 500 and second in the 1,000m. Dutch sprinter Erben Wennemars was third, with 0.22 points fewer than the winning Finn. Germany's double Olympic champion Friesinger edged her Dutch runner-up Ireen Wust by 0.63 points in the women's race with a total 75.980 points. She was fifth in the 500m and first in the 1,000m, clocking 38.42 and 1:15.12. Wust finished 14th in the 500m, but climbed up to second in the 1,000m, putting her ahead of third-place Chiara Simionato of Italy.
■ Motorsport
Sainz wins 14th stage
Carlos Sainz of Spain won the penultimate 14th stage of the Dakar Rally on Saturday, with the cross-continental race marred by the death of a French motorcyclist. Yamaha motorcyclist Eric Aubijoux had a heart attack, rally director Etienne Lavigne said. A statement issued by race organizers said Aubijoux, 42, had already completed Saturday's stage and was finishing an untimed section near Dakar. He stopped his bike "feeling faint" before collapsing, the statement said. The death was the second of this year's race. South African motorcyclist Elmer Symons, 29, died on Jan. 9 in a crash during the fourth stage from Er Rachidia to Ouarzazate in Morocco.
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
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
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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