■ 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.
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
Roger Federer on Wednesday said that staying involved with tennis in retirement helped him avoid feeling “like an alien” ahead of this week’s Laver Cup in Berlin. Federer, who helped create the tournament, retired at the Laver Cup in London two years ago and has since stayed involved with the competition as an ambassador. “I’m happy I went back right away to some tournaments,” the 43-year-old told reporters. “I feel I ripped the Band-Aid off quite quickly and when I walk around the tennis sites I still feel I belong there,” he said. “I don’t feel like an alien, which is a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
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