■ BASEBALL
Tickets sold out in Japan
Tickets for Major League Baseball's season-opening series between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics in Japan have been sold out, organizers said yesterday. Tickets for the March 25 and March 26 games at the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome went on sale on Feb. 9 and sold out in less than two weeks. Organizers said some tickets remain for the preseason games the Red Sox and Athletics will play against the Yomiuri Giants and the Hanshin Tigers on March 22 and March 23. Boston and Oakland will be the third set of teams to open the regular season at the Tokyo Dome, following the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs (2000), and the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay (2004). A scheduled 2003 series between Oakland and Seattle at the Tokyo Dome was canceled because of the threat of war in Iraq.
■ ATHLETICS
Isinbayeva loses meet
Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva lost at an indoor track meet in Bydgoszcz, Poland, on Wednesday, only four days after setting her 21st world record. The Russian cleared 4.61m at the Pedro's Cup meet to finish in a tie for second. Former record holder Svetlana Feofanova won the event with a vault of 4.71m. On Saturday, Isinbayeva cleared 4.95m at the Pole Vault Stars meet in Donetsk, Ukraine, to set her 10th indoor world record. After her most successful season in 2005, when she set four indoor and five outdoor world records, Isinbayeva switched to a new coach. She made 14 attempts last season to improve her 5.01m world outdoor record set at the world championships in Helsinki, Finland, in 2005. But despite the record drought, Isinbayeva still shared the US$1 million jackpot with 400m runner Sanya Richards by winning every Golden League meet last year.
■ HANDBALL
Hearing set for next month
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) plans to hold a hearing next month in Lausanne, Switzerland, to resolve the Asian Olympic handball qualifying dispute. CAS said on Wednesday that the Asian Handball Federation and the national associations of Kazakhstan and Kuwait filed a request for arbitration against the International Handball Federation (IHF) and asked for the case to be heard the week of March 10. The Asian federation has challenged a decision by the IHF, the sport's governing body, to order replays of Asian Olympic qualifying matches following questionable referee decisions. The qualifiers for the Beijing Olympics were initially held in September, when referees from Jordan and Iran were brought in at the last minute by the Asian federation to replace German referees.
■ SOCCER
Police detain former star
Former England midfielder Paul Gascoigne was being treated for mental health problems yesterday, a day after being detained by police. Northumbria Police said it received a report of concern for a 40-year-old man staying at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead on Wednesday night. "The man has been detained under the Mental Health Act," Northumbria Police said in a statement. The individual was not named but all major British news organizations reported the man was Gascoigne. Under the Mental Health Act, police can take a person from a public place to a "place of safety" -- a police station or hospital -- if they are "suffering from mental disorder" and "in immediate need of care or control.
The US’ bid for a fourth consecutive CONCACAF Nations League title came to a stunning end as they fell 1-0 to Panama after a stoppage-time goal from Cecilio Waterman on Thursday in Inglewood, California. Despite dominating possession, the US struggled to break down a resilient Panama side for long periods. Panama spent the bulk of the match defending, but pounced on a giveaway by the US before substitute forward Waterman sent a shot from the right side of the area to the bottom left corner late in stoppage time. Up next for Panama in tomorrow’s final is to be Mexico, who beat
DOMINATION: McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris took the first two spots as Mercedes’ George Russell and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen followed them Australian Oscar Piastri yesterday roared back from season-opening disappointment in his home race by winning the Formula One Chinese Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two with championship-leading teammate Lando Norris. George Russell finished third for Mercedes, ahead of Red Bull’s reigning champion Max Verstappen with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Saturday’s sprint winner Lewis Hamilton fifth and sixth respectively. Piastri’s win denied Norris a third victory in a row, including last year’s Abu Dhabi season-ender, but left champions McLaren unbeaten in two races so far this year. “Mega job guys. The car was very, very lovely,” Piastri said
TO FINAL FOUR: France had 22 chances and scored two goals, while Croatia could not manage a single shot on target in 120 minutes. Les Bleus won 5-4 on penalties France on Sunday overturned a two-goal deficit to qualify for the UEFA Nations League Final Four by eliminating Croatia 5-4 on penalties after a 2-0 victory in their quarter-final second leg at the Stade de France. Dayot Upamecano scored the winning spot kick in a nail-biting shootout in which France keeper Mike Maignan made two saves, sending Les Bleus into the semi-finals against Spain. Michael Olise opened the scoring and Ousmane Dembele doubled their lead 10 minutes from time to send the tie into extra time after their 2-0 loss in Split, Croatia, on Thursday. France had a total of
Armand Duplantis will be among the reigning Olympic champions adding star power to the world indoor championships this weekend when the Chinese city of Nanjing hosts the first major global athletics meet since the Paris Games last year. The three-day event was originally slated for 2020 and faced multiple postponements due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Nanjing’s Sports Training Center would finally welcome more than 570 athletes for the start of the showpiece today. One of the main attractions would be pole vaulter “Mondo” Duplantis, who soared 6.27m to break the world record for a staggering 11th time in Clermont-Ferrand last
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