■ CRICKET
Marcus Trescothick retires
Marcus Trescothick retired from international cricket on Saturday, the England batsman's county Somerset announced. His decision followed a recent withdrawal from the county's pre-season tour of the United Arab Emirates after he suffered a recurrence of the stress-related illness which cut short his England career. "I have tried on numerous occasions to make it back to the international stage and it has proved a lot more difficult than I expected," Trescothick, a veteran of 76 Tests and 123 one-day internationals, said in a statement issued by Somerset.
■ SWIMMING
Rice, Edington set records
The first two nights at the Australian swimming championships and Olympic trials produced two world records. Stephanie Rice broke the world mark in the 400m individual medley on Saturday, finishing in a time of 4 minutes, 31.46 seconds. That took 1.43 seconds off American Katie Hoff's mark of 4 minutes, 32.89 seconds set on April 1 last year at the world championships in Melbourne. Yesterday Sophie Edington broke a day-old world record in the women's 50m backstroke. Edington finished in 27.67 seconds to break the mark of 27.95 seconds set by her Australian teammate Emily Seebohn in the semi-finals on Saturday.
■ BOXING
Casamayor stops Katsidis
Cuba's Joel Casamayor stopped previously unbeaten Australian Michael Katsidis 30 seconds into the 10th round in California on Saturday to win an interim world lightweight title. Southpaw Casamayor knocked down the Aussie twice in the first round and flattened him again early in the 10th round. Seconds later, referee Jon Schorle halted the fight. Casamayor, who owns the World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization interim lightweight titles, improved to 36-3 with one drawn after his 22nd stoppage inside the distance. Katsidis fell to 23-1.
■ SWIMMING
Bernard sets record again
Alain Bernard broke the 100m freestyle world record for the second time in two days on Saturday, setting a new mark of 47.50 seconds in the final at the European swimming championships. The 24-year-old Frenchman took one-tenth of a second off his record of 47.60 seconds recorded in Friday's semi-finals, which shattered Pieter Van den Hoogenband's mark set at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. "It's unbelievable," Bernard said. "I wanted to be faster today." Bernard was relatively unknown before these championships. He finished ninth in the 100m freestyle at last year's world championships and seventh in the 2006 Europeans. Now, he has emerged as one of the favorites at the Beijing Olympics in August.
■ BOXING
Kotelnik takes Rees' title
Hard-hitting Ukrainian Andreas Kotelnik dethroned Gavin Rees as the World Boxing Association light-welterweight world champion with a last round stoppage of the Welshman in Cardiff on Saturday. Rees produced one of the boxing upsets of last year when he took the title from Soulyemane M'Baye. But from the third round on, when his nose started to bleed, Rees started to be picked off by Kotelnik. And the challenger finished the bout 30 seconds from the end of the last round when he dropped Rees with a powerful right hand.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
THRILLER: Raphinha gave Barca a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining of regular time, but Francesco Acerbi equalized the game in the second minute of added time Davide Frattesi on Tuesday fired Inter into the UEFA Champions League final with an extra-time winner that gave the Italians a stunning 4-3 triumph over Barcelona, 7-6 on aggregate. Italy midfielder Frattesi won a tie for the ages under a downpour in Milan when he lashed home in the 99th minute, sending a packed and rocking San Siro wild with joy. Simone Inzaghi’s team will face either Arsenal or Paris Saint-Germain at the end of this month in Munich, Germany, where they would feel they have a great chance to be crowned kings of Europe for a fourth time after
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