■ 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.
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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