■GOLF
Daly’s wife denies theft
An attorney for John Daly’s estranged wife, Sherrie Daly, says she did not steal the pro golfer’s cellphone. Randy Fishman said on Monday that “this is a divorce case and people accuse each other of stuff all the time.” Sherrie Daly was freed on a US$500 bond on Friday after being accused of stealing the phone from the golfer’s tour bus in June. The bus was parked behind the John Daly Bar & Grill in the north Mississippi city of Olive Branch. Fishman says he expects nothing to come of the misdemeanor charge of petit larceny. A court date is set for Thursday next week. Sherrie Daly lives in Germantown, Tennessee.
■GOLF
Host Woods announces field
Tournament host Tiger Woods has announced a strong field featuring five of the world’s top 10 players for the year-ending Chevron World Challenge. The 16-man line-up includes Fiji’s Vijay Singh (ranked third), British Open and PGA champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland (fourth), Americans Anthony Kim (sixth) and Jim Furyk (10th) and Colombian Camilo Villegas (seventh). World No. 1 Woods, however, will be a conspicuous absentee from the field, having shut down his 2008 campaign in mid-June after winning the US Open to have reconstructive knee surgery. The US$5.75 million event will be held at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California from Dec. 18-21.
■BASKETBALL
Nolan leads Detroit to finals
Deanna Nolan scored 21 points and Taj McWilliams-Franklin added 19 to help the Detroit Shock reach the WNBA finals for the third straight season with a 75-73 win over the New York Liberty on Monday. The Shock won the best-of-three Eastern Conference finals and advanced to play the San Antonio Silver Stars for the championship. Detroit beat Sacramento in 2006 for its second league title, then lost in five games to Phoenix last year. On Monday, the Shock led by 20 in the first half, but had to fight off the deeper Liberty in the second half. Sixth woman Plenette Pierson, who played well in Sunday’s Game 2 just seven days after dislocating her shoulder, was limited to two points in six minutes.
■FIELD HOCKEY
Charlesworth named coach
Olympic champion Ric Charlesworth was appointed coach of the Australian men’s hockey team yesterday, two months after quitting as India’s technical director. Charlesworth, a former Australia captain who guided his country’s women’s team to gold medals at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, will take over from Barry Dancer, who resigned after the Beijing games. A spate of retirements since Beijing will leave Charlesworth with the task of rebuilding the Australian men’s team, which has gradually slipped from world field hockey supremacy. “The team changes all the time and the team which played in Beijing will never play together again,” Charlesworth said.
■TENNIS
Serena would take Porsche
Serena Williams would happily forego the US$100,000 prize money that goes to the winner of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart. She’d much rather drive off in the bright red convertible parked courtside. The tournament gives the winner a choice — either a cash prize or a low-slung Porsche 911 sports car. Williams has no doubts about which she’d prefer. “I’ve been trying for so long to win the Porsche, it’s about time to take that 911 home,” Williams said.
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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