■SOCCER
Grenoble, Rennes in semis
Grenoble qualified for the French Cup semi-finals for the first time in their history after a comfortable 2-0 home win over Monaco on Wednesday. Grenoble took a 13th-minute lead through 31-year-old striker Daniel Moreira. Another old hand, 34-year-old Nassim Akrour, killed off Monaco’s hopes with a goal in the ninth minute of the second half. Later on Wednesday, Rennes ended third-division Rodez’s hopes of progressing further as they ran out 2-0 winners over the side that eliminated Paris Saint-Germain in the previous round.
■GOLF
Wu leads by a shot
Wu Weihuang made the most of local knowledge yesterday to shoot a six-under 66 for a one-stroke lead in the first round of the Dell Championship in Xiamen, the opening event of the Omega China Tour’s fifth season. Kunming-based Chen Jian surprised even himself with a 67, while Asian Tour star Alex Wu Ashun posted a 69 to share third with Omega Championship winner Zhou Jun, Wang Xu and James Su Dong, 19, and South Korea’s Eom Jae-woong, 18. Taiwan’s Lu Wen-teh Lin and Lin Keng-chi, the latter making his Tour debut, both shot 70 to finish tied eighth with Kong Weihai and 23-year-old American C.J. Gatto.
■CYCLING
Armstrong has bad hair day
Lance Armstrong literally had a bad hair day. A French anti-doping inspector armed with a pair of scissors this week took six clumps of the former Tour de France champion’s hair that will now be tested for signs of drug use. Armstrong says his hair was so “butchered” by the test that he had to get a buzz-cut afterward to hide the mess. In France, hair tests are now being used to hunt down the use of banned substances in sports. When anti-doping authorities say they want the scalps of cheats, they mean it. The sample-collector “flew down from Paris, he was a French doctor, couldn’t have been nicer. He was a total gentleman,” Armstrong said by phone on Wednesday. But “he didn’t make my hair look very good, that’s why I cut it after that, after he butchered it,” Armstrong said.
■SLED DOG RACING
Mackey wins three in a row
Lance Mackey cruised to victory in the 1,774km Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Wednesday, winning Alaska’s most popular sporting event for the third consecutive year. Mackey crossed the finish line, an arch erected on Front Street in the Bering Sea town of Nome, just before noon with 15 dogs pulling his sled. He finished the race across Alaska’s wilderness in nine days, 21 hours, 38 minutes and 46 seconds. For his victory, Mackey gets US$69,000 in prize money and a new truck. He also claims a spot in Iditarod history, becoming the third musher after the late Susan Butcher and Montanan Doug Swingley to win three races in a row.
■BASKETBALL
NBA teams to play in Taipei
Two NBA teams will visit Taiwan and China in October to play warm-up games before the start of the NBA season, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday. The Denver Nuggets and the Indiana Pacers will play a pre-season game on Oct. 8 at the Taipei Arena. Taiwan’s basketball association will announce details of the game next month, the newspaper quoted an unnamed sports official as saying. The two teams will send a total of 30 players, including Denver forward Carmelo Anthony and Indiana forward Danny Granger.
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
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
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
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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