■SOCCER
Alkmaar fight back to win
AZ Alkmaar moved closer to their first Dutch league title in nearly 30 years on Saturday by beating ADO The Hague 4-1. Alkmaar need just five more points in the last five games to secure the championship after second-place FC Twente lost ground by drawing 1-1 at NEC Nijmegen on Friday. ADO The Hague took a surprise lead in the 40th minute when Christiaan Kum headed in Richard Knopper’s free kick, before the hosts rallied in the second half. Moussa Dembele equalized in the 50th before Maarten Martens put AZ ahead in the 61st. Mounir El Hamdaoui added the third in the 79th from a cross by Nick van der Velden. El Hamdaoui then returned the favor by setting up Van der Velden for his first career league goal in the 83rd. AZ, led by veteran coach Louis van Gaal, have 73 points to lead Twente by 11. Elsewhere, Evgeniy Levchenko scored in stoppage time to give FC Groningen a 1-0 win over FC Utrecht. Heerenveen drew 1-1 with Heracles Almelo and PSV beat Sparta Rotterdam 2-0.
■SOCCER
Porto lead by seven points
A second-half rally saw FC Porto beat Guimaraes 3-1 to open up a seven-point lead atop the Portuguese league on Saturday. Roberto Felix fired Guimaraes ahead in the 19th minute but the Portuguese champions battled back after the break with Ernesto Farias drawing the visitors level with a 52nd-minute header. Mariano Gonzalez scored six minutes later before Rolando sealed Porto’s victory in the 88th.
■CRICKET
Kenya defeat Afghanistan
Kenya halted the victory roll of giant-killers Afghanistan on Saturday with a 107-run win in the 2011 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. The east Africans compiled a daunting 282-5 in their alloted 50 overs with Kennedy Obuya hitting an undefeated 109 in Potchefstroom. Facing their first major test of the final qualifying tournament for the World Cup, Afghanistan surrendered five wickets for 62 runs and were all out for 175 after 47 overs.
■HORSE RACING
Rank outsider wins National
Liam Treadwell rode 100-1 shot Mon Mome to a 12-length victory in the Grand National on Saturday.
The nine-year-old horse equaled Foinavon in 1967 as the biggest-priced winner in the 7.2km, 30-fence slog around Aintree. In a race delayed by two false starts, the outsider stretched away from his rivals after jumping the last of the fences. Comply or Die, last year’s winner, was second in the 162nd running of the world’s most famous steeplechase. The race was marred by a death, as Hear The Echo collapsed and died just a few hundred meters from the winning post. He was the fifth horse to die this year in the three-day meeting.
■SUPERBIKES
Rider dies in Tasmania
A motorcycle rider was killed yesterday and another injured during a race at an Australian Superbikes meet, emergency and race officials said. The accident occurred at Symmons Plains Raceway near Launceston on the island state of Tasmania during the second round of the domestic Superbikes championships. Racing was stopped for the day following the fatal crash, which involved two motorcycles hitting a fallen rider. Tasmania Police confirmed a 29-year-old had died in the incident. His name was not immediately released. “That part of the track is quite challenging as you’re trying to get hard on the throttle for the run down the straight,” said reigning Australian Superbike champion Glenn Allerton.
■BASKETBALL
N Carolina to face Michigan
Ty Lawson scored 22 points and Wayne Ellington had 20 more as North Carolina eased to an 83-69 win over Villanova on Saturday and into a national title game against Michigan State. Tyler Hansbrough had 18 points and 11 rebounds to mark a successful return to the Final Four after a remarkable dud last year in a semi-final loss to Kansas. North Carolina go for their second title in five years today when they meet Michigan State, 82-73 winners over Connecticut. It’s Michigan State’s first appearance in the title game since 2000, when the Spartans won their second title. The loss is the latest blow for Connecticut, the best team in the country until Jerome Dyson went down with a knee injury in February.
■BOXING
Bradley wins unification bout
Timothy Bradley got up from a first-round knockdown to score a unanimous decision over fellow American Kendall Holt and unify two titles in the light welterweight division early yesterday morning. Bradley (24-0) added Holt’s WBO title to his own WBC belt in the unification bout between the two Americans. Holt dropped to 25-3. The stocky Bradley was the aggressor throughout the 12-round fight. Holt caught Bradley with a right during a first-round flurry and sent him to the canvas, but the Palm Springs, California, fighter shook it off and won the next two rounds, attacking the body at every chance. By the seventh, he had taken control.
■BOXING
Valero claims vacant title
Venezuelan knockout artist Edwin Valero remained unbeaten on Saturday as he stopped Colombian Antonio Pitalua to claim the vacant WBC lightweight title. With the technical knockout, Valero, a southpaw, notched his 25th win inside the distance in 25 professional fights. The 27-year-old sent Colombia’s Pitalua to the canvas with a short right early in the second and moments later put him down again with a combination. Pitalua regained his feet, but Valero was punishing him again when referee Laurence Cole called a halt after 49 seconds of the second round. “This is the beginning of big things,” Valero said. “No man can take my punch.”
■BOXING
Povetkin defeats Estrada
Russia’s Alexander Povetkin warmed-up for his IBF world heavyweight title fight against champion Wladimir Klitschko with a unanimous points win over Jason Estrada of the US on Saturday. “The fight went well in principle and after my time away from the ring with injury, this was good preparation,” Povetkin said. “I want to beat Klitschko and I want to be world champion — that is my dream.” The 29-year-old from Moscow was scheduled to face IBF and WBO champion Klitschko in December last year, but a twisted ankle in training forced him to postpone the showdown. Povetkin remains the IBF mandatory challenger and all three judges awarded him the win against Estrada, who struggled to contain the hard-hitting Russian.
■ICE HOCKEY
US, Canada win openers
Julie Chu and Hilary Knight scored three goals each as defending champions the US routed Japan 8-0 on Saturday in their opening game of the women’s World Hockey Championship. The Americans outshot Japan 74-8. Japan didn’t manage a single shot in the first period, as the US took a 4-0 lead after accumulating 29 shots. In Group B, Canada crushed China 13-1. Rebecca Johnston, Hayley Wickenheiser, Gillian Apps and Sarah Vaillancourt led the scoring with two apiece.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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