■BOXING
Gamboa grabs interim title
Undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa of Cuba captured the interim WBA featherweight championship, stopping Venezuela’s Jose Rojas in the 10th round of a bout scheduled for 12 in Primm, Nevada, on Friday. Gamboa, now 15-0 with 13 KOs, pinned Rojas in a corner and was pummeling him when referee Jay Nady halted the one-sided bout at 1:31 of the 10th round. Gamboa, the WBA’s No. 1 contender, had a lump under his left eye, while Rojas, rated No. 2, had a large lump under his right eye. Rojas now has a record of 25-7-1 with 17 KOs. In another fight, unbeaten Selcuk Aydin of Germany took a 12-round, split decision over Said Ouali of Las Vegas for the World Boxing Council International welterweight title.
■GOLF
Todd aces same hole twice
Brendon Todd of the US became the first player on the Nationwide Tour to ace the same hole twice in one tournament, achieving the remarkable feat in Athens, Georgia, on Friday. Todd holed out with an eight-iron at the 147-yard, par-three 17th in the second round of the Athens Regional Foundation Classic. “It’s still hard to believe,” he told reporters after carding a one-under 71 in the US$550,000 event on the PGA Tour’s satellite circuit. “It’s a bit surreal,” he said. “I guess it’s like catching lightning in a bottle.”
■GOLF
No Cinderella story
Actor Bill Murray hooked a tee shot so badly during a Pro-Am event on Friday that the ball sailed across a street next to the hole and hit a woman in her front yard. She was knocked to the ground and had to go to the hospital. Murray was on No. 9 at the TPC Tampa Bay in Lutz, Florida, during the first round of the Outback Pro-Am when he hit Gail DiMaggio as she was watching the tournament. He was playing with Hal Sutton, Jeff Sluman and Fred Paglia. They continued while Murray’s caddy took him in a cart to the woman’s yard, where paramedics were attending to her. Tournament officials said DiMaggio was lying on the ground, but conscious and moving. “I wasn’t sure I was in bounds or not,” Murray said. “And I saw this NBC golf cart coming at me and he said: ‘I hate to be the one to tell you this but you hit a lady. She’s down on the ground.’ That is, you know, sobering.” Murray said DiMaggio was taken to a local hospital. “She was overjoyed when she saw me because she said she had come out to see me and her husband had just said: ‘I hope he hits it over here,’” said Murray, who did not finish his round. After signing his scorecard he joked with reporters that DiMaggio isn’t the first spectator he’s hit.
■CYCLING
Hamilton tests positive
Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton has tested positive for a banned substance and retired from cycling, the American said on Friday. Hamilton said he is battling depression and admitted taking an over-the-counter homeopathic anti-depressant containing the steroid DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone), which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances. “There are times when you are at such a low, low point anything that you can do — if it was taking a hammer and hitting yourself over the head — you’d do it to feel better,” he said during an emotional teleconference. Hamilton acknowledged he tested positive for DHEA during an out-of-competition test on Feb. 9 while training for the Tour of California. The 38-year-old denied he used the steroid to enhance his athletic performance, citing, in part, his next-to-last finish in the race.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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