■BASKETBALL
Arenas begins sentence
Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house for bringing guns to the team locker room, began serving his sentence in Rockville, Maryland, on Friday. Arthur Wallenstein, director of Montgomery County Corrections, said Arenas arrived on Friday evening at the Montgomery County jail, where he will spend two days for medical screening and classification. He will then be transferred to the county’s Pre-Release Center, a halfway house. Corrections officials in Montgomery County, adjacent to Washington DC, agreed to let him serve his sentence there as part of an agreement with the US Bureau of Prisons. Arenas pleaded guilty to a felony gun charge in January, and has been suspended until the end of the season by the NBA.
■SOCCER
Brazil faces problems
Brazil’s planning for the 2014 World Cup faces “serious problems” if crucial work is not started before May 3, the deadline fixed by FIFA, Brazilian soccer federation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira said in Rio de Janeiro on Friday. “If the work does not start before the start of May, we will have serious problems,” Teixeira said. FIFA set May 3 as a deadline for work on a new and refurbished stadium to start, but organizers have faced problems with no sites being able to attract financial credits from banks. According to FIFA planning, all major work must be finished by December 2012.
■ATHLETICS
Bolt to run first 200m
Triple Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt will run his first 200m of the season in the Jamaica International Invitational on May 1, organizers in Kingston said on Friday. Bolt, the world record holder at 100m and 200m, will face a field that includes American world bronze medalist Wallace Spearmon. The meeting has also attracted Jamaica’s Olympic 200m winner Veronica Campbell Brown and US world 400m champion Sanya Richards. They are scheduled to run in the women’s 200m. Jamaica’s Asafa Powell, the former 100m world record holder, will not compete, organizers said.
■ICE HOCKEY
Ponikarovsky suspended
Pittsburgh Penguins forward Alexei Ponikarovsky has been suspended for two games for hitting an opposing player from behind, knocking him into the boards, the National Hockey League said on Friday. The suspension will keep Ponikarovsky out of the team’s final two regular season games. The incident occurred early in the final period of Thursday’s game against the New York Islanders when Ponikarovsky hit center Josh Bailey from behind. New York’s Bailey was injured on the play and Ponikarovsky was given a boarding penalty and game misconduct.
■BASKETBALL
Spurs keep Ginobili
The San Antonio Spurs signed guard Manu Ginobili to a multi-year contract extension, keeping the Argentine player from testing the free agent market at the end of the season, the team said on Friday. Ginobili, who has spent his eight-year career with San Antonio and won three NBA championships, had a mediocre start this term and could have become an unrestricted free agent when the campaign finishes, but the Spurs said the 32-year-old Ginobili, who won the NBA’s sixth man of the year award in 2008 as the most valuable player coming off the bench as a substitute, is an important part of its program and wanted to keep him.
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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