Sat, Jun 19, 2010 page17

• Sports Briefs

  • AGENCIES
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  ■BULLFIGHTING

  Matador makes for door

  Footage of Mexican bullfighter Christian Hernandez fleeing the ring on Sunday at the first sight of the slavering bull in the opposite corner has become a global Internet hit. Hernandez was making his debut at Mexico City’s Plaza Mexico. In the event he tried a token spin, appeared briefly on the verge of gelatinous collapse, and then hot-footed it over the nearest wall. He has since admitted: “I didn’t have the balls — this is not my thing.” Perhaps the only real surprise here is that this doesn’t happen more often. Even with the inclusion of bullfighting — at the more extreme end of what might legitimately be called sport — Hernandez joins a surprisingly select line of sportsmen who have discovered in the heat of battle that, frankly, they’d rather be at home doing something else. The boxer Oliver McCall had a similar experience during a bizarre world-title bout against Lennox Lewis in 1997. In the fourth round McCall burst into tears and refused to carry on, a shockingly sensible, and shockingly rare, reaction to being repeatedly punched in the head. The England cricket captain Mike Denness famously dropped himself from the team during the tour of Australia in 1974 to 1975 because he felt unable to face the furiously intimidating pace bowling of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee. A sense of creeping futility has often seemed to be the biggest obstacle facing snooker’s most talented player, Ronnie O’Sullivan. Four years ago at the UK Championships he did what no snooker player, perhaps bafflingly, has ever done before, walking out on his quarter-final against Steven Hendry after just five frames because he was bored. O’Sullivan later explained that he “had just had enough.” Which anyone who has ever spent six hours pinging a ball around a table may perhaps find entirely understandable. As will Hernandez’s latest move: Aged 22, he has now announced his retirement from bullfighting.

  ■HORSE RACING

  Rite of Passage takes Cup

  Rite of Passage surprised the race favorites to win the Gold Cup in a course record time at Royal Ascot on Thursday. Trading at 20-1 and ridden by Pat Smullen, Rite of Passage held off Age of Aquarius in a thrilling finale to the 4km race to finish in 4 minutes, 16.92 seconds, 1.37 seconds below the course record. Purple Moon was third. The Dermot Weld-trained horse picked up the mantle of Yeats, which won the Gold Cup four years in a row until being retired after last year’s win. “The plan was hatched a long time ago,” Weld said. Earlier on Ladies’ Day, Frankie Dettori rode his second winner in two days when he took the Ribblesdale Stakes on Hibaayeb. He beat out Eldalil and Gallic Star in the Group 2 fillies’ race.

  ■GOLF

  Moriarty, Wiegele take lead

  Ireland’s Colm Moriarty and Austria’s Martin Wiegele both shot five-under-par 66s to share the first-round lead at the Saint-Omer Open in France on Thursday. Wiegele, eighth on The Challenge Tour rankings, shot six birdies with a solitary dropped shot when he three-putted the second. “It was a perfect start, because the [windy] conditions were quite tough,” said the 31-year-old, who is hoping to follow his success at home in Austria two weeks ago. Moriarty also shot six birdies, but a dropped shot at the last cost him the outright lead. “I played very nicely,” said the 33-year-old. “It wasn’t as breezy as it has been over the past few days, so that helped.”
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