SOCCER
Leaders grab late winner
Substitute Genero Zeefuik struck three minutes into stoppage-time to earn leaders PSV Eindhoven a scrappy 2-1 home win over bottom side Willem II Tilburg in the Dutch league on Saturday. Tilburg finished with nine men after late second-half red cards for Denis Halilovic and Veli Lampi. Bart Biemans put Tilburg ahead after 17 minutes, but early in the second half Ola Toivonen equalized, before Zeefuik clinched the points. PSV remain top with 47 points after 21 matches. Also on Saturday, Iceland’s Kolbeinn Sigthorsson scored five as AZ Alkmaar thrashed lowly VVV Venlo 6-1. The 20-year-old striker, who joined Alkmaar in July last year, opened the scoring after five minutes when he took advantage of a defensive blunder by Ferry de Regt. Sigthorsson added two more, before Ahmed Musa pulled one back eight minutes before the break. The Icelander lifted his season’s total to nine with two more in the second half. Alkmaar are fifth on 37 points.
SOCCER
Muntari loaned to Black Cats
Sunderland signed Ghana midfielder Sulley Muntari from Italy’s Inter on loan until the end of the season on Saturday, with the European champions taking Moroccan Houssine Kharja from Genoa as a replacement. Muntari previously played in the Premier League with Portsmouth, before moving to Inter in July 2008. The 26-year-old joins Ghana teammates Asamoah Gyan and John Mensah at Sunderland, who are currently sixth in the table. “Sulley is a fabulous acquisition for the club. When the opportunity arises to bring in a player of his ability — even in the short term — you have to take it and I’m delighted we have been able to,” Sunderland manager Steve Bruce told the club’s Web site. Kharja has arrived at the San Siro on loan for the rest of the season, Inter said in a statement.
BASKETBALL
Brawlers banned by NBA
Marvin Williams of the Atlanta Hawks and Shawne Williams of the New York Knicks were each issued bans by the NBA on Saturday, one night after throwing punches during a fourth-quarter scuffle. With only 43 seconds remaining in Friday’s 111-102 Atlanta triumph over the Knicks, Atlanta’s Marvin Williams touched off the incident by shoving Shawne Williams in the back. Marvin Williams was issued a two-game ban for throwing multiple punches and fighting, while the Knicks will lose Shawne Williams for only one game for throwing a single punch during an altercation. Shawne Williams, who averages 7 points and 3.3 rebounds a game off the bench for New York, will miss a home game against Detroit. Marvin Williams, who averages 10.9 points and 4.8 rebounds, was suspended for Atlanta’s games at Dallas and against Toronto on Wednesday.
ICE HOCKEY
Chara retains shooter crown
Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara retained his crown as the NHL’s hardest shooter with a record 170.4kph blast during the NHL All-Star skills competition on Saturday. The hulking 2.06m-tall Slovakian bettered the previous record of 169.6kph he set in 2009 to win the contest for the fourth consecutive time. “Records are meant to be broken,” Chara told reporters. New York Islanders rookie Michael Grabner claimed the fastest skater honors, while Daniel Sedin of the Vancouver Canucks won the accuracy competition as the fastest to shoot out four targets. Washington Capitals showman Alexander Ovechkin of Russia claimed a third straight win in the breakaway challenge event.
A seven-year-old horse had to be euthanized on Friday after breaking its back on the final fence of a Grand National steeplechase race that it won despite sustaining the serious injury. It follows the death of four horses at the Cheltenham Festival last month — including one after the prestigious Gold Cup. Gold Dancer was competing in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase during Ladies Day at Aintree’s Grand National Festival. The horse managed to cross the finish line approximately four lengths ahead of runner-up Regent’s Stroll. “The winner of our second race of the day, Gold Dancer, was pulled up after
Hans Niemann declares he would become a “stone cold killer” in a Netflix documentary released on Tuesday about his feud with five-time classical world champion Magnus Carlsen, a pledge that injects new edge into the lingering fallout from the cheating scandal that shook elite chess. “I’m gonna be a stone cold killer the rest of my life,” the US’ Niemann says in the film. “I’m going to become the best player in the world, and no one is going to believe that now, but this clip will play over and over again in 10 years — just wait.” “I just
OBJECTIVE REACHED: ’Now for us, it’s about getting healthy, making sure everybody is ready to go, and we can ramp up,’ the Atlanta Hawks’ C.J. McCollum said after the game The Atlanta Hawks on Friday secured an NBA playoff berth with a 124-102 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers as the Boston Celtics locked up the Eastern Conference second seed with a lopsided win of their own. C.J. McCollum scored a game-high 29 points for the Hawks, who came into the contest at sixth in the East and still in danger of falling into the play-in tournament that would see the seventh-through 10th-placed teams battle for the last two playoff berths in each conference. Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jalen Johnson scored 18 points apiece, and Dyson Daniels added a triple-double of 13
Taiwanese “boxing queen” Chen Nien-chin today won the women’s 65kg division final at the Asian Boxing Elite Championships in Ulaanbaatar, securing Taiwan’s first gold medal in that weight class at the tournament. Chen defeated North Korea’s Hwang Hyo Sun 4-1, after the two were tied through the first two rounds. Chen won bronze in the 66kg division at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
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