SOCCER
Mechelen fall to defeat
Taiwan international Xavier Chen played the full 90 minutes as KV Mechelen fell to 10th in the Belgian Jupiler League after a 1-0 away defeat to Cercle Bruge KSV at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Saturday. Substitute Amido Balde scored for the hosts in the 70th minute to put them in sixth position on 40 points, while Mechelen remain on 31 points, still 14 points clear of the relegation places. RSC Anderlecht lead the league by seven points with a game in hand.
SOCCER
Mali finish third
Mali finished third at the Africa Cup of Nations after two goals from Cheick Tidiane Diabate delivered a 2-0 win over 10-man Ghana on Saturday in Malabo. The giant France-based striker scored both from close range as Mali ensured a second successive crushing defeat for Ghana, upset by Zambia in Wednesday’s semi-finals, in four days. Ghana’s misery included the dismissal of central defender Isaac Vorsah for a second yellow card just past the hour mark. Diabate put Mali ahead when he was first to react after goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey could only palm out a long-range shot in the 23rd minute, sliding the ball into the net. He added the second with 10 minutes left after a breakaway ended with a pinpoint cross from fullback Adama Tamboura. A dispirited Ghana saw Vorsah become their third player to be sent off at this year’s finals. Ghana, who had beaten Mali 2-0 in the group phase last month, thought they had scored just after halftime, but Sulley Muntari’s effort was ruled offside.
SOCCER
Milan defeat Udinese
AC Milan produced a storming comeback with goals by Maxi Lopez and Stephan El Shaarawy to win 2-1 at title rivals Udinese on Saturday and move top of Serie A as their strikers made light of Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s absence. Lopez, signed from Catania last month after Milan failed to land Carlos Tevez from Manchester City, netted his first goal for the champions when he scored on the rebound 12 minutes from time after coming on as a substitute. Teenager El Shaarawy, starting in place of the suspended Ibrahimovic, had a hand in Lopez’s goal and then sealed the win himself when he combined with the Argentine again five minutes from time. “I’m not just content, I’m really happy because scoring for this team has always been my dream,” Lopez told reporters. “El Shaarawy is young, but he’s growing a lot. This group is strong. Everyone gives their all when they get on the pitch.” Cagliari beat fellow mid-table side Palermo 2-1 in Saturday’s other game in Sardinia.
ALPINE SKIING
Kostelic defends title
Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic won the last men’s super-combined race of the season to defend his World Cup title in the discipline on the 2014 Sochi Olympic course yesterday. Kostelic, who was 1.52 seconds behind downhill section winner Beat Feuz, produced a flawless performance in the deciding slalom to eventually finish 1.16 seconds ahead of the Swiss. Frenchman Thomas Mermillod Blondin was third, finishing 1.77 seconds behind.
ALPINE SKIING
Worley wins giant slalom
France’s Tessa Worley won the women’s World Cup giant slalom event yesterday in Soldeu, Andorra. Slovenia’s Tina Maze was 0.16 seconds to finish second, while Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch was third at 0.75 back.
TENNIS
Bartoli beats Zakopalova
Marion Bartoli beat Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (3), 6-0 to reach the Open GDF Suez final against Angelique Kerber of Germany in Paris on Saturday. Kerber edged Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 in the other semi-final. Zakopalova took a 4-2 lead in the first set, but the second-seeded Bartoli saved two set points in the eighth game and broke back in the ninth with a forehand return winner to force a tiebreaker. The second set was all one way. Bartoli reached her first WTA final since winning the Japan Open in October last year. In the second semi-final, Kerber broke for a 4-3 lead in the last set on an unforced error from Wickmayer. Wickmayer saved four match points at 5-3, but Kerber clinched victory in the next game when the Belgian netted a backhand return.
ATHLETICS
Kiplagat runs fastest mile
World silver medalist Silas Kiplagat ran the fastest indoor mile in three years as he edged Kenyan compatriot Caleb Ndiku at the USA Track and Field Classic in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday. Kiplagat sprinted home to nip Ndiku by three-hundredths of a second, clocking three minutes, 52.63 seconds on the fast University of Arkansas track. Former world long jump champion Tianna Madison defeated Jamaican Olympic 200m gold medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown to win the featured women’s 60m as three other season’s best for this year were set at the meeting. American Madison, the 2005 world outdoor long jump champion, raced to a lifetime best of 7.02 seconds for a six-hundredths of a second win over Campbell-Brown. Former world 200m champion Allyson Felix finished fourth in 7.11. Madison also had the fastest time in the preliminaries, a then-world leading 7.05 seconds.
ATHLETICS
Blake sets personal best
World 100m champion Yohan Blake opened his season with a 400m personal best on Saturday at the Camperdown Classic in Kingston, while 100m world-record holder Usain Bolt skipped the Jamaican meet. Blake’s time of 46.49 seconds was 0.2 of a second behind winner Allodin Fothergill, a member of Jamaica’s third-place 4x400m team at last year’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Blake, who ran very easily for the first 200m, faded in the homestretch, with Fothergill moving past in the last 10m for the victory. Blake warned his sprint rivals that he is “much, much stronger this year and faster. Running 46.4 in my first outing is wonderful.” Just as Blake skipped the 100m, training partner and reigning Olympic champion Bolt passed on the entire meet after saying for more than a month that he planned to compete.
FIGURE SKATING
Wagner skates top numbers
American Ashley Wagner performed the best free skate of her career in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday night to win the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships for her first international title. The US champion skated an elegant, clean program to finish with 128.34-point score that left her with a career-high total of 192.41. That was enough to edge two-time world champion Mao Asada of Japan, who settled for second at 188.62 after touching a hand to the ice while attempting to land a triple lutz and having a triple axel downgraded by judges. Earlier, US champions Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dancing short program, and China’s Sui Wenjing and Han Cong topped the pairs field after the short program.
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
Arminia Bielefeld on Tuesday pulled off a major upset in the DFB-Pokal by defeating defending champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 in their semi-final. The third-division team came from behind after Jonathan Tah gave the visitors a 17th-minute lead. Marius Worl replied three minutes later and Maximilian Groser scored Bielefeld’s second goal just before the break. The home team looked more likely to add to that tally as the Leverkusen players looked jaded. “I’m just proud of this team,” Bielefeld coach Mitch Kniat said as most of the fans the small stadium sang around him. “No one will sleep in the city tonight.” Patrik Schick went
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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