SKIING
Maze sets points record
Tina Maze topped an extraordinary campaign with a new World Cup points record of 2,024 after her victory on Saturday in the women’s downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, gave her wins in all five disciplines this season. The dominant Slovenian — now the first woman to have broken the 2,000 points barrier — did even better than Austria’s Hermann Maier, who totalled 2,000 points exactly when he won the men’s overall World Cup in 2000. In 1 minute, 40.46 seconds, Maze bagged her ninth World Cup victory of the season and became only the second woman in modern skiing to win in all five disciplines in the same season after Croatia’s Janica Kostelic in 2006. American Laurenne Ross confirmed the brilliant form of the US team in speed events this season by finishing second, 0.39 seconds adrift. However, her teammate Alice McKennis, the unexpected winner of a downhill in St Anton this season, crashed heavily and broke her leg.
SKI JUMPING
Austria claim world title
Austria won their fifth successive ski jump team title to take their first gold medal at the Nordic skiing world championships in Val di Fiemme, Italy, on Saturday. Wolfgang Loitzl, Manuel Fettner, Thomas Morgenstern and Gregor Schlierenzauer racked up a total of 1,135.9 points to beat the German team of Andreas Wank, Severin Freund, Michael Neumayer and Richard Freitag by 14.1 points. The Polish team of Maciej Kot, Piotr Zyla, Dawid Kubacki and Kamil Stoch were 0.8 further back. Norway looked to have won silver, but were demoted to fourth when it was realized the judges had mistakenly awarded Anders Bardal points for starting from a lower gate than he did on his first jump. Morgenstern pointed out the error. “I saw that he had been awarded the same extra points as me for jumping from the same gate and I thought this is not right, because I knew he did not jump from the same gate as me,” the Austrian said. “So I told some guys and it went from there. For sure I think Poland should give me a gift — I think they should give me a passport.”
Skiing
Theaux wins in Norway
Adrien Theaux of France earned his second career World Cup victory on Saturday by narrowly beating home favorite Aksel Lund Svindal in the downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway. Theaux mastered windy conditions to race down the steep 2.641km course in 1 minute, 29.10 seconds and edge Svindal by 0.19 seconds. Klaus Kroell of Austria was 0.50 seconds back in third. The Frenchman’s only previous win came in March 2011 in Switzerland. Svindal’s second-place finish meant he made up some ground on overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher and now trails the Austrian by 129 points. The Norwegian also extended his lead over Kroell in the downhill standings.
BOXING
Abril retains WBA title
Richar Abril scored a unanimous decision over Sharif Bogere to retain his World Boxing Association lightweight title on Saturday in Las Vegas. Cuba’s Abril won on all three judges’ scorecards (115-111, 116-110, 116-110) as he handed the Ugandan his first loss as a professional. The 30-year-old Abril improved to 18-3 with one draw and eight knockouts, landing 35 percent of his total punches to just 15 percent by Bogere. The Ugandan had a point deducted in the 12th round for a headbutt, while Abril had a point taken away in the eighth for holding.
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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