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.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum on Sunday combined for 27 points as Shaquille O’Neal’s “Team Shaq” cruised to victory in the new-look NBA All-Star game in San Francisco. Curry, playing on his home court at Golden State’s Chase Center, reeled off a string of trademark three-pointers to help his star-studded lineup coast to a 41-25 victory over Charles Barkley’s “Team Chuck.” Boston Celtics star Tatum finished with 15 points after delivering a dominant performance in a starting lineup that also included Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and James Harden. Team Shaq’s preparations for the game had been dealt a blow shortly before tip-off when