MOTOGP
Marquez takes pole again
MotoGP champion Marc Marquez took his third pole position in three races with Spanish riders filling the top four places in qualifying on Saturday for the new Argentine Grand Prix at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. The 21-year-old Honda rider set a best lap of 1 minute 37.683 seconds, 0.742 faster than Yamaha’s double world champion Jorge Lorenzo. Honda’s Dani Pedrosa completed the front row with Aleix Espargaro qualifying fourth on a non-works Yamaha. German Stefan Bradl walked away from a heavy crash and is to start ninth.
RUGBY UNION
Saracens reach Europe final
Saracens reached their first ever European Cup final with a record 46-6 victory over last year’s finalists Clermont at Twickenham in London on Saturday. Saracens ran in six tries with wing Chris Ashton scoring two to break the record for tries in a European Cup season with 11. They are to face either holders Toulon or two-time champions Munster who were to play their semi-final in Marseille yesterday. The hosts went ahead through a try by Ashton in the eighth minute. Referee Nigel Owens made a huge call in the 14th minute when he not only sin-binned Brock James for deliberately knocking the ball over the deadball line, but also awarded Saracens a penalty try as in his and the video referee’s mind Marcelo Bosch would have scored a try had James not intervened.
BASKETBALL
NBA probes racist audio
The NBA is investigating an audio recording posted online allegedly of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling telling his girlfriend not to post photographs of herself with black people and not to bring African-Americans to Clippers games, league officials said on Saturday. Celebrity news site TMZ.com published the 10-minute recording on its Web site late on Friday, describing it as a taped conversation between the billionaire Sterling and a model who goes by the name V. Stiviano. The tape appears to be an argument over photos Stiviano posted to the social networking Web site Instagram. “People call you and tell you that I have black people on my Instagram. And it bothers you,” Stiviano says, according to a version of the tape at TMZ.com. In the tape, Stiviano says she herself is of Latino and black heritage. “Yeah, it bothers me a lot that you want to promo ... broadcast that you’re associating with black people. Do you have to?” Sterling says on the tape, according to TMZ. At another point, Stiviano says he does not want her to bring black people to basketball games, and tells him: “I’m sorry that you’re still racist in your heart.” The NBA said the league would move swiftly to determine the authenticity of the recording and its context.
BOXING
Klitschko KOs Leapai
Wladimir Klitschko toyed with Alex Leapai and knocked him out in the fifth round to retain his four heavyweight belts on Saturday. Klitschko, taller with a longer reach, controlled the fight at will, scoring with left jabs and straight rights with hardly any opposition from the Samoan-born Australian. Leapai went down when he was hit with a left-right combination. He got up, but Klitschko put him away for good with 58 seconds left in the fifth. “Glory to Ukraine,” Klitschko said after his one-sided win. Klitschko recorded his 53rd KO in 62 wins, with three defeats. Leapai dropped to 30-5, with three draws. In his 25th world championship fight, Klitschko retained his WBA and IBF heavyweight belts, plus the minor WBO and IBO versions.
RUGBY UNION
Germany eye World Cup spot
Germany remain in contention for a place in next year’s Rugby World Cup after beating Sweden 45-20 win on Saturday, with Saracens’ ex-junior Springbok Justin Melck scoring on his debut. Having been released from Saracens’ 46-6 Heineken Cup semi-final win over Clermont to play for Germany, Cape Town-born Melck, 31, crossed for a try soon after coming off the bench for the second half in Stockholm. He then fell foul of the referee when he picked up a yellow card, but in his absence, Germany pulled away for a convincing win. The bonus-point win confirms Germany’s promotion to Division 1A of the European Nations Cup — the tier below the Six Nations — and keeps them in the hunt for a first World Cup appearance next year. Germany now face a playoff against the Netherlands on May 10. If they win, Germany then face Russia in a second playoff on May 24 for a place in the repechage section against sides from Asia, Africa and South America later this year, the winners of which enter Pool A.
CRICKET
England outshamed by club
England’s cricketers may have suffered the embarrassment of a ICC World Twenty20 defeat by rookie side the Netherlands and a 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia, but even they were never bowled out for three, as happened to one English club side on Saturday. Wirral, from northwest England, were dismissed for just three away to Haslington in a Cheshire League Third Division match, with extras the top-scorer courtesy of two leg-byes. There were 10 ducks in the Wirral innings, with No. 11 Connor Hodson — who is supposedly their worst batsman — the only member of the visitors’ side to score a run off the bat. That Wirral managed three was something of a wonder after they were reduced to none for eight. Ben Istead took six wickets for one run and Tom Gledhill four for none in an innings that lasted fewer than 10 overs. Haslington won the match by 105 runs after making only 108. Afterward, Wirral issued pleas on Twitter to several former England players for “a few hours coaching” under the hashtag #weneedit.
FORMULA ONE
De Silvestro nears F1 dream
Simona de Silvestro is a step closer to achieving her dream of competing in Formula One next year after completing her first day of in-car testing with Sauber. The Swiss driver completed 112 laps in a two-year-old Sauber C31 at Ferrari’s Fiorano Circuit in Italy. “I was not too nervous in the morning … but after completing the installation lap I realized that this was my first lap in a Formula One car and that this was something really special,” said the 25-year-old De Silvestro, who was confirmed as an affiliated driver with Sauber this year after four years in IndyCar. She had her first career podium last year with a second-place finish in Houston, Texas, that was the first podium finish for a woman on a road course in IndyCar. Her plan is to do enough testing to get the FIA superlicense that would let her line up on the grid next year.
ATHLETICS
Stimpson wins world series
Jodie Stimpson won her second straight ITU World Triathlon Series when she outran British teammate Helen Jenkins on Saturday. Stimpson was in a group that broke away in the bike leg and began the run more than two minutes ahead of the chasers. She looked set to win, but Jenkins caught her midway through the 10km run and the lead changed constantly. In the final 500m, Stimpson finally broke away to win by seven seconds.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
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