FOOTBALL
Cowboys botch player name
The Dallas Cowboys are off on the wrong foot before their playoff opener against the San Francisco 49ers. Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch’s name was misspelled on the back of his No. 55 jersey during pregame warmups. The “c” and “s” were transposed in his last name. Vander Esch was still wearing the botched jersey in the game. The fourth-year player is in the final year of his rookie contract after the Cowboys did not exercise the fifth-year option in their first-round pick from 2018.
MOTOR RACING
Alonso removes jaw plates
Double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso has had surgery to remove the titanium plates fitted to his jaw after a road accident while cycling in February last year. The 40-year-old Alpine driver, speaking during the weekend’s virtual Le Mans 24 Hours race, said he had the operation last week and was preparing for a better season. “The accident in February with the bicycle didn’t help last year,” he said. Alonso, a two-time Le Mans winner with Toyota, was non-driving captain of the Alpine e-sports team in the virtual endurance event. Formula One world champion Max Verstappen took part, but the Red Bull driver, who narrowly missed out on pole position, crashed after seven hours while leading in his Team Redline entry. The virtual race was won by the Realteam Hydrogen Redline outfit, whose lineup included Brazilian Formula Two racer Felipe Drugovich and British Formula E driver Oliver Rowland.
SKIING
Braathen stuns in slalom
Soaring from 29th place after the first run, Lucas Braathen on Sunday scored a stunning win in a World Cup slalom. No skier had made such a jump up the standings to win a two-run men’s World Cup race for more than 20 years at least, according to the ski-db.com database. Braathen sat in the finish-area leader’s box for 45 minutes looking steadily more disbelieving and then in tears before watching the last racer. In the end, Braathen was 0.22 seconds ahead of Daniel Yule of Switzerland. The 2010 Olympic champion, Giuliano Razzoli of Italy, was 0.29 back in third for his best result in six years at age 37. Braathen’s win was also remarkable for starting the day among the low-ranked racers wearing bib No. 31.
SOCCER
Real Madrid win Super Cup
Real Madrid on Sunday were crowned Spanish Super Cup champions after goals from Luka Modric and Karim Benzema earned them a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao in Saudi Arabia. Real took the lead in the 38th minute after Rodrygo sprinted past two defenders before passing to Modric, who rifled a shot into the back of the net. Benzema extended their lead in the second half with a penalty after the video assistant referee spotted a handball from Yeray Alvarez inside the area. Real were reduced to 10 men three minutes from time after Eder Militao was sent off for a goal-line handball. Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois brilliantly stopped Raul Garcia’s penalty kick with his left foot in the dying seconds. “You can never get tired of winning,” Modric told a news conference. “I enjoy the same every title, when you play at Real Madrid you have to win. It’s part of the DNA of this club. Fans expect the most of you. So now we have to look forward to win more and again in the next months.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier