GOLF
Taiwan’s Kevin Yu leads
Kevin Yu of Taiwan on Wednesday shot a bogey-free, eight-under 64 on the North Course at Torrey Pines to take a one-shot lead over Patrick Cantlay and Ryo Hisatsune in the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open. The eight lowest scores came on the North Course, which generally plays a few strokes easier than the South Course on the municipal layouts on a bluff high above the Pacific Ocean. Players have a round on each course before the cut. The final two rounds are to be played on the South Course. Yu, a 25-year-old who played at Arizona State, is seeking his first PGA Tour win. He tied for third at The American Express last week. “I fell short last week; bogeyed the last hole on Sunday, but yeah, I’ve been playing very good and just keep building momentum,” Yu said. “If I hit a lot of fairways, I can have a lot of chances to get on the green and try to make some putts.”
Photo: AFP
SOCCER
Liverpool to play Chelsea
Liverpool are to play Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on Feb. 25 with the EFL Cup title on the line following Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Fulham on Wednesday, which secured a 3-2 aggregate win in their semi-final. Carrying a 2-1 first-leg lead over Fulham, Liverpool completed the job at Craven Cottage. Luis Diaz’s 11th-minute strike proved decisive in the tie as Fulham evened the score on the night through Issa Diop’s goal in the 76th minute. Liverpool won the EFL Cup two years ago by beating Chelsea on penalties following a goal-less draw in the final and completed a trophy double over the Londoners that season when they won on penalties again in the FA Cup final following another 0-0 draw.
SOCCER
Bayern beat Union
Raphael Guerreiro on Wednesday scored the only goal of the Bundesliga game as Bayern Munich won 1-0 against Union Berlin, whose coach was sent off for striking Bayern forward Leroy Sane. Nenad Bjelica was red-carded in the 74th minute for twice shoving Sane in the face after the winger demanded the ball from him to take a throw-in. The incident came as several Union players were indignant at having had a penalty appeal turned down shortly before. Bayern’s win left the German champions four points behind league leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
CRICKET
Starc reaches milestone
Mitchell Starc yesterday became the fifth Australia bowler to take 350 Test wickets after claiming three on the opening day of the second Test against the West Indies at the Gabba. The 33-year-old Starc reached the milestone when he had Alick Athanaze (8) caught behind by Alex Carey. He took 4-68 on the first day, which the visitors finished on 266-8. In India, England made 246 with Ben Stoke’s 70 the top score and India were on 119-1 at stumps on the first day of the first Test in Hyderabad.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS