BASKETBALL
Lin out with foot injury
Jeremy Lin yesterday did not play in the New Taipei Kings’ 94-83 victory over the Kaohsiung 17LIVE Steelers due to a lingering foot injury. The P.League+ team on Saturday said he would also miss the team’s two other regular season games next month before the Lunar New Year holiday or their East Asia Super League (EASL) match against the Seoul SK Knights on Wednesday in the South Korean capital. Lin wrote on Instagram that an MRI scan showed he had a plantar fascia injury. “I know the best thing I can do right now is to fully recover. I’ll give my 100% during this rehab process and do my best to fully trust God with the timeline and surrender to the results.” This would be the first time the 35-year-old veteran would be sidelined for an EASL game this season.
CYCLING
Pithie claims 1st Tour win
New Zealand’s Laurence Pithie yesterday powered home to nudge out Eritrea’s Natnael Tesfatsion in a split finish to claim his first World Tour victory in the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong, Australia. The Groupama-FDJ rider lunged at the finish line to pip Tesfatsion (Lidl-Trek) by a half-wheel in the tightest finish in the eighth running of the 176km race along the southern coastline of Victoria. Pithie had to wait for the photo-finish confirmation before he could celebrate his first World Tour victory with his teammates.
SOCCER
Xavi says he is quitting
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez on Saturday said he would quit his “cruel and unpleasant” job at the end of the season after his struggling team were beaten 5-3 by Villarreal in La Liga. “On June 30, I will leave the club, it’s a decision I have taken with the president, with the staff,” Xavi told reporters. Champions Barcelona, third in the top flight, are 10 points behind leaders Real Madrid with their title defense virtually over. “The feeling of being Barca coach is cruel, unpleasant, it feels like people lack respect for you a lot of the time,” Xavi said. “It’s terrible on a mental health level, your morale ... to the point where you think there is no sense in continuing.” After elimination in the Copa del Rey by Athletic Bilbao this week and a thrashing by Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup final earlier in January, Xavi said he made the decision for the good of the club. “I’ve thought about the club ... and above all the players,” he said. “I have the feeling that I am doing the right thing, that I am acting with common sense.”
GOLF
Frenchman bags PGA win
Matthieu Pavon on Saturday became the first player to win a PGA Tour event under the French flag since World War II when he made an eight-foot putt on No. 18 at Torrey Pines South for a dramatic birdie and a one-shot victory in the Farmers Insurance Open. He raised his arms in celebration and shouted before hugging caddie Mark Sherwood after the putt rolled in as the municipal gem high above the Pacific Ocean glowed under the late-afternoon sun. Pavon glowed, too. He said he almost quit golf 10 years ago because of the yips. “It is big for our country,” the 31-year-old PGA Tour rookie said. “I hope it will inspire a lot of people, because coming from an amateur player which is 800 in the world to a PGA Tour winner is pretty big.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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