BASEBALL
Ohtani breaks homer record
Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani on Sunday belted his 176th career home run to move past Hideki Matsui for most homers by a Japanese player in MLB. Ohtani crushed an 0-1 pitch from Mets right-handed hurler Adrian Houser 129m into the Dodger Stadium’s right field bleachers to break a tie with Matsui atop the list. Matsui, who was the 2009 World Series Most Valuable Player with the New York Yankees, needed 20 seasons to put up 175 home runs. Ohtani has passed him in his seventh campaign. Ohtani has five home runs this season. He had tied Matsui with a homer on April 13, but then went seven games without a homer. In that span Ohtani was 11-for-29 at the plate, with three doubles and six walks. “Honestly I was just relieved I was able to just get it over with. I was just happy I was able to do that,” Ohtani said. After Sunday’s two-run blast, Ohtani reached base twice more in the Dodgers’ 10-0 victory over the Mets.
MOTORSPORT
Seven killed in Sri Lanka
A race car veered off the track on Sunday during a competition in Sri Lanka and rammed into a crowd of spectators and race officials, killing seven people, officials said. Thousands of spectators looked on as the incident took place during a race in the town of Diyatalawa, about 180km east of the capital, Colombo. It was not immediately clear what caused the incident. Seven people, including four officials, were killed and another 20 were being treated at a hospital, police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said. Three of the injured were in a critical condition, he said. The race was suspended after the accident. The event was organized by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Automobile Sports.
GOLF
Korda matches record
World No. 1 Nelly Korda on Sunday matched an LPGA record with her fifth consecutive victory, winning the Chevron Championship for her second major crown and 13th career tour triumph. Her two-stroke triumph over Sweden’s Maja Stark stretched Korda’s season win streak to five titles in five starts to equal the LPGA record set by the US’ Nancy Lopez in 1978 and matched by Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam from 2004-2005. Korda withstood a tension-packed back nine, but never lost her lead in holding off rivals over the closing holes at Carlton Woods in suburban Houston, Texas.
CYCLING
Pogacar solos to Liege win
Tadej Pogacar on Sunday destroyed the field with a stunning solo attack to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Slovenian’s sixth Monument victory of his career. UAE Team Emirates’ Pogacar attacked with 34km remaining of the 254km trek as the field tackled the iconic Cote de la Redoute and then surged clear. He finished one minute, 39 seconds ahead of Romain Bardet, while Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel won a sprint to claim third. It was the second Liege victory for Pogacar and made up for last year when he crashed. He also departed the 2022 edition of the race after the death of his fiance’s mother. “It was quite emotional for me all day riding on the bike, thinking of Urska’s mother two years ago and we had to go home,” Pogacar said. “Then last year when I broke my hand so the last two years were really difficult.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with