■EQUESTRIAN
Aussies out in front
Australia’s Lucinda Fredericks guided her team to the lead in the equestrian three-day eventing yesterday, spurred by on her biggest fan, yet biggest competitor — her husband Clayton. Lucinda topped the list of riders in the dressage, putting the Australians in first place with 102.80 penalty points. “Team Fredericks,” as Lucinda and Clayton are often called, are credited with boosting the Australians to the top of the eventing dressage table, with the magic ingredient being their eagerness to support, and out-do, each other. “I will be out there to help her to get a better score. I have always said that she is going to be my biggest competitor,” Clayton said. While Clayton had given his wife a few pointers before her dressage round on Saturday, they were clearly not necessary as she into first place with 30.40 penalties, and stayed there. Clayton, who had started off in provisional second place with 37 penalties, watched his ranking slide to sixth yesterday, pushed lower by Belgium’s Karin Donckers and Germany’s Ingrid Klimke, who are now in second and third place. The cross-country phase takes place today.
■Shooting China grabs gold
Guo Wenjun of China won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol yesterday in a final that produced an Olympic showdown between Russia and Georgia against the backdrop of military conflict. Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze, who almost left the Games earlier yesterday with her 35-member team over the conflict with Russia, took bronze behind Russia’s Natalia Paderina. After her final shot she wiped tears from her eyes and moments later embraced her Russian rival. “It’s a small victory for my people,” Salukvadze said. “If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did there would never be any wars ... We shouldn’t really stoop so low to wage wars against each other.” Meanwhile, David Kostelecky of the Czech Republic won the gold medal in trap shooting yesterday. He finished with a final score of 146. Giovanni Pellielo of Italy won the silver and Alexey Alipov of Russia won bronze.
■fencing Italian beats Frenchman
Matteo Tagliariol of Italy won the gold medal in men’s epee yesterday, beating Fabrice Jeannet of France 15-9. Tagliariol took control with an early six-point run to lead 8-3, and never looked back. Jeannet won the silver, and Jose Luis Abajo of Spain took the bronze. Tagliariol won Italy’s first gold medal of the Games to give his country’s fencing fans something to cheer about. Andrea Baldini, Italy’s men’s foil star, lost his spot on the Olympic team because of a positive test for a banned substance.
■GYMNASTICS China upstages US team
A crash landing off the asymmetric bars by He Kexin failed to stop China from upstaging an injury-hit US team in women’s qualifying yesterday. She executed four stunning release-and-catch combinations in a high-flying routine but slipped off while attempting to glide from the higher to the lower bar. After remounting the apparatus and completing her dismount she burst into tears. She still scored a respectable 15.725. Americans Nastia Liukin and Chellsie Memmel also came to grief on the asymmetric bars. Memmel fell off mid-routine and Liukin mistimed her dismount and landed awkwardly before rolling backwards. But like He, she was rewarded for her daring content and stayed on course for the apparatus final with 15.950. The Chinese set a benchmark with a combined total of 248.275 points. The US earned 246.800 and Russia were third with 244.400.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
After fleeing Sudan when civil war erupted, Al-Hilal captain Mohamed Abdelrahman and his teammates have defied the odds to reach the CAF Champions League quarter-finals. They are today to face title-holders Al-Ahly of Egypt in Cairo, with the return match in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Tuesday next week. Al-Hilal and biggest domestic rivals Al-Merrikh relocated to Mauritania after a power struggle broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force. The civil war has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 12 million people, according to the UN. The Democratic Republic of the Congo-born Al-Hilal
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
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