■ CANOEING
Germany’s Grimm gets gold
Alexander Grimm of Germany struck gold in his first Olympics by dominating his whitewater canoeing event yesterday, while Slovak Michal Martikan got another gold 12 years after his first. Grimm, 21, managed a superb second run through the gates in the K1 competition to win the gold in 171.70 seconds. It was the first gold for Germany in Beijing after failures and poor results in the previous days. Fabien Lefevre of France took silver with 173.30. First-run leader Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo got the first ever medal in the sport for Africa, a bronz CANOEINGe in 173.45 seconds.
■ FIELD HOCKEY
Hockeyroos blast Spain
Former champions Australia came from behind for the second time in as many matches to blast Spain 6-1 in the women’s field hockey yesterday. The Hockeyroos, who overcame a 1-4 deficit against South Korea to win 5-4 on Sunday, once again found themselves up against it after Spain’s Silvia Munoz gave her team the lead in the sixth minute. Angela Lambert ensured it was 1-1 at the break with a penalty corner hit in the 27th minute, sparking a breathtaking Australian display in the second session. Meanwhile, world No. 2 Argentina suffered their second setback when Britain came back from 0-2 behind to force a 2-2 draw in Pool B.
■ WATER POLO
Montenegro rout Canada
Montenegro routed Canada 12-0 in men’s water polo yesterday, and the US upset Italy in preliminary play. Montenegro opened with three goals in the first period, and Nikola Vukcevic, Mladjan Janovic and Vladimir Gojkovic scored two goals each in the first match of the day. Javier Garcia scored three goals to help Spain beat Australia 9-8. Spain led 6-4 after two periods, and held on to win despite being outscored in the second half. Gavin Woods and Thomas Whalan scored two each for Australia. The US, ranked ninth in the world and trying to get back on the medal stand for the first time since 1988, upset Italy 12-11, with Jeffrey Powers scoring three goals and Tony Azevedo adding two. In other matches, Hungary beat Greece 17-6, Croatia defeated Serbia 11-8 and Germany edged China 6-5.
■ VOLLEYBALL
US men 2-0 in pool play
The US men’s volleyball team, playing with energy and determination after the tragedy that shook them, defeated Italy 3-1 yesterday. Still without head coach Hugh McCutcheon, whose in-laws were attacked in Beijing over the weekend, the US team adjusted after a sluggish start to win 24-26, 25-22, 25-15, 25-21. The US men are 2-0 in preliminary pool play after a victory over Venezuela in their opener. The Italians are 1-1 having defeated Japan to open the tournament. In other early matches yesterday, Russia defeated Germany 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 21-25, 25-13, 16-14) and Poland beat Egypt 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-10).
■ HANDBALL
China-France spat forgotten
Bad blood between France and China appeared to have been forgotten four days into the Games, with home fans cheering happily at the handball arena throughout their team’s losing battle with a more experienced French side. “From my side, I haven’t really heard of any problems in China-French relations,” French handball coach Claude Onesta told reporters. Chinese coach Yan Weiming said the preliminary round match, which France won 33-19, was unaffected by any political sparring. In other Group A games yesterday, Croatia beat Brazil 33-14 and Spain beat Poland 30-29.
BOOT TO FACE: Wilfried Singo said that his actions were not intentional, ‘but I was able to see afterwards that’ the ’keeper had a significant face injury Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday came from behind to extend their unbeaten start to the Ligue 1 season with a 4-2 win away against AS Monaco, but lost goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to a gruesome facial injury. The bloodied Italy international was left requiring 10 staples after sustaining lacerations to the right side of his face when he was caught by the studs of Monaco defender Wilfried Singo. “I don’t know if the referee was badly positioned, but VAR [video assistant referee] needed to intervene, you have to protect the players,” PSG captain Marquinhos said. “To not give a red in a situation like
Cheng Chen Chin-mei on Saturday beamed broadly as she hoisted a 35kg weightlifting bar to her waist, dropped it and waved confidently to the enthusiastic crowd in a competition in Taipei. Cheng Chen, 90, has been pumping iron since last year, encouraged by her granddaughter to take up the sport after she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. She credits the regimen with helping to fix her posture. Three generations of her family were among a couple of hundred people watching Cheng Chen and 44 others aged 70 or older in the weightlifting competition. In the three-round event, Cheng Chen lifted as much as
Zach LaVine on Thursday scored a season-high 36 points to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 117-108 upset victory against defending NBA champions the Boston Celtics, while LeBron James once again made history. LaVine went 11-of-19 from the floor and made six three-pointers while adding six rebounds and four assists for the Bulls, who improved to 13-15 for the season. “We’re a good team,” LaVine said. “We’re competitive and we’re a resilient group.” Ayo Dosunmu contributed 17 points for the Bulls, while Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and 14 rebounds for Chicago. The Bulls outscored Boston 35-22 in the fourth quarter to rally past
Teenage sensation Luke “The Nuke” Littler on Saturday set a tournament record with a 140.91 set average as he secured a second-round win in the PDC World Darts Championship with a 3-1 victory over fellow Englishman Ryan Meikle late. The 17-year-old came close to winning the World Championship in January, but lost in the final to Luke Humphries. Now, he has started the latest edition on a high note. Tournament favorite Littler fired in four maximum 180s, while winning three consecutive legs in 11, 10 and 11 darts, setting a record set average and finishing with an overall average of 100.85. “It was
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