■BASEBALL
Waipahu win world series
Tanner Tokunaga smacked two homers and Iolana Akau added a solo blast as the boys from Waipahu, Hawaii, defeated Matamoros, Mexico, 12-3 in the Little League World Series final on Sunday. Waipahu were also helped by three Matamoros errors. Two Waipahu runs were scored on passed balls and another came in on a bases-loaded walk. But the Matamoros’ line-up was loaded with dangerous hitters, so the lead wasn’t safe until reliever Christian Donahue got Fernando Villegas to ground out to short-stop, giving the US their fourth straight win. In the third-place game, Tsuyoki Setoguchi scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fifth inning to lead Tokyo to a 4-3 victory over Lake Charles, Louisiana.
■CRICKET
Hayden ruled out of series
Veteran opener Matthew Hayden has been ruled out of Australia’s one-day series against Bangladesh in Darwin because of injury. The three-match series starts on Saturday and Hayden had been named in Australia’s initial 14-man squad despite the fact he was still recovering from an Achilles injury suffered during the Indian Twenty20 Premier League. The series was to have provided preparation for the Champions Trophy, but with that tournament now delayed, the Australians decided against trying to hurry him back into action. Team officials announced Hayden would not play at a team training camp yesterday, with the Australians scheduled to fly to Darwin today. Hayden’s withdrawal means Australia will be without three of their big guns for the series. Australian captain Ricky Ponting is recovering from wrist surgery and Brett Lee will miss the series for personal reasons, the star pace man dealing with the collapse of his marriage.
■CRICKET
West Indies win Tri-Series
West Indies captain Chris Gayle top-scored with a swashbuckling 110 not out to lead his team to a seven-wicket victory over the host nation in the Canada Cup Tri-Series final in King City, Ontario, on Sunday. The left-hander struck 14 fours and six sixes in only 77 balls as the title favorites cruised to 181 for three in reply to Canada’s 179 all out in 46.5 overs. Gayle recorded his 16th century in one-day internationals to set up a commanding win for the West Indies with 22.3 overs to spare. Canada, beaten by 49 runs when the two teams met in the round-robin stage on Friday, lost wickets at regular intervals after being asked to bat first. Opener Rizwan Cheema provided the only significant resistance with a whirlwind 61 off 45 balls, while fast bowler Jerome Taylor led the West Indian attack with three for 33 in 6.5 overs.
■OLYMPICS
Chavez acts after failure
Venezuela’s poor performance at the Beijing Olympics moved Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to order the national oil company to start helping to train athletes. Venezuela’s delegation of more than 100 athletes won only a bronze medal in Beijing — an effort that prompted harsh criticism from the local media. Chavez told Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) on Sunday to “open an office of competitive sports” and asked the company’s president, Rafael Ramirez, to meet with members of Venezuela’s Olympic squad “to analyze the sports situation.” PDVSA has already expanded its activities far beyond petroleum production to include food distribution, social welfare management and building housing. Dalia Contreras Rivero won a bronze in women’s taekwondo in Beijing.
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
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
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
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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