■ BASEBALL
Rodriquez to switch sides
Alex Rodriguez will switch sides to play for the Dominican Republic at next year’s World Baseball Classic. Rodriguez made the announcement on Saturday while playing at a charity golf tournament hosted by friend David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox at Punta Cana. “I am 100 percent sure that I will play for the Dominican Republic team,” he said. “This time, there will be no doubts and it is a dream of my mom’s that I intend to fulfill.” Rodriguez played for the US in the 2006 inaugural Classic and was largely criticized by fans in the Dominican Republic and across Latin America.
■NORDIC SKIING
Moan wins World Cup
Norway’s Magnus Moan won a World Cup Nordic Combined competition on his home trails on Saturday, edging runner-up Jason Lamy Chappuis of France by 0.7 seconds in the 10km cross-country ski race. “What a wonderful day,” Moan said. “It’s great to win on my home track. This is the race where I feel the most pressure. I had really good skis today and when I’m among the leaders on the final straightaway I know that I have one of the best finishing kicks.” He proved it again after one of the tightest finishes in years. Only 4.2 seconds separated the top six racers. Anssi Koivuranta, the overall leader from Finland, was 1.5 seconds back in third.
■BOXING
Khan beats Fagan in two
Amir Khan overwhelmed Oisin Fagan in two rounds to capture the WBA international lightweight title on Saturday and suggest that his first-round loss in his previous fight was a minor setback. Knocked out in 54 seconds by Breidis Prescott of Colombia in September, the big-hitting Khan put US-based Irishman Fagan down twice in the opening round with big right hands at London’s ExCel Arena. He knocked down Fagan again with another fast combination in the second and referee Mickey Vann stopped the fight at 1 minute, 37 seconds of the round.
■BOBSLED
Lange wins 40th World Cup
Andre Lange of Germany won his 40th World Cup bobsled race in Saturday’s two-man competition. The two-time world and Olympic champion and his partner Kevin Kuske finished the course in 1 minute, 52.60 seconds over two runs for their first victory this season. The American pair of Steven Holcomb and Justin Olsen finished second, 0.25 seconds back. Beat Hefti and Thomas Lamparter of Switzerland, who won the first race of the season, took third. Lange took the lead in the World Cup two-man bobsled standings with 435 points, 10 ahead of Hefti. The German pair of Sandra Kiriasis and Berit Wiacker won the women’s race in a time of 1:55.71.
■RALLYING
Spectators killed in crash
Two spectators were killed and three others injured, including an eight-year-old girl, after a car smashed into the crowd watching a rally in Prague, Czech Republic, on Saturday, police said. A Peugeot 307 WRC, driven by the Polish-British pairing of Leszek Kuzaj and Craig Parry, came off the course in Reporyje, in the south-west suburbs of the Czech capital. In rainy conditions, the car skidded on a bend, bounced off an electricity pylon before hurtling into the watching crowd. A 26-year-old Pole, believed to be a close friend of Kuzaj, died at the scene while the second spectator died later in the day.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
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