■BASKETBALL
Durant leads Sophomores
Kevin Durant set the scoring record for the National Basketball Association’s All-Star Rookie Challenge Friday, pouring in 46 points to lead the Sophomores to victory over their first-year foes. Durant scored 30 of his points in the second half as the second-year players held off the Rookies 122-116. Durant, of the Oklahoma City Thunder, shot 17-of-25 from the field, including four-of-eight from three-point range as the Sophomores won the contest for the seventh straight time. Durant, who has averaged 25.5 points this season, owns the fourth-highest average for someone who did not make the main All-Star contest.
■BASKETBALL
Toronto, Miami start trading
Toronto and Miami launched the National Basketball Association trade season on Friday with an agreement to send Raptors forward Jermaine O’Neal to the Heat in exchange for forward Shawn Marion, the Raptors confirmed. The deal sends O’Neal and Jamario Moon to Miami in exchange for Marion and point guard Marcus Banks. The Heat will also receive a conditional first-round pick from Toronto next year unless the Raptors are in the draft lottery. In that case, the first-round selection could come between 2011 and 2015.
■BASEBALL
Santana to sit out Classic
New York Mets ace Johan Santana will not pitch for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic next month. The two-time Major League Baseball pitcher of the year will miss the tournament, the Venezuelan Baseball Federation announced on Friday. Federation president Edwin Zerpa said organizers of the tournament, World Baseball Classic Inc, were not willing to pay the high insurance premium required for the Mets to clear Santana after he underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. “It puts him in a high-risk category,” Zerpa said. Venezuela’s first game is on March 7 against Italy in Toronto. Venezuela was eliminated in the second round of the inaugural Classic in 2006.
■WEIGHTLIFTING
Taichung to host tourney
Taichung City has won a bid to host next year’s World University Weightlifting Championship, officials said yesterday. The bid was approved a day earlier by the International University Sports Federation during an executive committee meeting held in Harbin, China, prior to the Winter Universiade, said officials from National Taiwan Sport University, which was representing the Taichung bid. The event, which is expected to draw some 500 athletes from more than 50 countries, will mark the first time an international weightlifting championship has been held in Taiwan, they said. In preparation for the competition, the university will form an organizing committee in conjunction with the Chinese Taipei University Sports Federation and the Chinese Taipei Weightlifting Association, the officials said, adding that the committee will report its progress to the federation during the organization’s next executive committee meeting scheduled for July in Serbia.
■SNOWBOARDING
Jacobellis beats Nobs
Lindsey Jacobellis of the US and Markus Schairer of Austria won World Cup snowboardcross events at Cypress Mountain, Canada, on Friday. Mike Robertson of Canada was second behind Schairer, with Seth Westcott of the US taking third on the same course that will be used for the Winter Olympics a year from now. Olivia Nobs of Switzerland was second in the women’s race and Helene Olafsen of Norway was third.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures