■FOOTBALL
Rams cut Torry Holt
Seven-times Pro Bowl wide receiver Torry Holt was cut on Friday after 10 seasons with the St Louis Rams as the team continued to reshape its roster after a miserable 2-14 season. The Rams, whose offense ranked 27th in the 32-team league, released tackle Orlando Pace on Tuesday and cut tight end Anthony Becht on Thursday to open the way for younger players. Holt, a first-round draft pick in 1999 and the sixth choice overall, helped St Louis win the Super Bowl against Tennessee in his rookie season and two years later played in the NFL championship against New England. Last season Holt caught 64 passes for 796 yards, his lowest totals since his rookie season.
■HOCKEY
NHL punishes McCormick
The NHL suspended Colorado Avalanche forward Cody McCormick for two games without pay on Friday for high-sticking incident in Thursday’s game against Minnesota. McCormick was assessed a double minor penalty for high sticking Minnesota forward Cal Clutterbuck at 11:47 of the second period of a game in Denver, which Colorado eventually won 2-1 in a shootout. He will be eligible to return on Tuesday when the Avalanche face the Wild in Minnesota.
■WRESTLING
FILA suspends Albania
Wrestling’s world governing body suspended its Albanian member federation on Friday because the government there has interfered in running the sport. The international federation, known as FILA, said the Albanian sports ministry had recognized a second, rival national wrestling organization without asking permission of the country’s Olympic officials. “It was decided that only a national federation formed by an elective assembly supervised by the Albanian National Olympic Committee and FILA could be recognized,” FILA said in a statement. During the suspension, Albanian wrestlers, judges and officials will not be allowed to take part in international competitions and the country will not be allowed to host international events.
■ATHLETICS
Javornik banned for doping
Slovenian distance runner Helena Javornik has been banned for two years by sport’s highest court after testing positive for EPO. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) upheld an appeal by the IAAF, which protested after the Slovenian national federation refused to sanction Javornick. The 42-year-old Javornik tested positive for EPO after running a half-marathon in Vienna in March last year. She denied doping and was supported by her national federation which said the sample result was below the level set by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It also questioned procedures at the testing laboratory in Vienna. Those arguments were rejected by CAS. The IAAF provisionally suspended Javornik last June. Her two-year ban was backdated to runs through next June.
■BIATHLON
Norway wins in Whistler
Lars Berger led Norway to a 1-2 finish in the men’s 10km individual sprint at a World Cup biathlon in Whistler, Canada, on Friday, and Helena Jonsson of Sweden captured gold in the women’s 7.5km event. Berger finished in 24 minutes, 6.5 seconds. World champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was second in 24:20.6 and Christoph Sumann of Austria was third in 24:46.0. Earlier on Friday, Jonsson shot a clean round in winning the women’s individual sprint in 19:43.6. The sprint event consists of athletes doing laps around a 2.5km track.
■SOCCER
Ronaldo to be rested
Ronaldo will not play today as Corinthians don’t want to rush his comeback. He was left off the roster to meet Santo Andre in the Sao Paulo state championship, the Globo Esporte Web site said on Friday. “We have to be careful,” Corinthians coach Mano Menezes said. “Now is not the time to run risks. We cannot let all the excitement get in the way of our plans. We must do things carefully, so that things don’t get out of hand.” After more than a year out with a knee injury, Ronaldo made his debut for Corinthians a week ago, playing 28 minutes. He played again last Sunday and started for the first time on Wednesday, scoring in a 2-1 win over Sao Caetano in the state championship. The all-time leading World Cup goalscorer with 15 goals is trying to come back after undergoing knee surgery for a third time.
■BOXING
Bute remains undefeated
Undefeated Canadian-based Romanian Lucian Bute kept his International Boxing Federation super-middleweight title on Friday by stopping Colombia’s Fulgencio Zuniga in the fourth round. Bute improved to 24-0 with his 19th early stoppage, that came after 2 minutes, 25 seconds of the fourth round. Zuniga fell to 22-4, with one drawn. It was the third successful defense of the title for Bute since he took it from Colombia’s Alejandro Barrios in 2007 and the 12th fight in a row in Montreal for the southpaw, who turned 29 two weeks ago. Bute defended the crown twice last year, stopping American William Joppy in the 10th round and taking a unanimous decision over Mexican Librado Andrade despite being knocked down with two seconds remaining in the 12th round.
■SKI JUMPING
Olli wins in Lillehammer
Finland’s Harri Olli won the latest World Cup ski jump round at Lillehammer in Norway on Friday, as Austrian teenager Gregor Schlierenzauer edged closer to the overall title. Olli clinched his second win of the season with jumps of 135.5m and 142m, with Dimitry Vassiliev of Russia (137m and 133m) in second and Schlierenzauer (128.5m and 138m) in third. The 19-year-old Austrian ensured an 18th podium place, a World Cup record for one season. With just three rounds left, Schlierenzauer stands 242 points ahead of his only remaining rival Simon Ammann of Switzerland who was 14th on Friday.
■WEIGHTLIFTING
Belarus punishes Aramnau
Olympic weightlifting champion Andrei Aramnau of Belarus was handed a two-year suspended ban from competition on Friday after driving while intoxicated for the second time in less than three months. The 20-year-old, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics by breaking several world records in the 105kg weight class, was first caught in December, before he repeated the offense last month, just a day after receiving keys for a new apartment. Aramnau, who also faces criminal charges for being a repeat offender, was stripped of a presidential monthly stipend worth more than US$5,000.
■SNOWBOARDING
Schairer takes the lead
Markus Schairer of Austria won a snowboard cross on Friday to take the lead in the men’s overall standings, while Lindsey Jacobellis of the US won the women’s event. Schairer crossed the line before Nick Baumgartner of the US and Canada’s Francois Boivin to improve to 5,340 points — 640 points better than Austria’s Siegfried Grabner across all disciplines. Jacobellis beat Sandra Frei of Austria and Canada’s Dominique Maltais.
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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