■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.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with