■DIVING
Guo leads after preliminaries
Guo Jingjing kept China on its path toward a sweep of all eight diving gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, leading after the women’s 3m springboard preliminaries yesterday. She totaled 373.90 points after the five-round preliminaries in front of a packed, partisan crowd at the Water Cube. South Africa’s Jenna Dreyer belly-flopped out of the competition with a failed dive. Dreyer appeared to falter as she bounced on the end of the board, but was too far into her dive to stop and bounded up into a forward three-and-a-half somersault that she did not quite have the momentum to complete. The judges rated it a zero points no-dive, killing her chances of progressing.
■BASKETBALL Aussies remain unbeaten
Lauren Jackson scored 30 points as Australia’s women remained unbeaten with a 96-73 victory over Latvia yesterday. Latvia provided the stiffest challenge so far for the Australians, playing them tough for the first half before Australia went on a 21-8 run to start the third quarter. Penny Taylor scored seven straight points during the spurt as Australia extended a three-point lead to 16. Jackson hit two three-pointers to close out the quarter and give Australia a 76-56 lead. Russia struggled in their 74-64 victory over winless Brazil. In the other early game yesterday, the Czech Republic beat New Zealand 90-59.
■BEACH VOLLEYBALL Reigning champs advance
Athens gold medalists Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor overcame five set points in the first set to beat Belgium 24-22, 21-10 yesterday and advance to the quarter-finals. Liesbeth Mouha and Liesbet van Breedam led 18-12 and 20-17 in the first set of the best-of-three. The other US women’s team, Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs, also advanced after beating Cubans Dalixia Fernandez and Tamara Larrea 21-15, 21-13. In other matches early yesterday under the first blue skies of the tournament, China’s Wang Jie and Tian Jia eliminated the Norwegian team of Nila Haakedal and Ingrid Toerlen 21-13, 21-15. Australia’s Natalie Cook and Tasmin Barnett advanced with a 22-20, 19-21, 15-12 victory over the Greek team of Efthalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani.
■ARCHERY Ruban claims individual gold
Ukraine’s Viktor Ruban took advantage of a mistake by South Korea’s Park Kyung-mo to win 113-112 and the gold medal match in men’s individual archery yesterday. Ruban had a 103-95 edge after his 11th arrow when Park scored just 8 on his 11th to make it an even score. Ruban responded with a 10, forcing Park to get a perfect score on his final shot. Park missed the center section by a few millimeters. Russian Bair Badenov claimed the bronze with a 115-110 win over top-seeded Juan Rene Serrano of Mexico.
■SHOOTING Ukraine win second gold
Artur Ayvazian of Ukraine won the gold medal in the men’s 50m prone rifle yesterday, holding off American Matt Emmons in the final round. Ayvazian was the top qualifier with 599 points. Emmons, who won the event in Athens four years ago, was two points behind. Ayvazian scored at least 10 points on each of his 10 shots in the final, making it difficult for Emmons to catch up. Ayvazian finished with a score of 702.7, Emmons finished at 701.7 for the silver and Warren Potent of Australia took the bronze. It was the second gold in less than 24 hours for Ukraine, which won a team title in women’s saber fencing on Thursday night.
■DOPING CASES
Two athletes sent home
A North Korean shooter was stripped of his two medals and expelled from the Beijing Olympics along with a Vietnamese gymnast yesterday after they failed doping tests. They are the second and third athletes caught doping in Beijing, where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is conducting a record 4,500 drug tests. The IOC said shooter Kim Jong-su tested positive for propanolol after winning the silver medal in the 50m pistol and bronze in the 10m air pistol. Propanolol is a banned betablocker, which can be used to prevent trembling in events such as shooting and archery. The bronze medal in the 10m event now goes to American shooter Jason Turner. In the 50m event, China’s Tan Zongliang moves up to the silver and Russia’s Vladimir Isakov is upgraded to the bronze. Gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do, who finished in last place in the women’s floor exercise, tested positive for the diuretic furosemide.
■FIELD HOCKEY
Aussies win to stay top
Defending champions Australia powered to a 3-1 win over Pakistan in the men’s tournament yesterday, taking them a further big step toward the semi-finals. Pakistan, who must now pray for a miracle if they are to advance, having taken just three points from three games, opened the scoring through a Shakeel Abassi field goal after a quarter-of-an-hour. Grant Shubert struck back four minutes later, then the Aussies finished the job off in the second half with a penalty corner goal from Jamie Dwyer and a field goal from Travis Brooks. The encounter left Australia — with goals a-plenty to their credit after the 10-0 trouncing of South Africa — still atop pool B, ahead of the Netherlands, who in their earlier match beat Canada 4-2. In Pool A, Spain took their unbeaten record to three with a 2-1 win against bottom-of-the-table China to ensure they stay top. New Zealand beat Belgium 4-2 to edge Germany into third place.
■WEIGHTLIFTING
Cao, Lu win golds for China
Grieving Cao Lei won the women’s 75kg title yesterday, giving China their seventh weightlifting gold medal after her mother died in the run-up to the Games. The two-time world champion hoisted 128kg in the snatch and 154kg in the clean and jerk for a total lift of 282kg, all three being new Olympic records. “This medal is dedicated to my motherland and to the people, but also to my dear mother who had passed away recently,” Cao said, holding the medal before her as she broke down at a news conference after the awarding ceremony. Later, Lu Yong won the men’s 85kg title to give China their eighth weightlifting gold medal. Lu lifted 180kg in the snatch and 214kg in the clean and jerk for a total heave of 394kg, equaling the total of silver medalist Andrei Rybakou who had broken the world record with a total lift of 394kg moments earlier. Lu won the title because he had a lower body weight than the 26-year-old world champion. Tigran Varban Martirosyan of Armenia won the bronze with a total lift of 380kg.
■FENCING
France take epee title
France won the team gold medal in the men’s epee yesterday, easily defeating Poland in the title bout. The French trio of Jerome Jeannet, Fabrice Jeannet and Ulrich Robeiri won 45-29 in the gold medal bout. Fabrice Jeannet, the individual silver medalist, outscored his opponents 17-7. After he won five straight points against Radoslaw Zawrotniak, France led 30-14. He later returned to win seven of the final 11 points to clinch the title. Poland took the silver and Italy won the bronze.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
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