ARCHERY
Taiwanese wins bronze
Taiwan’s Chiu Yi-ching yesterday won a bronze medal in her first Archery World Cup event, the women’s individual recurve, in Gwangju, South Korea. The 18-year-old defeated compatriot Kuo Tzu-ying 6-2 in the bronze medal match, after losing in the semi-finals to Lee Gah-yun of South Korea 6-2. Kuo, 19, earlier defeated Taiwanese Olympian Lei Chien-ying 6-5 in a one-arrow tiebreaker, but was shut out by top seed South Korean Choi Misun, who went on to win gold. Kuo and Chiu are both representing Taiwan on the World Cup tour for the first time this year. The men’s recurve team of Olympian Tang Chih-chun, newcomer Su Yu-yang and 19-year-old Tai Yu-hsuan was ousted by the US 5-4 in the second round.
SOCCER
Mbappe stays at PSG
Kylian Mbappe on Saturday said he was “very happy” to stay at Paris Saint-Germain after the club announced that the World Cup winner was rejecting Real Madrid to remain in France until 2025. “I am very happy to stay in France, in Paris, in my city,” Mbappe told supporters on the Parc des Princes pitch before he marked his new deal with a hat-trick in PSG’s 5-0 win over Metz in their final Ligue 1 match of the season. La Liga president Javier Tebas said that the massive financial resources of PSG’s Qatari owners persuaded Mbappe to stay in France. “What PSG is doing by renewing Mbappe with large sums of money ... after posting losses of 700 million euros [US$738.9 million] in recent seasons and having a wage bill of over 600 million euros, is an INSULT to football,” Tebas wrote on Twitter. La Liga said in a statement that it was launching an official complaint “to UEFA, the French administrative and fiscal authorities,” and the EU.
SOCCER
Violence mars Greek Cup
Crowd violence and tear gas on Saturday marred the Greek Cup final, where Panathinaikos made a first-half penalty hold up to beat PAOK 1-0. Penalty-scorer Aitor Cantalapiedra was allegedly hit in the hand by a chunk of cement thrown from the crowd. Only 43,000 tickets were sold for the 70,000-seat Athens Olympic Stadium to keep apart fans from both clubs. Despite that, Panathinaikos fans attempted before the final to get close to PAOK fans, and spilled onto the track around the field. Riot police forced them back using tear gas, and PAOK supporters threw flares at the retreating Panathinaikos fans. In Croatia, police opened fire with live ammunition during clashes on a highway with hundreds of soccer fans returning from a match in the capital, Zagreb, authorities said. Two fans and about a dozen police officers were injured, but none in life-threatening condition, they said.
HORSE RACING
Early Voting wins Preakness
Early Voting on Saturday validated a gutsy decision to skip the Kentucky Derby and aim for the second leg of the Triple Crown, by holding off hard-charging favorite Epicenter to win the Preakness, rewarding trainer Chad Brown and owner Seth Klarman for their patience. Early Voting stalked the leaders for much of the race before moving into first around the final turn and finished one-and-one-quarter lengths ahead of Epicenter, who was second. “We thought he needed a little more seasoning, the extra rest would help him,” Klarman said. “And as it turned out, that was the right call.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB