RUGBY UNION
La Rochelle shock in final
La Rochelle pulled off one of the great European Rugby Champions Cup comebacks on Saturday when they overhauled home-based Leinster and a 17-0 deficit to win their final 27-26 at Lansdowne Road. The French side did not lead until 8 minutes to go, after Antoine Hastoy coolly converted Georges-Henri Colombe’s try off a close-in ruck. Yellow cards reduced both sides to 14 men. La Rochelle were desperately defending their try line in the 79th minute when Leinster’s Michael Ala’alatoa charged into the head of Colombe in a ruck and was sent off, while Colombe was carried off. The French visitors cleared their line and moments later were celebrating their European crown in front of a stunned Leinster and its supporters. “They said we couldn’t do it, come to Leinster and win, but we did,” La Rochelle lock Will Skelton said. “Leinster are a world-class team and we had to dig deep. At 17-0 down, we still had the belief.”
SOCCER
Barca fans fixate on Messi
With the La Liga title in hand, Barcelona’s fans quickly moved on to what they want next: The return of their all-time favorite player. “Messi! Messi! Messi!” resounded at the Camp Nou — during minute 10 for Lionel Messi’s old No. 10 shirt — during Saturday’s game against Real Sociedad that ended with a rare 2-1 loss to the Basque visitors. The loss did little to dampen the festive atmosphere after the final whistle when Sergio Busquets as team captain received the Spanish league trophy and presented it to the crowd with his teammates. It was Busquets’ 32nd and last title before the midfielder leaves Barcelona this summer.
HORSE RACING
Baffert wins Preakness
National Treasure on Saturday fought off Blazing Sevens in the final strides to win the Preakness Stakes, taking trainer Bob Baffert from grief to glory hours after one of his horses was euthanized. Baffert claimed his eighth Preakness win, breaking a tie with 19th-century trainer Robert Wyndham Walden for most by a trainer, but that seemed far from his mind as he contemplated the day’s earlier grim events in the 148th running of the middle jewel in US flat racing’s Triple Crown. Baffert-trained Havnameltdown suffered a catastrophic front left leg injury during the sixth race of the day and had to be euthanized on the track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore. “There’s so many responsibilities a trainer has: employees, horses, jockey safety,” Baffert said, his voice breaking in a post-race television interview. “And then to win this... losing that horse today really hurt.”
MOUNTAINEERING
Amputee summits Everest
Gurkha veteran Hari Budha Magar, who was almost killed serving with the British army in Afghanistan, has become the first double above-the-knee amputee to climb Everest, a member of his team said yesterday. “He reached the top of Sagarmatha at around 3 PM [Nepali time] on Friday. After summiting the peak, he has now descended to the base camp,” Him Bista said, using the Nepali name for Everest. Two below-the-knee amputees have reached the peak in the past — New Zealander Mark Inglis in 2006 and China’s Xia Boyu (夏伯渝) in 2018.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Donovan Mitchell on Wednesday scored 26 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs with a hard-fought 112-107 victory over the Miami Heat. A seesaw battle in Cleveland saw the Heat threaten to end the Cavs’ 11-game unbeaten streak after opening up a seven-point lead late in the fourth quarter, but the Cavs clawed back the deficit in the closing minutes to seal their 12th straight victory and a place in the post-season. The Cavaliers improved to 52-10, maintaining their stranglehold on the Eastern Conference with 20 games of the regular season remaining. Mitchell was one of six Cleveland
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Steve Smith yesterday announced his retirement from one-day international (ODI) cricket after captaining Australia to a semi-final exit at the ICC Champions Trophy, bringing down the curtain on a career in the format that included two ICC World Cup wins. The 35-year-old batsman, who was his team’s top scorer with 73 as Australia lost to India by four wickets in Dubai on Tuesday, said he would still be available for selection for T20 internationals and Test matches. “It has been a great ride and I have loved every minute of it,” Smith said in a Cricket Australia statement. “There have been so
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