FOOTBALL
Jets’ betting odds plunge
The New York Jets’ odds to win the Super Bowl plummeted after quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered a season-ending torn Achilles tendon in their 22-16 overtime victory over the Buffalo Bills on Monday night. New York’s odds to win it all went from 16-1 to 50-1 at Caesars Sportsbook and 18-1 to 66-1 at BetMGM. “Since the Rodgers injury, bettors are not interested in backing Zach Wilson,” BetMGM trading team lead Seamus Magee said. The Jets drove much of the pre-season NFL betting thanks to their trade for Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers. More money was bet on New York than any other American Football Conference team at BetMGM, and the Jets were Caesars’ biggest financial liability.
CYCLING
Jonas stuns on stage 16
Jonas Vingegaard on Tuesday re-established the pecking order in the Jumbo-Visma team with a stunning victory on stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana to move closer to the overall lead. The Dane, who retained his Tour de France title this year, went off like a rocket on the steep finish to the 120km run through the Cantabrian valleys to outclass the peloton. Teammate Sepp Kuss struggled in the finale and lost more than a minute to Vingegaard, but hangs on to the red jersey with a reduced buffer of 29 seconds. Three-time Vuelta winner Primoz Roglic completed a Jumbo-Visma top three in the GC standings and was 1 minute, 33 seconds behind Kuss. The Jumbo-Visma team were reeling earlier on Tuesday after the news that their rider Nathan van Hooydonck was in hospital after falling ill at the wheel at home in Belgium. Initial reports said he was in a life-threatening situation, but later Jumbo-Visma said his condition was “not critical.” Vingegaard, who counted on teammate Van Hooydonck’s steadfast support during his ride to the Tour victory this year, looked emotional after crossing the finish line. “I’m just happy to win today, because we had some terrible news this morning and I wanted to win for my best friend today,” Vingegaard told Eurosport after his second stage win at this year’s Vuelta. Jumbo-Visma are poised to become the first team to win all three Grand Tours in a single season after Roglic won this year’s Giro d’Italia.
CRICKET
Proteas end Aussie streak
South Africa’s spin bowlers backed up a century by Aiden Markram as the hosts ended Australia’s winning streak with a 111-run victory in the third one-day international at the J.B. Marks Oval in Potchefstroom on Tuesday. Markram hit 102 not out in a South African total of 338-6. South Africa survived a furious assault by David Warner and Travis Head before bowling out Australia for 227. Left-arm spinners Tabraiz Shamsi (2-29) and Keshav Maharaj (2-37) changed the course of the match on a spin-friendly pitch before fast bowler Gerald Coetzee (4-50) finished off the Australian innings. Maharaj also made a key intervention in the field with a direct-hit run out of Warner, who made 78 off 56 balls before slipping and losing his shoe as he set off for a single. “We needed a positive one,” South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said. “The batters knuckled down and we were banking on the wicket assisting the spin bowlers and it’s exactly what it did.” Australia won the first two games in the five-match series after sweeping a Twenty20 series 3-0.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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