MARATHONS
Tola breaks NY record
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola on Sunday produced a devastating performance to win the New York Marathon in a new course record, while Kenya’s Hellen Obiri pipped Letsenbet Gidey to claim the women’s race. Tola, last year’s World Athletics Championships marathon gold medalist, powered home to take the tape in a time of 2 hours, 4 minutes, 58 seconds, shattering the old course record of 2:05:06 set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. Kenya’s Albert Korir was second in 2:06:57, while Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata was third in 2:07:11. The win marked a stunning return to form for Tola, who lost his World Championship marathon crown in Budapest in August after failing to finish the course. “I’m very happy — this is the first time I’ve won a major marathon which is very important to me,” Tola told ESPN after the race. A stacked women’s field, which included Boston Marathon champion Obiri, Gidey and Brigid Kosgei, the third fastest woman in history, was widely expected to set a potentially record-breaking pace. However the race became a slow tactical battle, with Obiri holding off 10,000m world record holder Gidey to take the line in 2:27:23. Gidey finished just behind in 2:27:29, with Kenya’s Lokedi third in 2:27:33.
TENNIS
Swiatek ousts Sabalenka
Poland’s Iga Swiatek on Sunday knocked out rival Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 in the semi-final of the season-ending WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico, putting the world No. 1 ranking within her reach ahead of the title match. The win by the cool and collected Swiatek set up a final showdown with the US’ Jessica Pegula, and she can end the year on top if she is able to hoist the trophy. World No. 1 Sabalenka ended Swiatek’s WTA Finals campaign in the penultimate stage a year ago, but lacked her usual lethal power in Cancun, as a flurry of forehand errors undermined her best efforts. The match began on Saturday, but officials were forced to suspend the affair with the Pole up 2-1 in the first set due to inclement weather. Four-time major winner Swiatek wrested the momentum immediately when play resumed on Sunday, and kept her composure throughout. “Jessie [Pegula] is a great player... I know it’s not going to be easy,” Swiatek said.
DRAGON BOATING
Prince William wins race
Britain’s Prince William yesterday took to the waters in Singapore for a morning of dragon boating, ahead of activities for the annual Earthshot Prize awards aimed at promoting solutions for the planet’s environmental threats. Donning a life vest and a black cap, the Prince of Wales sat in a long narrow boat as he paddled with athletes from the British Dragons club on the Kallang River. William and the other 19 paddlers rowed vigorously to the steady beat of a drummer standing in the bow. His boat triumphed in a brief race with another boat captained by British High Commissioner to Singapore Kara Owen. It was not the first time for William, an avid sportsman who tried his hand at dragon boating with his wife, Kate, during a tour of Canada in 2011. “I was lucky enough to be sitting next to him, and he is just a really nice guy,” said Laura Greenwood, a British expat who is a member of the British Dragons. “He has dragon boated before, so he felt kind of confident in what he was doing... It was quite fast pace, so he kept up really well.”
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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