GOLF
McIlroy tops money list
Rory McIlroy on Sunday sealed top place in the DP World Tour rankings without hitting a shot as none of his closest challengers can now catch him after the end of the penultimate event of the season at Sun City. Northern Irishman McIlroy, with 5,164.5 points going into the DP World Tour Championship at Dubai this week, has finished top of the formerly named European Tour money list five times, first in 2012 and again in 2014, 2015 and last year. McIlroy, who made more than 7 million euros (US$7.5 million) in prize money in nine tour events this year, is 2,083 points ahead of second-placed Jon Rahm, the Masters champion, with Adrian Meronk third.
CRICKET
Player takes 6 in final over
An Australian club cricketer took six wickets in an incredible final over to clinch victory in a one-day game over the weekend, describing the rare feat as “surreal.” Facing almost certain defeat in the Gold Coast’s Premier League Division 3, Mudgeeraba captain Gareth Morgan opted to bowl the last six balls himself with Surfers Paradise needing five runs to win with six wickets in hand. They dramatically collapsed with Morgan removing opener Jake Garland for 65 then dismissing the next five batters for golden ducks. “It is funny, the umpire said to me at the start of the over that I needed to take a hat-trick or something to win the game,” Morgan told the Gold Coast Bulletin after his exploits attracted national attention. “When it happened he just sort of looked at me.” The most wickets in an over in professional cricket is five, Australian Broadcasting Corp said.
FOOTBALL
5 games end on field goals
Five games on Friday ended with field goals in regulation, the most in one day in NFL history. The Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans and Detroit Lions each kicked a field goal as time expired. The previous high in a single day was three. Cleveland and Arizona were trailing before their kicks. Dustin Hopkins hit a 40-yarder to give the Browns a 33-31 victory at Baltimore. Matt Prater made a 23-yard field goal to lift the Cardinals to a 25-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons. Seattle, Houston and Detroit were tied before their decisive field goals. Jason Myers kicked a 43-yarder, his fifth of the game, to give the Seahawks a 29-26 win against the Washington Commanders. Riley Patterson connected from 41 yards for the Lions, giving them a 41-38 win over the Los Angeles Chargers. Matt Ammendola, signed by Houston this week as an injury replacement, nailed a 38-yard field goal to finish the Texans’ 30-27 victory at Cincinnati.
HORSE RACING
Jockey in intensive care
Jockey Graham Lee is in intensive care after sustaining damage to his spinal cord in a fall at Newcastle on Friday, the Injured Jockeys Fund said on Sunday. Lee, who won the 2004 Grand National on Amberleigh House, was taken to a hospital after being unseated from mount Ben Macdui as the stalls opened at Newcastle Racecourse. The fund told British media that Lee sustained an unstable cervical fracture, as well as damage to blood vessels in the mid-cervical region. “This is a very serious injury and, at this early time, it is not possible to predict the extent of long-term recovery,” it said.
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
A debate over the soul of soccer is raging in FIFA World Cup holders Argentina, pitting defenders of the social role of the beautiful game against the government of libertarian Argentine President Javier Milei, who wants to turn clubs into for-profit companies. Argentina, which gave the world Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, is home to some of the world’s most devoted soccer fans — a fact attributed by supporters like Gabriel Nicosia to the clubs’ community outreach. Nicosia is a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo, a more than 100-year-old first division club based in the working-class Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo where
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