DARTS
Teen makes world semis
Sixteen-year-old Luke Littler on Monday became the youngest player to ever reach the semi-finals of the PDC World Darts Championship with a 5-1 win over Brendan Dolan at Alexandra Palace. Littler had a nervous start, losing the first two legs of the opening set, but the teenager soon found his stride to win that first set, and had little trouble in seeing off 50-year-old Dolan from Northern Ireland. “Wow. I’m in the semi-final on my debut,” Littler told Sky Sports. “If I keep it up, I’ve got a good chance. Now I am dreaming. I’m two games away. I’m definitely thinking about lifting the title.” The English teenager is to face 2018 winner Rob Cross, who made a remarkable comeback from 4-0 down to beat Chris Dobey 5-4 in their quarter-final.
CRICKET
Warner pleads for cap
Australian opener David Warner has made an impassioned appeal for the return of a rucksack containing his baggy green cap that went missing on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney for his final Test match this week. The 37-year-old is to bring down the curtain on his 12-year career in the longest format of the game in the third Test against Pakistan at his home Sydney Cricket Ground starting today. “This is my last resort, but my backpack, which contained my Baggy Green, has been taken from my luggage, which was transported to Melbourne airport and flown ... to Sydney a few days ago,” he wrote on Instagram. “It’s sentimental to me, it’s something that I would love to have back, in my hands, walking out there come this week... You won’t get into trouble, just get in touch with Cricket Australia or me.” Australian internationals receive the baggy green cap, usually from a former player, on the morning of their test debut and wear it with pride even as it deteriorates over the length of their career.
BASKETBALL
Clarkson posts triple-double
Jordan Clarkson on Monday came off the bench to post the first regular-season triple-double by a Utah Jazz player since 2008, leading his team to a 127-90 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Clarkson had 20 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds — the first triple-double of his career — and the first for the Jazz in a regular-season game since Carlos Boozer had one on Feb. 13, 2008, a stretch of 1,256 games. Also, Clarkson’s triple-double was the first in more than 40 years for a Jazz player coming off the bench, dating to Feb. 5, 1983, when Mark Eaton had 12 points, 14 rebounds and 12 blocked shots. “It was a very cool little milestone to put on my list,” Clarkson said. Hehad several near-misses in the fourth quarter before grabbing his 10th, and final, rebound with 2 minutes, 28 seconds left. He wrapped up the ball, called timeout and then his teammates and Jazz fans erupted with cheers.
ATHLETICS
Arrests in Kiplagat murder
Two men were arrested in connection with the killing of Ugandan Olympic runner Benjamin Kiplagat, who was found with his throat cut in his brother’s car in Kenya on New Year’s Eve, police said on Monday. A knife suspected of being used in the killing of the 34-year-old Kiplagat was found on one of the suspects, Moiben sub county police commander Stephen Okal said. The motive for the killing appears to have been robbery, he said, because money and a cellphone had been taken from Kiplagat.
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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