BASEBALL
Ohtani breaks homer record
Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani on Sunday belted his 176th career home run to move past Hideki Matsui for most homers by a Japanese player in MLB. Ohtani crushed an 0-1 pitch from Mets right-handed hurler Adrian Houser 129m into the Dodger Stadium’s right field bleachers to break a tie with Matsui atop the list. Matsui, who was the 2009 World Series Most Valuable Player with the New York Yankees, needed 20 seasons to put up 175 home runs. Ohtani has passed him in his seventh campaign. Ohtani has five home runs this season. He had tied Matsui with a homer on April 13, but then went seven games without a homer. In that span Ohtani was 11-for-29 at the plate, with three doubles and six walks. “Honestly I was just relieved I was able to just get it over with. I was just happy I was able to do that,” Ohtani said. After Sunday’s two-run blast, Ohtani reached base twice more in the Dodgers’ 10-0 victory over the Mets.
MOTORSPORT
Seven killed in Sri Lanka
A race car veered off the track on Sunday during a competition in Sri Lanka and rammed into a crowd of spectators and race officials, killing seven people, officials said. Thousands of spectators looked on as the incident took place during a race in the town of Diyatalawa, about 180km east of the capital, Colombo. It was not immediately clear what caused the incident. Seven people, including four officials, were killed and another 20 were being treated at a hospital, police spokesman Nihal Thalduwa said. Three of the injured were in a critical condition, he said. The race was suspended after the accident. The event was organized by the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Automobile Sports.
GOLF
Korda matches record
World No. 1 Nelly Korda on Sunday matched an LPGA record with her fifth consecutive victory, winning the Chevron Championship for her second major crown and 13th career tour triumph. Her two-stroke triumph over Sweden’s Maja Stark stretched Korda’s season win streak to five titles in five starts to equal the LPGA record set by the US’ Nancy Lopez in 1978 and matched by Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam from 2004-2005. Korda withstood a tension-packed back nine, but never lost her lead in holding off rivals over the closing holes at Carlton Woods in suburban Houston, Texas.
CYCLING
Pogacar solos to Liege win
Tadej Pogacar on Sunday destroyed the field with a stunning solo attack to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Slovenian’s sixth Monument victory of his career. UAE Team Emirates’ Pogacar attacked with 34km remaining of the 254km trek as the field tackled the iconic Cote de la Redoute and then surged clear. He finished one minute, 39 seconds ahead of Romain Bardet, while Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel won a sprint to claim third. It was the second Liege victory for Pogacar and made up for last year when he crashed. He also departed the 2022 edition of the race after the death of his fiance’s mother. “It was quite emotional for me all day riding on the bike, thinking of Urska’s mother two years ago and we had to go home,” Pogacar said. “Then last year when I broke my hand so the last two years were really difficult.”
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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