BASEBALL
Lenny Randle dies aged 75
Former infielder Lenny Randle, who played 12 major league seasons, died on Sunday. He was 75. Randle died at his home in Murrieta, California, according to reports. He was once dubbed “The Most Interesting Man in Baseball” by Rolling Stone magazine, but his career was overshadowed by a punch he threw at Texas Rangers manager Frank Lucchesi on March 28, 1977. The switch-hitting Randle lost his second base job to Bump Wills during spring training and immediately requested a trade. Lucchesi told reporters he was tired of complaining from “US$80,000-a-year-punks.” Soon thereafter, Randle confronted Lucchesi near the third-base line before a game and punched him in the face three times, breaking the manager’s cheekbone in three places. He was also the center of a 1974 benches-clearing brawl against the then-Cleveland Indians.
Photo: AP
ATHLETICS
Chebet smashes 5k record
Double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet on Tuesday smashed the women’s 5km world record with a time of 13 minutes, 54 seconds at the Cursa dels Nassos road race in Barcelona, Spain, to finish her blockbuster year on a high. The Kenyan beat her previous record — set a year ago to the day at the Barcelona race — by 19 seconds, becoming the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier in the event. The 24-year-old enjoyed a nearly flawless year, breaking the 10,000m world record in Eugene, Oregon, in May before claiming her second Diamond League title in the 5,000m in September.
SOCCER
Barcelona fights for Olmo
Barcelona on Tuesday applied for new players’ licences for Dani Olmo and Pau Victor with the Royal Spanish Football Association, while the club denied claims of requesting any delay from governing bodies for their registrations. The announcement was made hours before the midnight registration deadline. Barcelona lost a second appeal to register the players for the remainder of the season on Monday, with the club unable to meet La Liga’s wage cap. Barcelona signed Olmo in August last year for about 55 million euros (US$57.23 million), but the attacking midfielder was registered for only the first half of the season. Efforts to extend Olmo’s and Victor’s registrations have hit repeated road blocks, with Barcelona’s appeals dismissed by La Liga and judicial authorities.
ICE HOCKEY
US top Canada in Juniors
Danny Nelson on Tuesday night scored the game-winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves, leading the US to a 4-1 win over Canada to take top spot in Group A at the World Junior Championship. Canada finished third in the pool and would today face the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals, while the US face Switzerland. “We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.” Canada and the US played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event, when John Tavares scored a memorable hat-trick in Canada’s 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians went on to win a fifth straight gold. “That’s something that’s storybook-like,” the US’ Cole Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
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