Snooker: Welsh Open semi-final – Ding beat Murphy 6-2.
Rugby League: Ryan Hall’s first-half blitz proved enough as Leeds Rhinos avenged their defeat in 2009 to claim the World Club Challenge with a 26-12 win against Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at the Headingley Carnegie Stadium on Friday. The 24-year-old Leeds winger crossed twice in the first half and the Rhinos held off a Manly second-half fightback to seal the club’s record-equalling third win in the marquee fixture.
Athletics: Liu Xiang beat rival Dayron Robles at the British Grand Prix Indoor yesterday in the first clash of the hurdlers since their controversial World Championship show-down last year. Liu blasted to victory in the 60m hurdles in 7.41secs while Robles was a distant second in 7.50. Robles, the reigning Olympic champion, was stripped of his 110m hurdles gold at the World Championships in Daegu last August after being adjudged to have fouled Liu as the two dashed for the line.
Basketball: A late comeback led by Jeremy Lin fell short as New Orleans Hornets ended New York’s NBA win streak at seven games with an 89-85 victory... but even defeat was no cure for “Lin-sanity”. Lin matched Knicks team-mate Amare Stoudemire with a game-high 26 points but the first US-born NBA player of Taiwanese and Chinese heritage also made nine turnovers, matching the most by any player in a NBA game this season, in the upset to the Hornets.
Rugby Union: Mike Tolkin has been named the new coach of the US national rugby squad, replacing former Irish national team coach Eddie O’Sullivan, who resigned last November after two years in the post. The Americans, who lost three of four matches at last year’s World Cup in New Zealand, turned to Tolkin, who served as defensive coach for the Eagles at the World Cup.
[attach id=186581 size="medium" align="right"][/attach]
Alpine Skiing: Olympic champ Lindsey Vonn (picture), of the US, has won a fifth consecutive World Cup downhill globe by finishing third in Russia, yesterday. Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch won the downhill race on the piste for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics ahead of world champion Elisabeth Goergl, of Austria. The 27-year-old Vonn is over 200 points ahead and cannot be overtaken with two races left this season.
Tennis: Petra Kvitova confirmed that she will team up with 29th-ranked fellow Czech Radek Stepanek for the mixed doubles event at the 2012 Olympic Games. “I’m convinced that Radek will guide me like a more experienced doubles player,” said Kvitova, who has played just three mixed doubles tournaments in her career. Ste-panek, 33, won the Australian Open men’s doubles title with Indian Leander Paes in Melbourne last month.
Ice Hockey: A teenage Russian player has died after falling into a coma during a match in Penza, south-west Russia, last week. According to reports, 16-year-old forward Maksim Koposov lost consciousness and collapsed after being hit by a puck towards the end of a match between his side, Olympia, and Dizel Penza. In 2008, another Russian, 19-year-old Alexei Chere-panov, died after suffering a heart attack during a match in Chekhov.