Sports round-up

ATHLETICS: World record holder Usain Bolt stormed to the fastest time of the year in winning the 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome, last night. Olympic champion Bolt ran 9.76sec, beating the time he set last month in Kingston by six hundredths of a second. Compatriot Asafa Powell was second in 9.91sec with French European champion Christophe Lemaitre an impressive third in a high quality field in 10.04sec. World bronze medallist Kim Collins of St Kitts & Nevis was fourth in 10.05sec.

CRICKET: England batsman Kevin Pietersen has announced his shock retirement from One-Day and Twenty20 Internationals. The 31-year-old has played 127 ODIs and 36 T20Is and was a first-choice player in both formats. But he will now continue his England career as a Test specialist only following discussions with the England and Wales Cricket Board last month.

SNOOKER: British professional Joe Jogia (picture) has been suspended by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association pending the completion of a betting investigation. Jogia withdrew from his Snooker Shoot-Out match against Matthew Selt in January due to a leg injury, shortly after a bookmaker reported the contest had been the subject of unusual betting patterns. It is understood an unusually large number of small bets were placed on Selt to win the January 28 match with various bookmakers.

ICE HOCKEY: Anze Kopitar scored on a breakaway 8:13 into over-time on Wednesday as Los Angeles Kings downed New Jersey Devils 2-1 in the opening game of the Stanley Cup final. Defenceman Drew Doughty began the move that culminated with the game-winner, sending the puck up the left wing to Kopitar who fired it under the pad of Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur.

BASKET, NBA: LeBron James scored 34 points and Dwyane Wade added 23 as Miami withstood a stellar perfor-mance by Boston’s Rajon Rondo to beat the Celtics 115-111 in over-time in game two of the NBA Eastern Conference finals. With this win, the Heat took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series that will send the winners into the NBA finals against either San Antonio or Oklahoma City.