Sports round-up

Sailing: Frenchman Franck Cammas took ruthless advantage of unforced errors by his closest rivals to win his home-town in-port race in Lorient yesterday and move closer to overall triumph in the Volvo Ocean Race. Both Puma and Camper threatened to spoil Cammas’s big day on board Groupama. But both bungled sail changes at crucial moments to allow the typically efficient Cammas to cruise home to victory and a 25-point lead with only the ninth leg to sail between Lorient and Galway in Ireland before one final in-port race.

Basket: Croatia, Czech Republic, Turkey and France completed a clean sweep of European successes, booking their tickets to the London Olympics with quarter-final victories at the women’s Qualifying Tournament in Ankara, late Friday. Croatia earned a place for the first time in their history as they edged out Canada 59-56. While Croatia will sample their first Olympics, the Czech Republic ensured a third successive appearance as they held off a Japanese fightback to win 53-47.

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Athletics: Yohan Blake (picture) served notice he will be ready to challenge for the Olympic 100m title, upstaging world record holder Usain Bolt to win in 9.75 seconds at the Jamaican Olympic Athletic Trials. Just one month before the start of the London Games, Blake became the fourth-fastest man ever in the event as he ran a personal best and the fastest time in the world this year. Bolt was second in 9.86 and Asafa Powell snatched the third and final Olympic spot with a time of 9.88 seconds in a star-studded final.

Gymnastics: The 2009 world gymnastics champion Bridget Sloan is out of the London Games after spraining her left elbow while warming up at the US Olympic trials. The injury ends her hopes because US athletes are not allowed to petition directly to get onto the Olympic team. Sloan was warming up on the uneven bars when she injured her elbow. She was on the US team that won silver at the Beijing Games.

Swimming: Nathan Adrian won the 100m freestyle at the US Olympic swimming trials, giving himself a long-awaited first shot at the Games’ prestige sprint. “I’ve been hungry for an individual spot since I got that fourth,” Adrian said of his fourth-place finish at the 2008 trials, which gave him a trip to Beijing in the relay pool. “To actually get it feels really good.”

Open Water Swim: British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey forged ahead yesterday with her quest to cross unassisted from Cuba to Florida, reaching the half-way mark after a night braving jelly fish stings. The grandmother of two is seeking to become the first to complete the historic feat without a shark cage. The 49-year-old, who left the Cuban capital of Havana shortly after sunrise Friday, had covered 80 kilometres some 24 hours later. The 166km swim was expected to take between 40 and 50 hours.

Baseball: Arizona’s Aaron Hill became the first Major League Baseball player since 1931 to hit for the cycle twice in a season as the Diamondbacks defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 9-3 on Friday. Hill, who also hit for the cycle on June 18, registered his 1,000th career hit with a ground-rule double in the first inning. Hitting for the cycle comprises a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. Hill is the first to achieve the feat twice since Babe Herman did it for Brooklyn Dodgers in 1931.

Wimbledon: A highly-trained hawk, used to chase pigeons away from the Wimbledon tennis championships, was stolen from a car where it had been left overnight, police said. The Harrier hawk, named Rufus, was stolen together with its cage from a car parked near the famed All England Club in south-west London.