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Alpine Skiing: Lindsey Vonn (picture, right), skiing with a knee brace to protect a hairline fracture, extended her World Cup lead yesterday with 13th place in the Soldeu combined event in Andorra. “No-one can ever call me a wimp,” the American declared on Twitter after setting the fastest time in the super-G leg of the event. On Saturday, Vonn, who is seeking her fifth overall World Cup title, was carried off the slope on a sled after crashing out of the Soldeu super-G race. An X-ray examination showed a hairline fracture in her left knee.
Motorcycling: Reigning champion Jonathan Rea made a successful start to the new World Superbike Championship season in Australia, yesterday. The 29-year-old Kawasaki rider followed up his victory in race one at Phillip Island with another in the second, becoming the first racer to do the double at the venue since Carlos Checa in 2011. Holland’s Michael van der Mark was second on a Honda, less than a second behind, with Italy’s Davide Giugliano third on a Ducati bike. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) was sixth and fellow Briton Chaz Davies (Ducati) also claimed a top-10 placing at Phillip Island.
Golf: Overnight leader Louis Oosthuizen eased to a one-shot victory in the Perth International after a final-round 71 at Lake Karrinyup Country Club, yesterday. The 33-year-old world no.21 took a third-round three-shot lead into the final day before he finished on 16 under, one shot ahead of Frenchman Alexander Levy – with three birdies and a bogey either end of his round – to claim his eighth European Tour title. The win sees the 2010 Open Championship winner move ahead of compatriot Branden Grace and back into fourth place for South African wins on the European Tour.
American Football: Quarterback great Peyton Manning is expected to announce his retirement within a week, the Denver Post reported yesterday. The newspaper reported that after meeting recently with Denver Broncos general manager John Elway, “Manning is certain” the time has come to call it a day. Manning helped Denver Broncos defeat Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl earlier this month. The victory was his second National Football League championship in a storied career in which he was named the league’s Most Valuable Player five times in 17 championship seasons, 13 with Indianapolis Colts and four with the Broncos.
Athletics: Paula Radcliffe has been elected vice-chairwoman of the IAAF athletes’ commission. Great Britain’s marathon world record holder, a committed anti-doping campaigner, was elected at a meeting in Monaco last weekend, where former Slovenian high jumper Rozle Prezelj was named as the new chairman, succeeding Frank Fredericks. The IAAF faces a challenge to rebuild its shattered reputation after a World Anti-Doping Agency report found corruption was embedded in the organisation.