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Snooker: World champion Mark Selby (picture) capped his triumphant campaign by landing three more accolades at snooker’s end-of-season awards ceremony. Three days after he beat John Higgins in the Crucible final to land a third career World Championship and fifth ranking title in 2016/17, Selby was named player of the year, journalists’ player of the year and fans’ player of the year at the World Snooker Awards. Selby took the acclaim at the event held at the Dorchester Hotel in London
Cycling: Austrian grand tour debutant Lukas Postlberger claimed a surprise victory in the first stage of the 100th edition of the Giro d’Italia in Sardinia yesterday. The Bora-Hansgrohe lead-out man found himself clear of the chasing peloton in the last kilometre into Olbia after 206km on the road and as the sprinters tried to react he powered on to cross the line and become the first man in the Maglia Rosa. It proved a great opening day for the Bora-Hansgrohe team as Italian Cesare Benedetti claimed the early lead in the king of the mountain category after spending all day in a breakaway.
Cricket: The 2017 Women’s World Cup will see a 10 times increase in prize money to $2 million with every ball of the tournament broadcast live, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has said. The 2013 Women’s World Cup in India, when Australia won its sixth title by defeating West Indies in the final, had just $200,000 on offer as prize money.
Golf: The Presidents Cup will return to Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 2019 with the Sandbelt course hosting the international team competition for the third time in the 25-year history of the biennial event. The match play competition between the United States and an International Team was previously held at the famed Melbourne layout, the only venue outside the US to host a Presidents Cup more than once, in 1998 and 2011. Melbourne also holds the distinction as the site of the lone International Team victory in 1998, when Peter Thomson’s squad defeated Jack Nicklaus’s US Team 20.5 to 11.5.
Basketball, NBA: The Golden State Warriors are cruising towards a place in the NBA Western Conference play-off final after going 2-0 up in their series with the Utah Jazz. The Warriors followed up Tuesday’s opening semi-final win with a 115-104 victory in game two. Kevin Durant was the main man with 25 points and 11 rebounds, with Steph Curry adding 23. Gordon Hayward registered 33 points for the Jazz, but they are up against it in the best-of-seven series.