Basketball: Chris Bosh had 24 points and an ailing LeBron James added 21 as NBA champions Miami closed out a six-game road trip with a 97-88 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday. Shane Battier connected on four three-pointers for the Heat, who were without Dwyane Wade for the second straight game with a sprained left foot. Wade missed three of the Heat’s six games on this road swing. He didn’t play against Atlanta in the opener because of an illness.
Boxing: Brian Viloria stopped Hernan Marquez in the 10th round on Saturday to add Marquez’s World Boxing Association flyweight world title to his own World Boxing Organisation belt. Filipino-American Viloria knocked down Marquez with a right late in round one and continued to dominate the early rounds. Mexico’s Marquez came alive in the fifth, unleashing a battery of blows, but Viloria weathered the storm and sent Marquez to the canvas again.
Athletics: Kenya’s Lydia Cheromei outpaced the field over the last 27 kilometres to secure a comfortable win in the Yokohama international women’s marathon yesterday. The 35-year-old overtook the pace-setters after passing the 14km mark and never faced a serious challenge afterwards, crossing the finishing line in two hours, 23 minutes and seven seconds. Japan’s Mizuho Nasukawa held on to finish second in 2:26:42 while Marisa Barros, of Portugal, came in third in 2:26:51, followed by Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia in 2:26:55.
Golf: Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez became the oldest winner in the history of the European Tour after he triumphed at the $2 million UBS Hong Kong Open yesterday for a third time. The 48-year-old held off the rampaging Fredrik Andersson Hed, of Sweden, to earn a hat-trick of titles in Fanling by one shot. Jimenez, the co-overnight leader, carded a final-round 65 for a four-day total of 15-under-par 265. Jimenez, at 48 years and 318 days, beats the previous oldest winner on the European Tour. That was Des Smyth, who was 48 years and 34 days when he triumphed at the 2001 Madeira Islands Open
Rugby League: Hollywood star Russell Crowe is planning to sell his stake in the Australian rugby league team he co-owns in an attempt to simplify his life after splitting from his wife, a report said yesterday. Crowe has been a fan of National Rugby League outfit South Sydney Rabbitohs since childhood and regularly turns up to watch their home games. In 2006 he and businessman Peter Holmes a Court bought 75 per cent of the club but Channel Nine television said he was now ready to sell up following his split last month from wife Danielle Spencer.
Badminton: Chinese women’s doubles team Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli won the China Open yesterday in their first tournament together since being booted out of the Olympics in a playing-to-lose scandal that rocked the London Games. The second-seeded pair bested No. 6 seeds Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna 21-19, 14-7 after the Japanese duo retired from the match. Yu and Wang were among eight players disqualified from the 2012 London Olympics for attempting to drop round-robin games in a bid to secure a favourable quarter-final draw.