Rowing: Oxford will take a weight advantage of just over 21kg into the 159th Boat Race on March 31 after both crews weighed in yesterday. Oxford’s crew weighed an average of 94.7kg and a total of 757.6kg excluding the cox, with Cambridge slightly lighter at 92.05kg for a total of 736.4kg. The heaviest crew member will be Oxford’s Canadian double Olympic medallist Mal-colm Howard, who weighed in at 109.2kg, just over a kilo less than the record of 110.8kg held by 2007 Cambridge strokeman Thorsten Engelmann.
Golf: Rory McIlroy will face the media tomorrow for the first time since his shock withdrawal from the Honda Classic last week. McIlroy claimed he was “in a bad place mentally” after pulling out of the defence of his title midway through his second round, but later released a statement to say a sore wisdom tooth was the reason for his early exit. The world number one had played the opening eight holes of his round in seven over par, before finding a water hazard on the 18th and immediately quitting the tournament.
Formula One: The Caterham F1 team strengthened their technical staff yesterday with the arrival of Hari Roberts as new head of aerodynamics. Roberts worked previously with Jordan, Renault and Lotus. Malaysian-owned Caterham are starting their fourth season in Formula One still chasing their first point. The season starts in Australia on March 17.
Snooker: Mark Allen retained his Haikou World Open crown after thrashing Matthew Stevens 10-4 in the final in China on Sunday. Allen never looked back from winning the first four frames and eventually won at a canter even though his Welsh opponent narrowed the deficit back to 7-4 in the evening session. The Northern Irishman became the first person to win a world ranking tournament in successive years since John Higgins triumphed in the Welsh Open in 2010 and 2011.
Tennis: Swiss former world number one Martina Hingis, a winner of five grand slam singles titles, headlined the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s list of inductees for the 2013 class. Broadcaster Cliff Drysdale, tennis promoter Charlie Pasarell and former Romanian player Ion Tiriac will be inducted to the contributor category, the Newport, Rhode Island, hall said in a statement. Australian Thelma Coyne Long was previously named as an inductee to the master player category.
Golf: American Michael Thompson kept his head in gusty winds to win the Honda Classic on Sunday by two shots from Australian Geoff Ogilvy. In testing, windy con-ditions, Ogilvy shot an impressive one-under par 69 but the 27-year-old Thompson, the joint overnight leader, held firm for his first win on the PGA Tour, ending with a birdie on the 18th for a 69.
Basket, NBA: Miami Heat notched another win on their pay-back tour in a Sunday matinee, dashing the hopes of New York Knicks while raising the question of whether any team can deny Miami another NBA title. The Heat, led by the spectacular LeBron James, erased a 15-point deficit at intermission by imposing their will down the stretch for a 99-93 win in Madison Square Garden that extended their winning streak to a franchise record-tying 14 in a row.