Basketball: Kyle Korver set a new NBA record with a three-pointer for the 90th straight game to help Atlanta Hawks beat Cleveland Cavaliers 108-89 yesterday. Korver got the record out of the way early, sinking one from beyond the arc in the first quarter to beat Dana Barros’s mark of 89 games set back in 1996. Korver had 10 points in all as Al Horford paced the Hawks with 22 and Cleveland’s Dion Waters led all scorers with 30.
Snooker: World champion Ronnie O’Sullivan threatened to withdraw from next month’s Masters before stating he has taken up his place after all. O’Sullivan earned an automatic qualifying place for the event with his Crucible triumph in May, but wrote on Twitter on Friday evening that he was “unsure” as to whether to appear at Alexandra Palace from January 12. The 38-year-old’s post read: “Thinking about entering the masters at ally pally – what ya think – yes or no – so unsure”. A reply from World Snooker’s official account simply read “yes”, and O’Sullivan wrote around an hour after his original post: “entered and done... let me entertain u ally pally”.
Alpine Skiing: Maria Hoefl-Riesch (picture) claimed victory in the World Cup downhill race at Lake Louise in Canada. The German completed the course in a time of one minute 56.03 seconds, a huge seven-tenths clear of Switzerland’s Marianne Kauf-mann-Abderhalden in second, as she claimed her first win of the season. Elena Fanchini, of Italy, came home in third, 1.2 seconds off the flying Hoefl-Riesch, while the race was also notable for the involvement of America’s Lindsey Vonn, who was racing for the first time in almost a year after suffering a serious knee injury at February’s World Championships. Vonn, the reigning Olympic downhill champion, was back competing on Friday and finished in 40th place.
Golf: Tiger Woods’s closest challengers were left scratching their heads in disbelief after the world number one took control of the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge with a 10-under-par 62. Five-times champion Woods played near-flawless golf in the second round of the tournament he hosts in California, equalling the course record he set at Sherwood Country Club in 2007 to end the day two shots clear. His stunning 10-birdie 62 was five strokes better than the next-best score in an elite field of 18, Northern Ireland’s defending champion Graeme McDowell and England’s Ian Poulter both having carded 67s.
Basket, NBA: Kobe Bryant will make his long-awaited return from injury for Los Angeles Lakers today at home to Toronto Raptors, the shooting guard said on his Facebook account yesterday. The 35-year-old posted a two-minute video link that showed his “No.24” jersey fluttering through rain and shine, preceded by the inscription: “Seasons of Legend. Lakers announce Kobe’s return.” The video segment ended by flashing the words: “The Legend continues. December 8.” Bryant has been sidelined since mid-April with a torn left Achilles tendon but was given full medical clearance to resume all basketball activities midway through last month.
Boxing: South African boxer Jacob ‘Baby Jake’ Matlala, the shortest world champion whose fortunes were closely followed by Nelson Mandela, died yesterday at the age of 51. The 1.47 metre tall light-flyweight champion was a potent symbol of reconciliation in post-Apartheid South Africa, where his fortunes were keenly followed. Matlala won titles under three different sanctioning bodies, the last of which at the age of 42 was watched ringside by Mandela. Matlala, who retired because he said he had “run out of small people to fight”, had suffered from poor health and money problems in recent years. Benefactors raised funds to pay his medical bills and other debts.