Sports briefs
Better late than never
Dame Valerie Adams says “justice has been served” after she was awarded a 10th world title she was initially denied by Belarusian drug cheat Nadzeya Ostapchuk in 2010. Moments after winning her 16th national title in the women’s shot put in Hamilton yesterday, Adams was presented with the gold medal from the 2010 world indoor athletics championships at a ceremony at Porritt Stadium. “Better late than never. Justice has been served to some extent with bringing this medal home to New Zealand,” Adams said. “This is the second time this has happened to me by the same person. It’s great to share another medal with New Zealand eight years later.” Adams previously was awarded a belated gold from the 2012 London Olympics after initially being denied by Ostapchuk, who later tested positive.
Kiwi Bevin leads in Italy
New Zealand cyclist Patrick Bevin is flying high in the Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy, taking the overall lead after two stages. Bevin finished fifth in yesterday’s stage to replace BMC team colleague Damiano Caruso as Valerie Adams celebrates her 2010 gold medal from the world indoor championships, awarded last night in Hamilton.
race leader after their team — also including Rohan Dennis and Greg van Avermaet — won the first-stage time trial. German cyclist Marcel Kittel won the 167km second stage after a major crash in the peloton held up most of the stage’s riders. All of the race
favourites emerged unscathed to finish in the front group.
King seeks match parity
Billie Jean King says grand slam tournaments should reduce men’s matches to best-of-three sets to maintain the appeal of tennis to modern consumers. The American has been a decades-long pioneer of equality within the sport in which she was a 12-time grand slam singles champion, collecting six of her haul at Wimbledon. Now, she believes men should be playing shorter matches at the majors, to ensure matches remain sufficiently bite-sized for audiences. Asked whether women should play matches of the same length as the men, who play best-of-five singles contests in all the grand slams, King said: “Personally, I don’t want the men playing five sets any more. I think it takes too much out of them. I want them to play as long as possible [in their careers].”
Woods coiled to strike
Tiger Woods took the bite out of the “Snake Pit” in his Valspar Championship debut to sit three shots behind clubhouse leader Corey Conners in the first round at Palm Harbour yesterday. Woods, who two weeks ago at the Honda Classic enjoyed the most encouraging result of his latest comeback from injury, mixed five birdies with four bogeys for a one-under-par 70 at Innisbrook Resort’s Copperhead course. That left the former world No 1, who had spinalfusion surgery last April and only returned to the PGA Tour this year, ahead of some other high-profile players competing this week, including world No 4 Jordan Spieth (76), four-times major winner Rory McIlroy (74) and Swede Henrik Stenson (74). New Zealand’s Danny Lee also shot 74.
Injuries hit ABs Sevens
Injuries to star duo Tim Mikkelson and Vilimoni Koroi will force the All Blacks Sevens to take an understrength squad into this weekend’s World Sevens Series event in Vancouver. Mikkelson is suffering from a rib complaint, while Koroi has injured his knee, and will be replaced in the squad by Luke Masirewa and Kurt Baker. Both injuries were sustained in the Kiwis’ Las Vegas Sevens tilt, finishing fifth after a thrilling extra-time victory over Australia. In the only other change to the squad that played in Las Vegas, Joe Webber will return from illness in place of Sione Molia.
Williams wins in comeback
Serena Williams has won her first match in her comeback at the BNP Paribas Open after a 14-month layoff for the birth of her first child. The 23-time major winner defeated Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-3 in the first round yesterday. With new husband and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian looking on, Williams played from behind until breaking Diyas in the 11th game of the first set. Diyas netted a forehand and Williams yelled, “come on!” as the crowd cheered wildly.
Gunners grab away goals
Goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey have given Arsenal the upper hand in their Europa League last-16 tie with AC Milan as the Gunners won 2-0 at the San Siro. Mesut Ozil set up both strikes, with Armenian forward Mkhitaryan tucking away the German’s pass in the 15th minute of the first-leg encounter in Milan. Gennaro Gattuso’s men grew into the game as halftime approached but the end of their 12-match unbeaten run was confirmed when Ramsey rounded Gianluigi Donnarumma to double Arsenal’s lead late on in the piece as the Gunners took control.
Froome appeals to cycling chief
Chris Froome has urged the president of world cycling’s governing body to talk to him directly about the ongoing salbutamol investigation rather than address the issue in public. Froome, a four-time Tour de France champion, returned an adverse analytical finding for the asthma drug at the Vuelta a Espana in September, completing a historic Le Tour-Vuelta double. The 32-year-old Team Sky rider is involved in a legal and scientific wrangle with the UCI’s independent anti-doping unit about how that finding happened, insisting there has been no wrongdoing on his or the team’s part.
McKenzie re-signs NZ deal
All Blacks and Chiefs livewire Damian McKenzie has re-signed with NZ Rugby to the end of 2021. The 22-year-old, Gore-born, Waikatobased star is now set to stay in the country past the 2019 Rugby World Cup. “My time in the Chiefs jersey has been awesome and the support I’ve been given during my time in Chiefs country has been amazing,” McKenzie said. The playmaker said he hoped to continue “achieving higher honours in the future”.