Sport in brief

Sailing

Comanche won the 75th edition of the Sydney to Hobart race by claiming line honours for the third time. The Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant-skippered super maxi made the most of strong overnight winds to cross the River Derwent finish line just after 7.30am local time. Comanche earlier broke away from a five-strong pack of super maxis down Tasmania’s east coast having taken a wider route across Bass Strait and crossed the line in a time of 1day 18hr 30 min 24 sec. Comanche’s previous wins were in 2015 and 2017, the latter coming in a race-record time of 1day 9hr 15 min. InfoTrack, which was the first yacht out of Sydney Harbour on Thursday, finished second, about 45 minutes behind Comanche. Nine-time line honours champion Wild Oats XI was third.

Darts

Belgium’s Dimitri van den Bergh fought back from 3-1 down to defeat two-time champion Adrian Lewis, of England, 4-3 and reach the quarter-finals of the PDC World Championship at Alexandra Palace last night. Lithuanian Darius Labanauskas is through to his first quarterfinal after beating Steve Beaton 4-2 but will face a tough test against Holland’s Michael van Gerwen, the world No1 and PDC champion in 2014, 2017 and 2019.

Skeleton

Olympic bronze medallist Dom Parsons has announced his retirement from skeleton. Parsons claimed Great Britain’s first men’s skeleton medal in 70 years when he finished third in Pyeongchang in 2018. The 32-year-old had initially intended to continue to Beijing 2022 after taking a year away from sliding to complete his PhD in mechanical engineering but has instead decided to step away now.