Shiffrin excels in opener for 70th win
SÖLDEN, AUSTRIA » A friendly pat on the back from her rival Petra Vlhova and a long hug from boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in the finish area were Mikaela Shiffrin’s rewards for excelling in the season-opening World Cup giant slalom on Saturday.
Shiffrin showed two runs of near flawless skiing on one of the toughest hills on the women’s circuit to earn her 70th career win.
The American Olympic champion’s performance was too much even for Lara Gut-Behrami, the reigning GS world champion from Switzerland.
With 2020 overall men’s champion Kilde looking on, Shiffrin sat .02 behind Gut-Behrami after the opening leg but put in another clean run in the second to edge her Swiss rival by .14 in perfect sunny conditions on the Rettenbach glacier.
“Starting off the season strong is important, so I am super happy,” Shiffrin said. “It’s a pleasure to ski today, they did so amazing with this (course) preparation, it felt so amazing to ski this hill.”
Andrade wins 2 medals
KITAKYUSHU, JAPAN » Rebeca Andrade of Brazil added a world title to her Tokyo Olympic gold medal in vault and also won a silver medal in uneven bars at the gymnastics world championships.
Andrade scored 15.133 points on her first vault and 14.800 on her second effort, a double-twisting Yurchenko, for a 14.966 average.
Asia D’Amato of Italy took silver with 14.083 points while all-around champion Angelina Melnikova of Russia was third with 13.966.
Andrade’s vault title is just the second gold for a Brazilian woman and the first since Daiane Dos Santos won floor at the 2003 worlds.
Matsuyama has 1-stroke, third-round lead
CHIBA, JAPAN » Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama held on to a one-stroke lead at the PGA Tour’s Zozo Championship after a 2-under 68 which included a bogey on his last hole to make things interesting heading into the final round.
Matsuyama trailed by a stroke after the first round, led by one after the second and had a 54-hole total of 10-under 200 on the par70, 7,041-yard Narashino Country Club course.
Cameron Tringale, who also shot 68, trailed by three strokes going to the final hole Saturday but his birdie and Matsuyama’s bogey reduced the lead to just one.
Sebastian Munoz (68), Brendan Steele (70) and Matt Wallace (70), were tied for third, four strokes behind Matsuyama.
Lim takes 4-stroke lead
BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA » Hee Jeong Lim has taken a four-stroke lead into the final round of the LPGA Tour’s BMW Ladies Championship after a 7-under 65 Saturday.
Lim had a 54-hole total of 18-under 198 on the LPGA International Busan course.
Fellow South Korean players Jin Young Ko (67) and Na Rin An (69) were tied for second.
Verstappen takes pole
AUSTIN, TEXAS » Lap by lap, Formula One’s best championship duel in years takes one dramatic turn after another.
The U.S Grand Prix has played a role in this tense title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton with the championship rivals nipping at each other all weekend. The race is on Sunday but the two have done their part in F1’s much-hyped return to America.
The series is booming in the United States and a sold-out crowd of an expected 140,000 at the Circuit of the Americas will see points leader Verstappen lead his Red Bull at the start. He’ll be alongside seven-time champion Hamilton driving for a Mercedes team that has dominated this Texas course.
The two have gone back-andforth since Friday practice when Verstappen flipped his middle finger at Hamilton in practice and called the five-time COTA winner a “stupid idiot.”