Czech Republic erases Canada’s Games hopes
The Czech Republic’s Tomas Satoransky, center, celebrates with Ondrej Balvin, left, and Jakub Sirina after hitting the winning shot in overtime, dashing Canada’s Olympics shot.
Tomas Satoransky ended Canada’s hopes of making the Tokyo Olympics.
Satoransky’s fadingaway, off-the-glass jumper with 1.8 seconds left in overtime wound up being the deciding basket in the Czech Republic’s 103101 win over Canada in an Olympic qualifying tournament semifinal at Victoria, British Columbia.
Blake Schilb scored 31 points for the Czechs (2-1), who will play Greece (2-1) in today’s title game at Victoria. All four sites of qualifying tournaments — Lithuania, Canada, Serbia and Croatia — will hold championship games today to determine the last four teams in the Olympic men’s basketball field.
Satoransky scored 18 points, Patrik Auda scored 16 and Ondrej Balvin had 14 for the Czechs.
Canada scored the first five points of overtime, but got outscored 9-2 the rest of the way and will miss the Olympics for the fifth consecutive time. The Canadians last made the Olympic field in men’s basketball in 2000.
GREECE 81, TURKEY 63>> Rick Pitino has taken five teams to the NCAA Tournament, and is one win from taking Greece to the Olympics. Nick Calathes scored 18 points and Greece erased an early 14-point deficit to beat Turkey and move into today’s Victoria region championship game.
SLOVENIA 98, VENEZUELA 70>> Mike Tobey scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks was one rebound shy of a tripledouble and Slovenia eased past Venezuela 98-70 in the semifinals of an Olympic qualifying tournament in Kaunas, Lithuania. Doncic finished with 23 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds for Slovenia (3-0), which will play host Lithuania (3-0) today with a berth in the Tokyo Olympics on the line.
SLOVENIA 98, VENEZUELA 70>> Mike Tobey scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks was one rebound shy of a tripledouble and Slovenia eased past Venezuela 98-70 in the semifinals of an Olympic qualifying tournament in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Doncic had 23 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds for Slovenia (3-0), which will play host Lithuania (3-0) today with a berth in the Tokyo Olympics on the line. All four sites of qualifying tournaments — Lithuania, Canada, Serbia and Croatia — will hold championship games today to determine the last four teams in the Olympic men’s basketball field.
Slovenia has rolled through its first three games, winning by 50, 35 and now 28 points. It has trailed for a total of 6 minutes, 55 seconds out of 120 minutes of action — 5.8% of the time — and the entirety of that was in the first quarter of a group play game against Poland.
Tobey was 11 for 17 from the field for Slovenia and Doncic raved about his performance. Tobey played in 138 games at Virginia, tying for the most in program history, and was the ACC’s sixth man of the year — as selected by the league’s coaches — as a junior in 2014-15.
LITHUANIA 88, POLAND 69>>
Domantas Sabonis scored 17 points, Jonas Valanciunas added 15 and Lithuania pulled away in the second half to earn a spot in the Kaunas final.
SERBIA 102, PUERTO RICO 84>> Vasilije Micic scored 21 points, Nemanja Bjelica added 18 and host Serbia moved into today’s final against Italy at Belgrade, Serbia. Filip Petrusev and Danilo Andjusic each scored 15 points and Milos Teodosic finished with 11 points and 10 assists for Serbia (3-0), which won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Puerto Rico is 1-2.
ITALY 79, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 59>>Italy used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to build what became a 32-point lead, and had no trouble reaching today’s final in Belgrade. The Dominican Republic is 1-2.
GERMANY 86, CROATIA 76>>
Germany (3-0) closed the game on a 19-2 run to stun host Croatia (1-2) in Split and move into today’s championship game against Brazil.
BRAZIL 102, MEXICO 74>>Vítor Benite scored 22 points and Brazil (3-0) had little trouble with Mexico on its way to today’s final in Split. Mexico is 1-2.
Semenya’s late shot at Tokyo Games fails
This could be it for Caster Semenya and the Olympics. Forced out of her favorite race by World Athletics’ testosterone rules, the two-time Olympic champion in the 800 meters took a late shot at qualifying for Tokyo in the 5,000 meters, an event not affected by the hormone regulations. She came up short.
Now 30, Semenya’s hopes of making it back to the Olympics are dwindling.
The South African once said she wanted to run at top track events until she was 40. Now, her future ambitions depend on a final, long-shot legal appeal of the testosterone rules or transforming from the world’s dominant middle-distance runner into a successful long-distance athlete. That’s going to be difficult for her.
Semenya is the athlete that has perhaps stoked the most controversy in track and field over the last decade. If there are no more appearances on the biggest stage, it’s been a career like no other. In 12 years at the top, Semenya has won two Olympic golds and three world championship titles, but her success has come amid near-constant interference by track authorities. She has competed free of restrictions of one type or another for only three of those 12 years.
WHY CAN’T SEMENYA DEFEND
800 TITLE IN TOKYO?
In 2018, world track and field’s governing body introduced rules it said were aimed at female athletes with conditions called differences of sex development, or DSDs. The key for World Athletics is that these athletes have testosterone levels that are higher than the typical female range. The track body argues that gives them an unfair advantage. Semenya is the highest-profile athlete affected by the regulations, but not the only one.
The rules demand that Semenya lower her testosterone levels artificially — by either taking birth control pills daily, having hormone-blocking injections or undergoing surgery — to be allowed to run in races from 400 meters to one mile. Semenya has simply refused to do that, pointing out the irony that in a sport where doping is such a scourge, authorities want her to take drugs to be eligible to run at the Olympics.
BUT SHE CAN RUN THE 5,000?>>Yes. Strangely, World Athletics decided to enforce the testosterone rules only for track events from 400 meters to one mile, raising criticism from Semenya’s camp that the regulations were specifically designed to target her because of her dominance.
It means Semenya can compete in the 100 and 200 meters and long-distance races without lowering her testosterone levels. Field events are also unregulated. After a brief go at 200 meters, Semenya attempted to qualify for Tokyo in the 5,000 meters, running races in Pretoria and Durban in South Africa and, most recently, at international meets in Germany and Belgium last month. She never came within 20 seconds of the Olympic qualifying mark.
England, Denmark reach Euro semifinals
Harry Kane scored twice and England overwhelmed Ukraine 4-0 in Rome to reach the European Championship semifinals.
England now goes back to London to face Denmark on Wednesday. The Danes beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Van der Breggen wins stage, overall lead
World champion Anna van der Breggen rode away from the rest of the field in the Giro d’Italia Donne, winning the first summit finish of the marquee women’s stage race to take the overall lead.
Van der Breggen attacked inside the final 10 kilometers on the climb to the ski resort of Prato Nevoso and finished 1 minute, 22 seconds ahead of teammate Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. That put van der Breggen 1:26 ahead of Moolman-Pasio and 1:57 ahead of Demi Vollering in the overall race heading into the third of 10 stages.