Auto racing:
New F1 champ Rosberg retires.
Quitting at the top, Formula One champion Nico Rosberg shocked the world of motor racing Friday by announcing he was retiring at the age of 31, five days after earning his first world championship.
“I have decided to end my Formula One career. I had a very, very clear dream, that was to become Formula One world champion. I have achieved this childhood dream now and I am not willing to do that sort of commitment again,” Rosberg said in Vienna. “So I have decided to follow my heart, and my heart has told me just to stop there, to call it a day.”
Rosberg said he made the decision on Monday, a day after finishing second at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to clinch the F1 title.
“I am on the peak, so this feels right,” he said.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Robert Spillane intercepted a pass with 51 seconds remaining, and No. 14 Western Michigan remained undefeated, holding off Ohio, 29-23, in Detroit to win its first Mid-American Conference title since 1988.
The Broncos (13-0, No. 17 CFP) led, 23-7, at halftime, but Ohio rallied and had the ball in WMU territory in the final minute when Spillane intercepted Greg Windham’s pass over the middle. Spillane immediately took a knee at his own 30, then was mobbed by his teammates as a Ford Field crowd full of Broncos fans roared.
Ohio (9-4) never led and didn’t do much on offense until the final quarter, but the Bobcats still came achingly close to their first MAC championship since 1968.
Instead, WMU became the first undefeated team to win the MAC title game since Marshall in 1999. The question is whether the Broncos have done enough to make it to the Cotton Bowl. WMU is trying to earn the Group of Five bid to a New Year’s Six bowl.
BASEBALL
The Washington Nationals reacquired catcher Derek Norris from the San Diego Padres for minor league right-hander Pedro Avila.
Norris, a 2007 first-round pick of the Nationals, hit .186 with 14 home runs and 42 RBI last season for San Diego. The 27-year-old is a career .233 hitter in five major-league seasons with the Oakland Athletics and Padres. Washington sent Norris to Oakland for left-hander
Gio Gonzalez in 2011. He returns to the Nationals, who avoided arbitration with catcher Jose Lobaton on Thursday.
All-star catcher Wilson Ramos is a free agent who will miss the start of the season after knee surgery.
Avila, 19, went 7-7 with a 3.48 ERA in 20 starts for Single-A Hagerstown last season.
TRACK AND FIELD
Usain Bolt is track and field’s male athlete of the year, winning the award from the sport’s governing body for a sixth time. Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia won the women’s award, after her world-record run to win Olympic gold in the 10,000 meters. The awards were handed out Friday by the IAAF at a gala ceremony in Monaco. The winners were chosen by athletics officials, athletes, journalists and an online public poll.
SKIING
It was another great day for Norway in the first men’s speed race of the season with Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal finishing 1-2 in a super-G in Val d’Isere, France.
Svindal, back racing 10 months after a serious knee injury, was 0.17 seconds slower than Jansrud, the Olympic champion in super-G.
Women’s World Cup: Slovenia’s Ilka Stuhec won the season-opening downhill at Lake Louise for her first victory.