The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Malinin makes record skate to win world championship
American figure skating star Ilia Malinin is a world champion — and a worldrecord holder.
Malinin put on a dominant display that included a jaw-dropping six quad jumps — including his patented quad axel — to snag the men’s singles crown late Saturday night at the world championships in Montreal.
After placing third in Thursday’s short program, the 19-year-old scored a world record 227.79 in the free program to bring his total to 333.76 — more than 20 points than the rest of the field.
He dethroned two-time defending world champion Shoma Uno of Japan, who fell to fourth (280.85) after missing two quad jumps to start his program.
Yuma Kagiyama of Japan won silver (309.65) and Adam Siao Him Fa of France claimed bronze (284.39).
Earlier Saturday, 2022 Olympic champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States defended their ice dance world TITLE WITH A SEASONBEST total score of 222.20.
MOTORSPORTS Byron wins NASCAR Cup road race in Texas
William Bryon started on pole and delivered a dominant drive Sunday to win NASCAR’S first road course race of the season at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
The Daytona 500 winner earned his second win of the season and delivered the fourth in six races for Chevrolet. The Hendrick Motorsports driver led 42 of 68 laps and held off a hard-charging run from Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell over the final two laps.
Byron earned career win No. 12.
• Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ended Red Bull’s Formula 1 winning streak when the Spaniard took advantage of Max Verstappen’s early exit to win the Australian Grand Prix just two weeks after missing the previous race in Saudi Arabia due to an emergency appendectomy.
Sainz, who started on the front row alongside Verstappen, kept his place into turn one, but passed the Dutchman on lap two at turn nine for the lead and took control once his rival retired two laps later with a fiery mechanical failure.
Verstappen had won the first two F1 races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and was on a ninerace winning streak.
Sainz finished ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc for Ferrari’s first 1-2 result since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, with Mclaren’s Lando Norris finishing in third for his first podium at Albert Park.
• A race meant for allstars was fittingly won by Alex Palou. The two-time and reigning Indycar champion won the Thermal $1 Million Challenge on Sunday in a total rout. Palou dominated the three day weekend — he was among the fastest drivers in practice sessions and led every lap of anything that counted while winning his qualifying group, his heat race and all 20 laps of Indycar’s first non-points race since 2008.
The race at the membersonly Thermal Club was for 12 drivers who earned their way into the main event through a pair of heat races earlier Sunday. But Scott Dixon, Will Power, Pato O’ward and some of Indycar’s top names didn’t advance out of the heats and the “A Main” was a mix of competition levels.
GOLF Korda wins at PVGC, regains No. 1 ranking
Nelly Korda made bogey on her final two holes Sunday to fall into a playoff and atoned for it quickly, making a 12-foot birdie putt to beat Ryann O’toole in the Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship at Palos Verdes Golf Club to return to No. 1 in the world.
Korda, who closed with a 2-under 69, won for the second time this year, both involving surprising collapses and amazing revivals.
“I’m aging myself really quickly out here,” Korda, 25, said.
She won the Drive On Championship in Florida in January by dropping four shots in three holes on the back nine, only to rally with an eagle-birdie finish to beat Lydia Ko.
Korda, playing for the first time since that Drive On win at the end of January,
seized control by smashing a fairway metal up the hill on the par-5 14th. The ball caught a slope at the back of the green and rolled down to 18 feet, and she made the eagle putt.
O’toole holed a 20-foot par putt on the 18th for a 66, and that looked to be good only for second place. But then Korda came up short of the par-3 17th and missed a 6-foot par putt, and she went long on the 18th and made another bogey.
They finished at 9-under 275, and the playoff ended quickly.
O’toole hit 7-iron from the right rough to about 15 feet and her birdie putt burned the edge of the cup. Korda hit 8-iron to 12 feet and poured it in for her 10th career LPGA title.
Gabriela Ruffels (USC, 70) and Alison Lee (UCLA, 72) tied for third.
Korda replaces Lilia Vu at the top of the women’s world ranking.
• Peter Malnati got a great break with the tournament on the line and followed that with an even better shot, making a late birdie on his way to a 4-under 67 to win the Valspar Championship and earn his first trip to the Masters.
Malnati tapped in that yellow golf ball for par on the final hole for only his second PGA Tour victory. He won by two over Cameron Young, who made it easier on him by taking bogey on the final hole for a 68. Young now has seven runner-up finishes without a win.
• Saturday began with British Open weather at Newport Beach Country Club, with light rain arriving a few minutes before the first tee time, turning into heavy rains an hour later accompanied by gusting winds that sent many of the spectators racing toward the clubhouse or to the exits.
Whether it’s true that nasty weather favors players from the British Isles, as some believe, it was Irishman Padraig Harrington who birdied the 18th hole
Saturday to take a one-shot lead over first-round leader Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand heading into Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Champions’ Hoag Classic.
Harrington made an eagle and two birdies over the final four holes on the way to a 4-under 67 to post a 36hole total of 12 under par. Jaidee, who had at least a share of the lead for the first 35 holes, followed his first-round 62 with a 2-under 69 to finish at 11 under, with Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez (68) and Englishman Paul Broadhurst (70) both at 9 under.
• Jesper Svensson won his first European Tour event on Sunday after beating Kiradech Aphibarnrat in a playoff at the Singapore Classic.
COLLEGE SWIMMING Virginia women win 4th national title in row
Virginia won the women’s swimming and diving championships on late Saturday night in Athens, Ga.
It was the fourth straight title for the top-ranked Cavaliers, who scored 527.5 points to finish well ahead of the 441 scored by secondplace Texas. Florida finished in third place with 364 points, followed by Tennessee (277) and Stanford (250).
On the final night of the competition, Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh won her sixth and seventh gold medals at the event, taking first in the 100 free with a Ncaa-record time of 44.83 and later picking up gold in the 400 free relay.
Virginia won seven individual events and four of five relays. It marked the third consecutive year the Cavaliers won 11 titles at the championship.
Alex Walsh took first place in the 200 breaststroke with a personal best 2:02.07, the fourth fastest time. It was her third individual title after picking up the gold in the 200 IM and 400 IM races earlier in the week.
HORSE RACING Santa Anita horse in Kentucky Derby
Endlessly and jockey Umberto Rispoli won the Jeff Ruby at Turfway Park in Kentucky, clinching a spot in the Kentucky Derby for the colt trained at Santa Anita by Michael Mccarthy.
The 7-5 favorite came from midpack to win clear.
• Catching Freedom and Santa Anita-based jockey Flavien Prat swung wide to win the Louisiana Derby at 3-1 odds.