Women's Varsity Match moves to Twickenham
RUGBY Cambridge celebrated the pre-match announcement that the women’s Varsity Match will be played at Twickenham from December 10 by hammering their Oxford visitors 47-0 at Grange Road, writes Rob Cole. Katie Holmes, the Cambridge Women’s RUFC president, said the switch to Twickenham will be ‘massively important’ in helping develop the game throughout the colleges at the two universities. ‘We have doubled the number of college teams from four to eight in the past few seasons and, with the joint boost of England winning the World Cup and the news of our Varsity Match moving to Twickenham with the men’s match, we need to prepare for further growth,’ she said. ‘This decision puts us on a par with the men’s match and, more importantly, forges stronger links between the two sections at both clubs. This is a hugely historic step for the game or rugby at Oxford and Cambridge.’ The men’s Varsity Match has been held at Twickenham since 1921.
Brownlee shows signs of rust in season opener
TRIATHLON Jonathan Brownlee expressed his frustration after finishing fifth in the opening round of the World Triathlon Series in Abu Dhabi. Mario Mola, of Spain, clinched the gold medal in the sprint-distance event, beating Vincent Luis of France by 13sec, with South African Richard Murray in third. Brownlee, 24, inset, whose brother Alistair was absent with an ankle injury, came home 31sec adrift of the leader but one place ahead of the defending champion, Javier Gomez. ‘I wanted better than that,’ Brownlee said. ‘I messed up everything I possibly could.’ Jodie Stimpson, in 17th, was the best-placed Briton in the women’s race, which was won by the American Gwen Jorgensen.
GB bobsleigh team make scorching start
WINTER SPORT A blistering early run in the world championships gave the Great Britain bobsleigh team the temporary lead in Germany. The GB team, driven by Lamin Deen, sit in fifth place after the opening two rounds, having been overhauled by the leaders Latvia and a trio of Germany teams.
Czech rider savours classic victory
CYCLING Zdenek Stybar, from the Czech Republic, celebrated the greatest one-day triumph of his career at the Italian classic Strade Bianche. The Etixx-QuickStep rider waited until the final climb to surge clear of his two breakaway companions, Greg van Avermaet and Alejandro Valverde. Lizzie Armitstead, the British sprinter, finished second in the first edition of the women’s race, behind her Boels-Dolman teammate Megan Guarnier.
Indian clears final hurdle
BADMINTON Saina Nehwal, the world No 3 from India, stormed into the final of the All-England championships for the first time in seven attempts. The Olympic bronze medallist, inset, beat 21-year-old Sun Yu of China 21-13 21-13. ‘It’s a big hurdle because many people think I should get to the final anyway — and that I should win every tournament I play,’ Nehwal said. Her opponent in the final will be the world champion Carolina Marin, who overcame Tai Tzu Ying 21-18 21-11. A changing of the guard was confirmed in the men’s event as Chen Long won 21-13 21-12 against his fellow Chinese Lin Dan, the five-time All-England champion. He faces Jan Jorgensen in the final after the Dane shrugged aside Sho Sasaki of Japan 21-11 21-12.
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Wozniacki sets up showdown with giantkiller
TENNIS The Danish star Caroline Wozniacki booked her spot in the Malaysian Open final with an emphatic straight-sets victory over Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan. The top seed made amends for her first-round exit last year by overpowering Hsieh 6-2 6-2. She will face Alexandra Dulgheru in today’s title showdown after the Romanian continued her giantkilling feats by beating Jarmila Gajdosova, the No 4 seed from Australia. On her march to the final, Dulgheru has already claimed the scalps of the Germans Sabine Lisicki, the second seed, and Julia Goerges, the eighth seed.
Fenninger turns up heat on World Cup leader
WINTER SPORT Anna Fenninger, the reigning champion, lost for the first time in five races but still cut the overall World Cup lead of Tina Maze by finishing second in the women’s downhill in Garmisch, Germany. The 3km race was won by Tina Weirather, of Liechtenstein in 1 min 40.94 sec, 0.51sec ahead of Fenninger, with Maze in third place. It means that Fenninger of Austria lies just 24 points behind her Slovenian rival in the World Cup standings before today’s Super-G, one of seven remaining races. In the men’s World Cup, Hannes Reichelt claimed his second consecutive downhill victory, moving to within 20 points of Kjetil Jansrud, the discipline leader, going into the season finale.
Rally driver back on track after reservoir plunge
MOTORSPORT Ott Tanak, of Estonia, returned to action in the Rally of Mexico after his Ford was retrieved from a reservoir and rebuilt. Tanak and his co-driver, Raigo Moelder, had scrambled free on Friday when their car rolled down an embankment and plunged into deep water. After fishing out the vehicle ten hours later, the M-Sport team drained the engine and replaced the gearbox, fuel tank and electronic components. ‘As soon as we opened the doors, the car was gone in seconds,’ Tanak said. ‘ We were really lucky.’ Sebastien Ogier of France led the rally for Volkswagen after the second leg.
Ko remains in hunt for hat-trick of titles
GOLF Lydia Ko, the world No 1, remains in contention for her third LPGA victory in as many weeks after the third round of the HSBC Women’s Champions in Singapore. The 17-year-old New Zealand star, inset, is two strokes behind the leader, Inbee Park of South Korea, who shot a four-under-par 68. Alongside Ko in second place is Stacy Lewis, of the USA, who also carded 67. Ko won the Women’s Australian Open two weeks ago and the Women’s New Zealand Open last week. ‘That would be, I guess, a dream three weeks,’ Ko said.
Relentless Hawks are sitting pretty
BASKETBALL Atlanta Hawks, the runaway NBA Eastern Conference leaders, defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 106-97 to secure their sixth successive victory. Al Horford scored 19 points and Kyle Korver hit two important three-pointers in the fourth quarter to stop the Cavaliers going top of the Central Division.