win

Dodgers defeat the Mariners

From Maddie Lee: Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman all but confirmed Wednesday that the team would be in contact with the Tigers to gauge their asking price for reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.

“There just aren’t that many star-level players in the game,” Friedman said Wednesday afternoon when asked how aggressive the Dodgers would be in pursuing big-name players. “Any time one is available, we’re always going to participate in those conversations. We’ve shown to be very aggressive in the past. … We’ve traded a lot of really talented young players.

“But we’re able to be in those conversations because of the incredible work by our scouts and our front office and our player development group that has our farm system in such a strong spot to be able to talk to any team basically about any player.”

All that was expected. Checking in is simply due diligence.

Friedman avoided showing his hand when asked the odds of the Dodgers (68-40) acquiring a player like that at the Aug. 3 deadline.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not in the handicapping business.”

Before the Dodgers’ 4-2 win against the Mariners on Wednesday, they activated closer Edwin Díaz and designated left-hander Charlie Barnes for assignment. Díaz earned the save in his first major-league appearance since undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow in late April, giving up two hits and a run.

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‘Do we consider pushing this?’ Shohei Ohtani’s return to the mound remains unclear

Dodgers box score

MLB standings

Angels trade O’Hoppe, Silseth

The Angels traded reliever Chase Silseth and struggling catcher Logan O’Hoppe to the Texas Rangers for minor league third baseman Angel Arredondo on Wednesday night.

The deal, announced a few minutes before the Angels’ series finale against the Houston Astros, could mark the beginning of an extensive rebuilding process for the Angels, who entered play Wednesday with an American League-worst 42-66 record and 13 1/2 games behind the Rangers in the AL West.

“We know we have to start shaking up this roster, and today was day one,” Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak said. “Clearly, where the Angels are at right now, we need to do things differently.”

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Angels are swept by the Astros

Shaikin: Can a new minor league team in Irvine attract fans if the Angels are so affordable?

Angels box score

MLB standings

Update on how to get Olympics tickets

From Thuc Nhi Nguyen: After 4 million tickets sold and maybe a million more headaches, the Olympic ticket booth opens again this week.

LA28 sold a record number of tickets during its first drop in April, signaling unprecedented interest in the Olympics as they return to Southern California for the first time since 1984. High prices, service fees and unavailable seats frustrated fans but did not deter them. In fact, interest in the Games has only grown since April’s first drop.

LA28 announced Wednesday that more than 12 million people from more than 200 countries have registered for tickets, a dramatic increase from the 5 million registrants the organizing committee boasted in late February before the first ticket drop.

Sports from the traditional standbys (artistic gymnastics) to the newest additions (flag football, lacrosse and squash) all sold through their first-drop availability. The second drop that begins Wednesday offers “refreshed inventory across all Olympic sports,” LA28 said.

Here’s what to know about the next ticketing phase:

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Bob Chesney is ready to win

From Ryan Kartje: In the nearly nine months since he was hired as head coach at UCLA, Bob Chesney has won over a lot of hearts and minds with his unwavering sense of belief.

First, he won over his star quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, who opted to stick with the Bruins after a 3-9 season a year ago. He won over 45 new transfers, who came to UCLA as part of the portal’s 11th-ranked class and seems to be winning over recruits, too, with UCLA currently ranked in the top 10 among 2027 classes. He even won over once-dormant Bruin donors, who, according to the school’s athletic department, have now poured over $41 million in private support into UCLA athletics over the last fiscal year, an increase of 80% from the previous year.

“It’s his energy, man,” Iamaleava said. “He brings a different type of energy.”

At this point, the only thing it seems Chesney hasn’t won yet at UCLA is an actual football game.

He couldn’t do anything about that Wednesday from the podium at Big Ten media days. But as the season draws nearer and a new era of Bruin football begins, all the enthusiasm does beg the question: What does a successful debut actually look like for Chesney at UCLA?

Chesney said Wednesday he had no interest in setting those expectations or “in putting artificial limits on ourselves.”

“Outcomes have to be earned,” he said. “And I think in the end, potential is a gift, right? The work is becoming. That’s the work.”

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It’s time for the Sparks to trade Kelsey Plum

From Bill Plaschke: Another failed summer. Another broken promise.

The most underachieving team on the Los Angeles sports landscape is embarrassingly stumbling through another season.

The Sparks stink. Again.

They’re not making the playoffs. Again.

There’s no reason to watch them even though there’s more than a month left on their schedule. Again.

For the sixth consecutive season, one of the WNBA’s legacy franchises has come apart at the seams, tattering the franchise’s three-championship history with a sordid record that mandates a clear response.

Trade your best player.

Trade Kelsey Plum.

The trade deadline is Sunday so do it quickly, and do it boldly, sending her to the sort of playoff contender who would find her worthy of young talent and draft picks.

Trade KP and do it now.

Continue reading here

Chargers feel good as camp opens

From Sam Farmer: If there’s a day of uncontaminated enthusiasm on the NFL calendar it’s the first day of training camp. Everyone’s healthy, everyone’s hopeful, and the Super Bowl is seemingly in reach for everyone.

A few thousand Chargers fans were at the team facility Wednesday to watch the inaugural practice, and afterward coach Jim Harbaugh and many of the players stuck around to sign autographs, pose for selfies and make small talk. It was the kind of scene unfolding all around the NFL.

“It was amazing,” said All-Pro safety Derwin James of the practice. “Kind of like the first day of school.”

Were they to receive a grade for their first two seasons under Harbaugh, the Chargers might get an incomplete. They played well enough to make the playoffs in both seasons — overcoming a dizzying array of injuries on the offensive line a year ago — yet failed to show up in the postseason, suffering lopsided losses at Houston and New England.

Harbaugh said the first day of camp feels like “Christmas morning” to him. When asked whether the entire team was full speed and ready to go, he made the analogy of an airplane gathering speed down a runway before achieving flight. There’s a deliberate ramp-up to the intensity of training camp, he said.

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This day in sports history

1870 — Monmouth Park opens with a five-day meet.

1930 — Host Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2 for soccer’s first World Cup in Montevideo.

1932 — The 10th modern Olympic Games open in Los Angeles.

1961 — Jerry Barber edges Don January by one stroke in a playoff to win the PGA title at Olympia Fields in Illinois.

1966 — England beats West Germany 4-2 at London’s Wembley Stadium to capture soccer’s World Cup.

1971 — In the NFL Chicago All-Star Game, the Baltimore Colts beat the All-Stars 24-17.

1976 — Bruce Jenner sets the world record in the Olympic decathlon with 8,618 points, breaking Nikolai Avilov’s mark by 164 points.

1984 — Michael Gross of West Germany sets a world record in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:47.44 at a meet in Munich.

1996 — The American softball team wins the gold medal, beating China 3-1 behind a controversial two-run homer from Dot Richardson in the first Olympic competition in that sport.

2009 — Seven more world records on the fifth night of the world swimming championships in Rome are set, pushing the total to 29 and moving past last summer’s Beijing Olympics. Ryan Lochte gets things rolling by breaking Phelps’ mark in the 200-meter individual medley. The Chinese women finish it off, eclipsing the 800 freestyle relay mark by more than two seconds, with the Americans also breaking the previous record but only getting silver.

2012 — In London, Missy Franklin, a 17-year-old from Colorado, wins the women’s 100-meter backstroke. Franklin has a brief 13-minute break after taking the final qualifying spot in the 200 freestyle semifinals before she had to get back into the water for the backstroke final. Ruta Meilutyte, 15, becomes the first Lithuanian to win an Olympic swimming medal by holding off a late charge from world champion Rebecca Soni of the U.S. in the 100 breaststroke.

2013 — Katie Ledecky crushes the world record in the 1,500 freestyle for her second gold medal at the world swimming championships in Barcelona, Spain. The 16-year-old American finishes with a time of 15:36.53 to beat the previous mark by more than 6 seconds — Kate Ziegler’s 15:42.54 in 2007.

2015 — North Korea wins its first gold medal at the world aquatics championships through 16-year-old Kim Kuk Hyang in women’s 10-meter diving. In her first international competition, Kim produces a stunning final dive, earning two perfect 10 scores from the seven judges, for a total of 397.05 points. On the next dive, the leader up to that point, world champion Si Yajie of China, makes an error to drop to fourth.

2021 — South African swimmer Tatjana Shoemaker sets a new women’s 200m breaststroke world record of 2:18.95 at the Tokyo Olympics.

Compiled by the Associated Press

This day in baseball history

1917 — Ty Cobb, Bobby Veach and Ossie Vitt, each went 5-for-5 in Detroit’s 16-4 romp over Washington.

1933 — Dizzy Dean struck out 17 Cubs for the St. Louis Cardinals, who beat Chicago 8-2.

1947 — The New York Giants defeated Ewell Blackwell and the Cincinnati Reds 5-4 in 10 innings, ending Blackwell’s 16-game winning streak.

1959 — Willie McCovey had four hits in four at-bats in his major league debut, with the San Francisco Giants. His hits included two triples in a 7-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.

1962 — The American League, led by homers from Leon Wagner, Pete Runnels and Rocky Colavito, powered past the National League 9-4, in the second All-Star Game of the year. Wagner of the Angels was named MVP.

1968 — Washington shortstop Ron Hansen pulled off an unassisted triple play, but the Cleveland Indians still won the game 10-1.

1969 — Houston, behind grand slams by Denis Menke and Jim Wynn, scored 11 runs in the ninth inning to pound the New York Mets 16-3 in a doubleheader opener at Shea Stadium. Mets pitchers Cal Koonce and Ron Taylor gave up the slams, marking the first time this century that two grand slams were hit in the same inning of a National League game.

1973 — Jim Bibby of the Texas Rangers pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against the Oakland A’s.

1980 — Houston Astros pitcher J.R. Richard had a stroke during a workout at the Astrodome and underwent surgery to remove a blood clot behind his right collarbone.

1982 — The Atlanta Braves returned Chief Noc-A-Homa and his teepee to left field after losing 19 of 21 games and blowing a 10½-game lead. The teepee was removed for more seats. The team recovered to regain first place.

1988 — John Franco of the Cincinnati Reds set a major league record with 13 saves in one month. Franco was tied with Sparky Lyle, Bruce Sutter and Bob Stanley.

1990 — George Steinbrenner was forced to resign as general partner of the New York Yankees by Commissioner Fay Vincent.

2008 — Kelly Shoppach of Cleveland tied a major league record with five extra-base hits, including a game-tying homer in the ninth, but Detroit beat the Indians 14-12 in 13 innings. Shoppach had two homers and three doubles.

2011 — The New York Yankees broke loose for 12 runs in the first inning of the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader, setting a franchise record en route to a 17-3 rout of Baltimore.

2012 — Kendrys Morales homered from both sides of the plate during a nine-run sixth inning, capping the burst with a grand slam that sent the Angels romping past the Texas Rangers 15-8. Morales became the third switch-hitter in major league history to homer as a lefty and righty in the same inning. Carlos Baerga did it for Cleveland in 1993 and Mark Bellhorn of the Chicago Cubs duplicated the feat in 2002.

2017 — Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Compiled by the Associated Press

Until next time…

That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

CHICAGO — In the nearly nine months since he was hired as head coach at UCLA, Bob Chesney has won over a lot of hearts and minds with his unwavering sense of belief.

First, he won over his star quarterback, Nico Iamaleava, who opted to stick with the Bruins after a 3-9 season a year ago. He won over 45 new transfers, who came to UCLA as part of the portal’s 11th-ranked class and seems to be winning over recruits, too, with UCLA currently ranked in the top 10 among 2027 classes. He even won over once-dormant Bruin donors, who, according to the school’s athletic department, have now poured over $41 million in private support into UCLA athletics over the past fiscal year, an increase of 80% from the previous year.

“It’s his energy, man,” Iamaleava said. “He brings a different type of energy.”

At this point, the only thing it seems Chesney hasn’t won yet at UCLA is an actual football game.

He couldn’t do anything about that Wednesday from the podium at Big Ten media days. Though, as far as first impressions go in this conference, Chesney certainly had a leg up on his predecessor, who stumbled through his own opening address two years ago.

But as the season draws nearer and a new era of Bruin football begins, all the enthusiasm does beg the question: What does a successful debut actually look like for Chesney at UCLA?

Chesney said Wednesday he had no interest in setting those expectations or “in putting artificial limits on ourselves.”

“Outcomes have to be earned,” he said. “And I think in the end, potential is a gift, right? The work is becoming. That’s the work.”

Considering UCLA’s recent history, you can understand why Chesney wouldn’t want to wade too far into setting expectations. Hope, after all, may be his most valuable resource at the moment.

The Bruins are coming off a season in which they won just three games, their fewest in more than 54 years. They’ve reached the nine-win mark once in the past decade. And just two UCLA coaches in a half-century — Jim Mora and Terry Donahue — have clocked a winning campaign in their debut seasons with the Bruins.

“There’s no better place I’d rather be at this moment in time,” Chesney said. “I strongly believe in the power of what UCLA is.”

The collective Big Ten media seems less convinced, having voted the Bruins to finish 13th in their preseason conference poll. That’s exactly where they finished last season.

But there are some things working in Chesney’s favor. For one, a schedule that includes just four opponents picked to finish in the top half of the Big Ten.

It doesn’t hurt, either, that his quarterback got a full spring and summer under his belt as a Bruin. Iamaleava didn’t join the program until late in the process last season after his transfer portal drama dragged out through the spring and summer. Then once he started to find his bearings, UCLA’s coach was fired.

There was no such uncertainty this offseason, as Chesney moved to quickly retain Iamaleava.

“It was a matter of making sure he understood we had a plan,” Chesney said. “That was the most important thing we could do to make sure he stuck around and he did.”

Not only was Iamaleava impressed with his plans to prepare him for the NFL, but he found himself right away swept up in the coach’s personality.

“When you first talk to him,” Iamaleava said, “it kind of sounds like you’re talking to a poet or something, the way the words roll off.”

Chesney is counting on Iamaleava to make things move smoothly for UCLA’s offense this season. But the most marked difference for the Bruins on that side of the ball should be the ground game.

The Bruins boasted one of the least dynamic rushing attacks in the Big Ten a season ago, as Iamaleava led the team with just 505 rushing yards. Their lead running back, Jalen Berger, rushed for a meager 364 yards over the course of the season.

Meanwhile, at James Madison, Chesney had three running backs with as many yards last season. The Dukes rushed for the fifth-most yards (3,381) of any Football Bowl Subdivision team.

Their lead rusher, Wayne Knight, followed Chesney to UCLA and should step in as one of the best backs the Bruins have had in years. Of the 30 backs in college football with over 200 carries, Knight averaged the most yards per carry last season (6.63).

“There’ll be a commitment to playing that style of football,” Chesney said.

The rest is mostly just a projection, a fact that Chesney openly acknowledges.

“Everything here is ultimately conceptual,” he says.

But one change has already taken hold, if you ask Iamaleava. One that might appear unrecognizable from recent history at UCLA.

“He’s definitely changed the mindset in there, just how you feel. I don’t know how to explain it,” Iamaleava said.

“When Ches walks into a room, he just brings that winning mentality.”

Another failed summer. Another broken promise.

The most underachieving team on the Los Angeles sports landscape is embarrassingly stumbling through another season.

The Sparks stink. Again.

They’re not making the playoffs. Again.

There’s no reason to watch them even though there’s more than a month left on their schedule. Again.

For the sixth consecutive season, one of the WNBA’s legacy franchises has come apart at the seams, tattering the franchise’s three-championship history with a sordid record that mandates a clear response.

Trade your best player.

Trade Kelsey Plum.

The trade deadline is Sunday so do it quickly, and do it boldly, sending her to the sort of playoff contender who would find her worthy of young talent and draft picks.

Trade KP and do it now.

Yes, her 25-point scoring average would rank second in the league if she had not missed half the games with injuries.

Truly, she is arguably the team’s biggest attraction with the sort of Hollywood flash that overshadows even Nneka Ogwumike.

Indeed, the hard-nosed ballplayer elicits more screams and sells more tickets than any other Sparks player.

Trade her anyway. Swallow hard and make it happen. Out of a million reasons, here are just three.

First, her contract expires at the end of the season and she reportedly does not want to spend her prime years on a losing team. Can you blame her? Trade her before you lose her for nothing.

Nneka Ogwumike shoots over Chloe Bibby of the Chicago Sky during a game this month.

(Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images)

Second, at age 31, she is the team’s most valuable asset, and would command a high price among contenders looking for a shooter with a championship pedigree.

Third, this would be a powerful first move in a season-ending tank job.

You read that right. The Sparks should tank. They should tank hard. Tank, tank, tank. They should do anything it takes to have the best chance at nabbing the first pick in the 2027 draft and a chance to take USC phenom JuJu Watkins. The pursuit of Watkins, who will need to be convinced to give up her final year of college eligibility, should be the organization’s most important priority.

Anything for JuJu, and that includes trading Plum. While they’re at it, could they also please dump the massively disappointing Ariel Atkins and Erica Wheeler? Those two busts were part of the Sparks’ ill-conceived attempt last offseason to build a veteran team that could immediately compete.

It didn’t work, and now the Sparks have only four players who should be welcomed back next year — Cameron Brink, Rae Burrell, Dearica Hamby and Ogwumike.

Without Plum, Brink can have more space to work inside. Without Plum, Burrell can score 25 points a game. It’s a tank, but it’s not necessarily an ugly tank.

The front office should also be cleansed. Former general manager Raegan Pebley is already gone, meaning coach Lynne Roberts is next, probably fired the day after the season ends.

Cameron Brink is pressured by Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull during a game in May.

(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)

Their replacements might be anonymous shadow dwellers, but that’s OK. The Sparks need to not hire college wonders — no Cori Close — and enlist some good old-fashioned WNBA veteran thinkers and evaluators and leaders.

The Sparks basically need to start from scratch, and it starts with a major move sometime in the next five days.

Trade KP.

Please?

“We pushed in a lot of chips this year, and we had good reason to do that, but the reality is it hasn’t gone as we’d hoped or expected,” said Farhan Zaidi, special advisor to Sparks’ owner Mark Walter. “Now we have to be open for anything. Everything has to be on the table for us. We have to take a long-term perspective rather than focusing on the rest of the season.”

In other words, the trade light is lit!

Zaidi wouldn’t comment on specific players or club personnel, only to note that the Sparks cannot grow as constituted.

“We have to be realistic where we are,” he said. “We don’t want to be that team stuck in the middle.”

In other words, keeping Plum might give them a few more wins, but to what end? They contend for the final playoff berth only to fall short? And if they make it, how long would they last against a powerhouse like Minnesota? For a big-market, win-now team like the Sparks, mediocrity is a death knell.

Zaidi trusts that Sparks fans will understand, and I agree.

Their growing fan base is as smart as they are passionate. They understand that to break this losing spell, the Sparks will have to break with franchise tradition and basically give up on this season to build hope for the next.

My daughter and fellow season-ticket holder MC was quick to react when I told her I was going to advocate trading Plum.

The Sparks should trade Kelsey Plum before she walks away as a free agent.

(Aryanna Frank / Getty Images)

“Write it,” she said. “I want hope.”

Zaidi thinks other fans will agree.

“We have very smart fans, I don’t want to patronize them as to where we are,” he said. ”Our dedicated fans will understand if we have to take a step back to get to that championship level. I can step back if I feel like we’re building something.”

Zaidi noted, “I think it can happen quickly.”

He’s right. In a league in which a team like Golden State can contend for a title in only its second season, in a space where both of this year’s expansion teams — Toronto and Portland — can have better records than the Sparks, rebuilding doesn’t take much.

If the Sparks get some young talent and draft picks for Plum, then sign a top free agent by using the construction of their new practice facility as a selling point… who knows?

The Sparks need to do whatever it takes to become the Sparks again.

Hello, hope.

Goodbye, KP.

Spain defender Marc Cucurella has kept his promise to get a tattoo of World Cup-winning coach Luis de la Fuente.

Cucurella helped Spain win the World Cup this month as they beat Argentina 1-0 in the final.

Cucurella, who joined Real Madrid from Chelsea for £52m in June, revealed the tattoo – a portrait of De la Fuente holding the World Cup in front of a number 26 – on social media., external

“Promise kept,” Cucurella wrote alongside pictures and video of him having the tattoo done.

After the final De la Fuente said he expected Cucurella to stick to his word.

“I’ve already told them, ‘did you make a mistake?” he joked in his post-match news conference. “They did, but they’ll enjoy it.

“I’m not so terribly ugly that they will need to put it somewhere nobody can see it. But it makes me laugh and I am proud they keep their promises.”

Cucurella carried his wife’s pyjama top with him as a lucky charm during the World Cup, and recently said he has his trademark long, curly hair so his child can easily keep track of him during matches.

Yordan Alvarez homered and hit a go-ahead RBI single with two outs in the ninth inning to lift the Houston Astros to a 3-2 win over the Angels on Tuesday night.

Christian Walker added a solo homer while Houston relievers Enyel De Los Santos, Bryan Abreu, Steven Okert and Josh Hader combined for four hitless innings. Okert (4-1) threw a scoreless eighth to earn the win and Hader threw a four-pitch ninth for his 14th save.

The Astros won for the seventh time in eight games to remain two games behind Texas in the American League West. The last-place Angels have lost 17 of 22 games.

Nick Allen started the winning rally with a pinch-hit double off Angels left-hander Mitch Farris (0-2). Christian Vázquez flared a one-out single to shallow right, advancing Allen to third. After Jeremy Peña struck out, Alvarez lined a single to right-center.

Angels left-hander Reid Detmers gave up two runs and four hits in five innings, striking out nine and walking none. Astros right-hander Peter Lambert gave up two runs and seven hits in five innings, striking out six and walking one.

Alvarez drove a first-pitch fastball from Detmers 427 feet to right for his major league-leading 35th homer in the first.

The Angels tied it in the third on Vaughn Grissom’s RBI single to left.

Walker’s 21st homer, a 411-foot shot to left, gave Houston a 2-1 lead in the fourth. But the Angels tied it 2-2 in the fifth when Mike Trout singled and scored from first on Jorge Soler’s double down the left-field line.

Grissom singled to put runners on first and third, but Lambert struck out Wade Meckler to end the inning.

Sprinters Thomas Young and Sophie Hahn picked up gold medals for England on the opening night of athletics at the Commonwealth Games.

Both won their races in the men’s and women’s 100m T38 finals in Glasgow with Young doing so to mark his 26th birthday in style.

Young, who missed out on the 2022 Games with an injury, recorded a season’s best and Games record time of 11:11 seconds.

“It might be the best birthday I’ve ever had,” he said. “It’s actually joint with Fulham winning in the play-offs on my 20th, but it’s probably this to be fair. Just. I’ve not had my birthday cake yet. I was eyeing up a chocolate cake in the hotel so if they’re still open I’ll have some of that.”

In the women’s final, Hahn beat Team Wales captain and defending champion Olivia Breen into second place, triumphing with a time of 12:79, with England team-mate Maddie Down posting a personal best of 12:86 to secure a bronze medal.

“This is very special,” said Hahn. “It’s been a long time since I last won a Commonwealth Games back in 2018. This means a lot to come here in a home Games and to win.”

British champion Sam Bennett won silver in the men’s 110m hurdles final with a personal best time of 13:30 as he was beaten by Jamaica’s Demario Prince. England’s Tade Ojoro missed out on a medal in fifth.

Kimani Jack, 22, secured a bronze in the men’s high jump final with a jump of 2.20m, with the gold medal going to Jamaica’s Romaine Beckford who cleared 2.25m.

“I really really loved it out there, it was a great experience,” said Jack. “I’ve said it multiple times but shout out Glasgow, they know how to put on an event.”

In round one of the women’s 800m, Olympic silver medallist Georgia Hunter Bell won her heat in two minutes 02.61 seconds to finish ahead of Scotland’s Jemmie Reekie as both qualified.

“I was happy to control it and I felt really good,” said Hunter Bell. “I’m happy and it’s job done.

“I’ve never done the Commonwealth Games before, so it’s obviously my debut. For me, it was always going to be a no-brainer that I do it.”

“I was really struggling to get food down, and was stressing about things like getting a medley relay slot instead of thinking about getting a medal tonight.

“My coach said to me I had nothing to lose but to just relax and enjoy it.”

Alongside fellow Scots Ciara Schlosshan and Lucy Grieve – who finished fifth and sixth respectively – MacInnes did just that.

Third at the turn, she overhauled South Africa’s Erin Gallagher as the noise grew louder to earn a spot on the second step of the podium. Australia’s Alex Perkins took gold.

“Oh, God, I’m just starting to get my breath back,” MacInnes said. “That was so incredible.

“I’m so grateful to the crowd for making it such a special memory for me. I’m so grateful to my parents and boyfriend who are up in the crowd and I’m so glad I was able to do it in front of them.

“A silver is crazy to me. Maybe I was thinking ‘bronze could be really cool’ so this is just so amazing.”

Duncan Scott knows all about Games medals, given he has 14 of them in the house.

Gold in Friday’s 200m individual medley was a fine start to proceedings, but a couple of relay near-misses over the weekend were followed by another fourth place in the 200m butterfly on Monday.

3M Open final leaderboard

-25 J Koivun (US); -22 S Scheffler (US); -20 D McCarthy (US), B Harman (US), C Phillips (US), H Matsuyama (Jpn)

Selected others: -17 S Power (Ire), G Woodland (US) M Kim (US); -16 Knapp (US); -13 J Parry (Eng)

Full leaderboard

American rookie Jackson Koivun held his nerve to beat Scottie Scheffler by three strokes and claim his first PGA Tour win at the 3M Open on Sunday.

Playing in just his third tournament since turning professional, Koivun surged into a three-shot lead on Saturday during a round of 10-under 61.

The 21-year-old then stretched his lead to five in the final round at TPC Twin Cities in Minnesota, before world number one Scheffler applied pressure.

The four-time major winner began the back nine with three straight birdies, then claimed two more in the final three holes to finish with an eight-under 63 and trail compatriot Koivun by two strokes.

Former world amateur number one Koivun could have wobbled at that point, with holes left to play, but instead he made his fifth birdie of the day at 16 before wrapping up a five-under 66 to finish on 25 under par overall.

“I had some nerves coming down 18,” said Koivun. “All throughout the crowd I kept hearing ‘Scottie’s coming, Scottie’s coming’.

“I just tried to tune that out and keep playing the golf I knew I could and was able to find some good putts coming down the stretch.”

American trio Denny McCarthy, Brian Harman and Chandler Phillips finished five strokes behind Koivun, in a tie for third with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama.

Michael Kim fired a 12-under 59 on Friday, but the American finished in a tie for 10th after closing with rounds of 70 and 69.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Barack Obama romped to victory Saturday in the South Carolina Democratic primary, a landslide powered by African American voters energized by a chance to elect the nation’s first black president.

The win, the most lopsided of the campaign, gives the Illinois senator a big lift heading into the coast-to-coast balloting Feb. 5. He once more demonstrated strong support among young and change-minded voters, who helped set another record turnout.

“The choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders,” Obama told a boisterous crowd in Columbia that repeatedly interrupted his remarks with cheers. “It’s not about rich versus poor, young versus old, and it is not about black versus white. This election is about the past versus the future.”

The outcome of the Democratic contest, after a week of racially charged campaigning, also suggested divisions that flew in the face of Obama’s message of unity. The Illinois senator won 4 out of 5 black votes in the state Saturday versus 1 out of 4 white votes, according to exit polls.

Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, who split most of the white vote, finished second and third, respectively. Clinton and Edwards ran even among white women; Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and a South Carolina native, carried a plurality of white men.

Obama made significant inroads with one group of white voters: He carried half those younger than 30.

He also fared well on issues. Half of voters cited the economy as the major problem facing the country; Obama was that bloc’s clear favorite. He enjoyed an even bigger edge among voters naming healthcare or the war in Iraq as the country’s biggest problem.

Clinton left the state about the time the polls closed at 7 p.m., but called Obama from her plane to congratulate him before taking off. Nearly final returns showed Obama with 55% of the vote, Clinton with 27% and Edwards with 18%.

Appearing hours later in Nashville, Clinton thanked South Carolina residents, then talked about the landslide of votes coming Feb. 5, when voters in more than 20 states — including California — will go to the polls.

“I want to tell you how excited I am that the eyes of the country turn to Tennessee and the other states that vote on Feb. 5,” the New York senator told a crowd of several hundred at Tennessee State University. “Millions and millions of Americans will have the chance to have their voices heard and their votes counted.”

Edwards, who carried South Carolina in his 2004 bid, vowed Saturday night to stay in the race “to give voice to millions of Americans who have absolutely no voice in this democracy.” He planned to campaign today in several states with Feb. 5 contests.

For months, Clinton was the leader in South Carolina polls, but that began to change as Obama’s campaign gathered strength. His support among black voters exploded after his Jan. 3 victory in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, and his win Saturday was bigger than many analysts had expected.

Speaking at a victory rally at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, Obama declared: “After four great contests in every corner of this country, we have the most votes, we have the most delegates and the most diverse coalition of Americans that we’ve seen in a long, long time.”

Sounding themes similar to the speech delivered after his Iowa triumph, Obama decried a politics that foments division. “I did not travel around this state over the last year and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina,” he said. “I saw South Carolina.”

Giddy, the crowd chanted, “Yes, we can!” and “Race doesn’t matter!”

But at the same time, Obama took veiled swipes at Clinton and her husband, the former president, over the acrimony of the last week, saying, “We are up against the idea that it is acceptable to say anything and do anything to win an election.”

South Carolina, which was given the privilege of an early-voting slot to promote diversity in the Democratic race, was the first contested state with a large black population. Exit polls indicated that more than half of those who turned out Saturday were African American, up slightly from four years ago, and many had an eye on history.

About noon Saturday, 17 consecutive African Americans leaving a polling place in working-class Orangeburg said they had voted for Obama.

“It tells me that people and times are changing,” said Sarah Favors, who has taught for 25 years at historically black South Carolina State University. “And to see it happening here in South Carolina tells me that things are really changing, because people here like things to stay the same.”

There were 45 pledged national delegates at stake in Saturday’s voting, with Obama projected to win the most. But more significant was the momentum that comes with victory, which has gone back and forth between Obama and Clinton on virtually a weekly basis since his strong opening win in Iowa’s caucuses.

The two can now claim a pair of victories.

“This was a big win for Obama,” said John Anzalone, a Democratic pollster who is not affiliated with a campaign. “It shows this is going to be competitive all the way to the end.”

It could be ugly, too. South Carolina, a state with a history of incendiary elections, is where an already nasty contest turned raw and racial.

Obama and Clinton clashed in the harshest debate of the campaign: He derided her service “as a corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart,” she accused him of doing the legal bidding of a Chicago slumlord. Their venom carried over to the airwaves.

The Clinton campaign broadcast a radio spot suggesting Obama was at heart a Reagan Republican. Obama responded with an assertion that Clinton would “say anything to get elected.”

Clinton left the state for two days midweek and placed her campaign in the formidable hands of her husband, who won South Carolina in his 1992 White House run. Critics accused the former president of injecting race into the contest through a series of veiled remarks; he angrily denied the assertion, and campaign strategists said they were pleased with his prominent role.

But interviews with voters leaving their polling places Saturday suggested a backlash. About 6 in 10 said the former president’s campaigning was important in shaping their decision; of those, nearly half went for Obama, according to the survey conducted for television networks and the Associated Press.

Moreover, Obama handily defeated Clinton among those who made their minds up in the final three days of the campaign, when coverage of the former president dominated the news.

“It was a choice between old and new, and people wanted new,” said Dick Harpootlian, an Obama supporter and former state Democratic Party chairman.

But aides to candidate Clinton said Saturday that the former president would continue to campaign on his wife’s behalf as the race shifts to what is in effect a national presidential primary.

Up to now, the nominating fight has been a series of single-state battles in discrete regions: Iowa in the Midwest, New Hampshire in the Northeast, Nevada in the West and South Carolina below the Mason-Dixon line.

Florida Democrats vote Tuesday, but that contest has been diminished by a candidate boycott stemming from its violation of party rules forbidding such an early vote. The focus from here out is Feb. 5, when more than 20 states hold nominating contests. At stake will be nearly 1,700 national convention delegates, well over half the number needed to secure the nomination.

Despite cloudy, chilly weather, South Carolina Democrats posted a record turnout Saturday — more than 532,000 voters — continuing a pattern in this election season.

Unlike the race in Iowa, a mostly positive contest that buoyed many Democrats, South Carolina left a sour tang.

“A tough competition is good,” said Jenny Backus, a Democratic consultant watching from the sidelines. “But we have to come together in the general election. There are three qualified candidates. We would be better off debating their different leadership styles than ripping each other’s faces off.”

—

mark.barabak@latimes.com

—

Times staff writers Maria L. LaGanga in Columbia, S.C., James Rainey in Orangeburg, S.C., and Peter Nicholas in Nashville contributed to this report.

—

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

S. Carolina results

Democrats

Barack Obama … 55%

Hillary Rodham Clinton … 27%

John Edwards … 18%

99% of precincts reporting

Walking down a hallway at UCLA’s Wasserman Football Center earlier this week, I became a believer.

Bouncing hurriedly in my direction was a bright-eyed kid with a huge smile. I didn’t know him. He didn’t know me.

Yet as he passed, he suddenly stuck out his hand for a fist bump, which I was too stunned to ignore, and so I pounded back while wondering.

What just happened?

Then it hit me.

Bob Chesney just happened.

New UCLA football coach Bob Chesney has won over cynics with his unflinching optimism and attention to detail.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

The new football coach has infused the completely rebuilt program into a place so energetic, his players run around sharing their inspiration to complete strangers.

“Yeah, we’re gonna win here,” Chesney says.

This shared spirit starts every morning in this building, in the team meeting room, where Chesney orders his players to stand and sing the school fight song as if they are standing on the field after a victory.

The words to the song are displayed on a giant screen, which increasingly isn’t used because most of his players have now learned the song by heart. Those who fail to sing get tagged with a red laser pointer, so pretty much everyone croons.

“I’m not gonna let people put limits on us,” Chesney says. “I’m not gonna let them tell us what we can and can’t do.”

This shared spirit continues deep into the night, as some of his players recently had a pool party at the home of Cori Close, the Bruins national championship women’s basketball coach. She was not teaching them how to swim. She was teaching them how to win.

“People say why here?” Chesney says. “I say, why not here?”

He shows up for my early afternoon visit last week dressed uniquely for a $33.75 million coach of a Big Ten school on the outskirts of Hollywood.

He is dressed like a player. Black shirt, black shorts, thin sheen of sweat adorning his expressive forehead.

“Been lifting weights,” he says.

Are weight machines set aside for the coaches?

“Lifting with the players,” he says. “These guys are telling me what to do.”

UCLA coach Bob Chesney stands on the field in between players and shouts instructions during a spring practice.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

Full disclosure: I arranged my visit full of skepticism about this guy that has UCLA fans swooning.

C’mon. Seriously? He’s ready for this? How can he be ready for this?

The son of a small-town high school football coach in Pennsylvania coal country, Chesney had risen from obscurity to … more obscurity. He had previously coached at four different small schools you couldn’t find on a map. Salve Regina? Assumption? What?

This will be Chesney’s first shot under the bright lights. And he is taking that shot with a program whose best shots couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.

The Bruins have not been to the Rose Bowl game in 28 years, and he is going to fix that? They have not won a Rose Bowl game in 41 years, and he was going to change that culture?

The celebrated Chip Kelly couldn’t do it. The emotional Jim Mora Jr. couldn’t do it. The cheerleading Rick Neuheisel couldn’t do it. The cerebral Karl Dorrell couldn’t do it. The affable Bob Toledo thought he had done it until his team inexplicably quit on him just 60 minutes from a berth in the national championship game.

I had covered all of these coaches, hearing their annual promises, seeing their annual collapses, realizing USC had a stranglehold on the college football money and attention in this town, and I had come up with an inescapable conclusion.

What Chesney is trying to do with UCLA football can’t be done.

Then I met him.

The best word to describe initial impressions of the 48-year-old former college safety would be, wow.

He talks fast. He oozes belief. He sells UCLA. He sells himself. He doesn’t shrink from his giant task. He doesn’t rationalize or equivocate his team’s sordid history.

He’s like one of those charming smart kids who never takes no for an answer.

“I feel it,” he says.”I feel it.”

No wonder his recruiting has been phenomenal, ranked seventh nationwide for the class of 2027, a trend that began this summer with 42 transfers, many of whom will start. No wonder he has been recognized by fans while hanging out in West Hollywood or Griffith Observatory or Dodger Stadium, where he’s already sat wide-eyed in a meeting with Dodger manager and UCLA grad Dave Roberts and Sandy Koufax.

He feels it, and the Bruin Nation feels it with him.

“Everybody’s included,” he says. “You wanna be included? C’mon, you’re included.”

As the self-proclaimed driver of the Bruin bandwagon in recent years — only to be derailed by midseason every time — I’ll pass on the inclusion. I’ve got to see it before buying it. But right now, Chesney has worked me up into such a lather that, yeah, I’m believing.

First, Chesney points to his resume, a litany of small schools who accumulated big victories, a dossier that includes only one losing season and none in the last seven years.

His head coaching career started at Division III Salve Regina (Rhode Island), where he turned eight consecutive losing seasons into three straight winning seasons.

“‘You can’t win there, nobody can win there’ is what they said,” Chesney says. “We won there.”

James Madison coach Bob Chesney and running back Wayne Knight celebrate after winning the Sun Belt championship on Dec. 5 in Harrisonburg, Va.

(Robert Simmons / Associated Press)

Then there was Division II Assumption in Massachusetts, where he took a team that had two winning records in 17 years and led them to five consecutive winning records and three straight playoff appearances.

“They said, ‘You can’t do it, nobody can do it,’’’ Chesney says. “We did it.”

Then there was Holy Cross, also in Massachusetts, where he took the team to a record five straight Patriot League championships while advancing as deep as the FCS quarterfinals.

“They told us, ‘The academics are too tough, the tuition is too high, you can’t win there,’’’ Chesney recounts. “We won there.”

Finally there was James Madison in Virginia, where he took a team whose stars had all followed Curt Cignetti to Indiana and still triumphed, leading them to a Cinderella appearance in the College Football Playoff.

“A lot of people doubted it, a lot of people didn’t believe it could work,” Chesney says. “We’ve proved a lot of people wrong throughout the years.”

After his resume, Chesney points to his surroundings. He is more awed by UCLA’s gravitas than any other football coach I can remember. It’s clear he can sell the school because he has such respect for the school.

“Here you’re a handshake away from changing your life … the school has an 8% acceptance rate, you’re walking around this campus with valedictorians and future CEOs and doctors and lawyers,” he says. “You’re surrounded by greatness, you have a chance to breathe this rare air that very few people get a chance to breathe.”

But for Chesney to fill this air with a football championship requires a price. It is a price that, so far, many potential donors have been reluctant to pay. But in today’s college football world, it is the cost of doing business.

Face it, Cignetti couldn’t have changed Indiana’s fortunes so rapidly if it wasn’t for Mark Cuban money. Chesney believes he can do the same thing here … with a little push.

Longtime UCLA donor Angelo Mazzone chipped in $10 million recently, and more such gifts are needed for UCLA to be able to pay the players that bring them a championship.

”There’s a major financial commitment that comes with getting those four- and five-star kids, but we can really turn the tables with that kind of help,” Chesney says. “Every single thing that is needed is here, we just have to make sure we get the support from the people on the outside that we need to actualize our dream.”

UCLA coach Bob Chesney shares his vision for the program during his introductory news conference on Dec. 9.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

He’s doing all the right things while chasing that dream.

Even as his bosses are pushing to move the team out of the Rose Bowl to SoFi Stadium, he loves the Rose Bowl, and took his team there for its spring game on a weekend that began with him standing outside the brightly lit marquee with his father and his son in the dark.

“It was one of those moments, I was like, man, the history of this place … to me to play in the Rose Bowl, what an honor and a privilege,” he says.

The game actually drew a decent spring crowd of 10,000-12,000, partially because Chesney had worked so hard at banging the drum. He and his players even brought pizzas to various campus groups in hopes of enlisting support.

“You want to be around this program, you can be around this program,” he says.

Then there’s his opinion of USC. He doesn’t have one. He never mentions them. For a UCLA coach, this is a good thing.

“I guess we’re perceived to be in their shadow, and for whatever reasons we weren’t an option the last couple of years, but look at our recruiting, I know we’re becoming an option for L.A. again,” Chesney says. “I think you can change a lot of people’s opinions on who they want to be rooting for.”

As in all levels of football, it all comes down to the quarterback, and Chesney had his first win by convincing budding star Nico Iamaleava. The kid was roundly criticized in this space for holding out and then walking out on his Tennessee team last year, but he has since grown up, and could be the sort of game-changer that Chesney requires.

“Watching Nico with his athletic ability, his arm, creating plays after the play with his legs, I have very high hopes,” says Chesney.

There are potentially outstanding transfers at half of the positions, and, with some solid returning players — this is a team that beat seventh-ranked Penn State, remember — the Bruins have a decent foundation.

UCLA coach Bob Chesney pats running back Anthony Woods on the helmet during the team’s spring game at the Rose Bowl on May 2.

(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)

Throw in a favorable 2026 schedule that doesn’t include Ohio State or Penn State or Washington or Iowa, and one thinks they might even have a chance at making some miracles.

“You’re going to see a different brand of football, one that is united, that is passionate, that is physical, that is tough, that has a lot of fun playing together,” he said.

You’re also going to hear a sound that died in the brief DeShaun Foster era, a sound that has never lasted more than a couple of weeks in the last 30 years.

That rumble is the Bruin football bandwagon. It’s revving up again. The inimitable force that is Bob Chesney wants to include you on the start of its journey.

Let him.

Denis Bouanga scored two goals, Son Heung-min scored in his third consecutive match since the World Cup break, and LAFC thrashed Sporting Kansas City 4-0 on Saturday night for its fourth consecutive victory.

David Martínez also scored in a 3-0 first half for LAFC, which hasn’t lost since May 17. Bouanga added his second goal in the 85th minute, giving him 10 in 17 matches this season.

With an inspired Son and a top-form Bouanga both scoring in every game since the break, LAFC has outscored its last three opponents by a combined 10-1. They’ve pulled even with Vancouver and San José atop the Western Conference standings with 33 points and 10 victories, although the Whitecaps and Quakes both have games in hand.

Hugo Lloris had to make just one save while keeping his MLS-leading 10th clean sheet for LAFC.

Sporting Kansas City didn’t get a shot on target until the 77th minute of a loss that kept them at the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

Son struck in the fifth minute when he chased down a lead pass from Mark Delgado, shook off defender Wyatt Meyer and fired home his third goal of the season. The former Tottenham star played his first 13 matches without a goal for LAFC despite leading MLS in assists, but the South Korea captain has looked rejuvenated with the World Cup pressure off his shoulders.

Bouanga doubled LAFC’s lead in the 37th minute with the type of counterattacking goal that his team scored relentlessly last season. The French forward controlled Mathieu Choinière’s long pass, shrugged off a defender and finished.

Bouanga’s pass then set Martínez loose on a counterattack with Son in injury time, and Martínez buried his sixth goal.

LAFC added yet another transition goal late when Ryan Porteous’ long pass found Tyler Boyd, who fed Bouanga for the brace.

Up next for LAFC: at Vancouver on Saturday.

In the aftermath of such a chaotic night, it is easy to focus only on the flaws and forget the bigger picture. Joshua was returning from one of the darkest periods of his life and carrying an immense emotional burden into the ring.

After his hand was raised, he struggled to get through his interview. His voice cracked as he spoke about his two friends and the impact their loss has had on him.

“Boxing once saved him and he needed boxing to get through this. That camp allowed him to focus his mind while he was in so much grief and pain,” promoter Eddie Hearn said.

“You don’t know what he was going through in that camp because he doesn’t talk about it.”

Whatever happens next, his place in British boxing history is already secure. He is an Olympic gold medallist, a two-time heavyweight champion and one of the biggest sporting stars this country has produced.

He has taken boxing to places few British fighters ever have. He has filled stadiums, headlined global events and become a household name far beyond the sport.

But in the build-up to his comeback, Joshua and his stablemate Oleksandr Usyk spoke about the ambition of becoming undisputed heavyweight champion.

After Saturday night in Saudi, the reality is that even reclaiming a world title would be a tough ask.

Joshua has always spoken about legacy, and there would be something fitting about walking away after overcoming one of the toughest periods of his life and producing a dramatic comeback victory.

The danger with ageing fighters is chasing one more night. Boxing history is filled with champions who stayed that one fight too long.

But then again Fury-Joshua is not one more fight. It is the fight. The one that has loomed over their careers for the best part of a decade.

Briton Josh Kelly was forced to dig deep to retain his IBF light-middleweight world title, surviving a spirited late comeback from Belfast’s Caoimhin Agyarko to win a narrow points decision in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Kelly looked in complete control until the complexion of the contest changed when he received a deserved sixth-round point deduction for repeated punches to the back of the head.

The 31-year-old was then bloodied by cuts across his face and a gash on his nose as Agyarko grew in confidence and began to land with increasing success.

But Kelly stood firm through the championship rounds to secure victory, with the judges scoring the contest 114-113, 115-112 and 115-112.

“That was a messy and hard fight. I didn’t get cuts from punches like this, it comes from heads and elbows. This is what it looks like when you’ve got tight skin,” Kelly said.

“I knew he [Agyarko] was go to be tricky and awkward. [He had] a good game plan. He tried to make it a good boxing match. I had to show a different side to me at the end and that is what a champions does.”

Fighting on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight comeback against Kristian Prenga, Sunderland’s Kelly claimed his 21st professional victory.

Agyarko, 29, had hoped to become Ireland’s first black world champion. Instead, despite a brave second-half comeback, he suffered the first defeat of his professional career in his 30th contest.

Also on the card, WBO super-middleweight champion Hamzah Sheeraz laboured to an underwhelming points win over Simon Zachenhuber.

The 27-year-old Briton was far from his best and struggled to find his rhythm but was awarded a majority decision as he extended his record to 24 wins and one defeat.

Another dramatic and emotional night in Anthony Joshua’s boxing career ultimately ended as just about everyone expected it would – with the countdown under way to a super-fight against Tyson Fury later in the year.

Joshua, 36, improved his record to 30-4, but he was almost on the end of one of the biggest shocks in his sport’s history when he was knocked down twice by little-known Albanian Kristian Prenga inside the first round.

The Briton regrouped in the second round to land a flurry of hard right hands, sending Prenga crashing to the canvas and getting the win he came to Jeddah for.

BBC Sport has selected some of the best pictures from the fight, which came seven months on from the car crash in Nigeria in which Joshua was injured and two of his closest friends died.

The Sunday Times says, external Prime Minister Andy Burnham will give England’s metropolitan mayors a share of income tax to spend in their cities, in devolution plans to be announced next week. It says the policy will be driven from the new Number 10 North office in Manchester.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, external about his government’s priorities, Burnham says “if I’ve learnt anything from my time in politics, it’s that ‘it can’t be done’ is usually just another way of saying ‘we’ve stopped trying’.” In an article justifying policy decisions that have been taken so far, he adds, “our job will only be done when people aren’t just living, they’re living well.”

The Sunday Telegraph claims, external that the new Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, has offered in a call with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, to collaborate on a global effort to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. The paper says a conference may be held in London to bring together representatives from more than 40 countries to discuss the issue. It describes the efforts as an attempt to “turn the page” on the divergence between the US and UK over the Iran war.

The wildfires raging across Europe feature on the front page of the Observer, external. It carries a stark full page image of a bather walking into the sea, with billowing smoke causing the sky to blacken. The headline reads: “Baptism of Fire.”

The Sun on Sunday reports, external that a group of migrants who arrived in the UK this week may include suspects wanted for questioning in connection with the fatal stabbing of another migrant. The incident is alleged to have happened in the seaside resort of Berck-sur-Mer in northern France on Thursday.

The Sunday Express claims, external that Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, is close to agreeing to a deal with broadcasters for a documentary series about her life. It says Netflix is one of the broadcasters she has been negotiating with. Those negotiating on behalf of Ferguson have stipulated that her contributions would have to be filmed outside the US because of the risk of being subpoenaed by the Congressional House Oversight Committee, which is investigating the crimes of her former husband’s friend, Jeffrey Epstein.

CHICAGO — Jonquel Jones had 22 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists, helping Caitlin Clark and Team Spoon outlast Marina Mabrey and Team Coop 129-122 in the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday night.

Dominique Malonga had a first-half dunk for Team Coop, but Team Spoon had eight players score in double figures in an All-Star Game that featured 127 three-point attempts and very little defense. Allisha Gray had 19 points for Team Spoon, and Clark finished with 17.

The WNBA celebrated its 30th season by holding its first All-Star Game in Chicago since 2022. This time, the marquee event was played in front of a record crowd of 19,783 at the United Center instead of the smaller Wintrust Arena in downtown Chicago, a sign of how much the league has grown.

Jones, a 32-year-old center for the New York Liberty, was named MVP. Nneka Ogwumike scored 11 points for Team Spoon while passing Maya Moore (119) for the most career points in All-Star Game history.

Kelsey Mitchell had 28 points for Team Coop, and Mabrey scored all of her 23 points during a red-hot first half. Malonga finished with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

WNBA greats Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon drafted the All-Star teams from players that were either voted as starters by fans, media and fellow players or chosen as reserves by the league’s coaches. Las Vegas’ Becky Hammon coached Cooper’s team, and Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve was in charge of Weatherspoon’s squad.

Clark went 5 for 15 from beyond the arc and had five assists in her return to the All-Star game. The Indiana Fever guard missed last year’s event in Indianapolis because of a groin injury.

The 24-year-old Clark came out firing, connecting from 33 feet and 37 feet on her way to 11 points in the first 2 1/2 minutes. She buried another three early in the second quarter off a slick no-look pass from Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles, the only rookie selected for the game.

Clark and Mabrey each put on an offensive show, but Malonga got the biggest cheer of the night. The 6-foot-6 center from the Seattle Storm ran down the lane, got a pass from Angel Reese and threw down a right-handed jam with 6:24 left in the first half.

Reese jumped up and down as Malonga finished the play, and the two exchanged a mid-air chest bump on their way back down the court.

It was the first dunk in a WNBA All-Star Game since Sylvia Fowles in 2022. Lisa Leslie (2005), Jones (2017), Brittney Griner (2019) also have accomplished the feat.

Leslie was on hand for the festivities, along with South Carolina coach and former WNBA guard Dawn Staley. Former NBA star Dwyane Wade also was courtside.

Cohen writes for the Associated Press.

With four fourth places in Birmingham in 2022, Richards was looking for his first Commonwealth medal to complete the set of Olympic, world and European podium positions.

Wales opted for an entirely different quartet in the pool in the final after Kieran Bird, Harry Milne, Medi Harris and Meghan Higgs had qualified fourth fastest in the heats.

Sutton and Taylor had qualified for their respective individual semi-finals in the 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke, but both pulled out with a full focus on the relay.

The policy paid off and Taylor, 17, brought Wales back from fifth to third with a brilliant final leg.

Earlier, Rose Williams finished fourth in the women’s S14 200m freestyle final.

The S14 category covers swimmers who have an intellectual impairment, which typically leads to the athletes having difficulties with regard to pattern recognition, sequencing, and memory, or having a slower reaction time, which impact on sport performance in general.

Tyler Melbourne-Smith finished sixth in the 400m freestyle final, while Lewis Fraser qualified for the 100m butterfly final to be staged on Sunday evening.

Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma sets up 90-run win over Zimbabwe as India takes 2-0 lead in T20 series.

India ‌inflicted another heavy defeat on Zimbabwe when they ⁠won the ⁠second Twenty20 international at Harare Sports Club by 90 runs to secure their three-match ⁠series.

Ishan Kishan scored 81 and Tilak Varma an unbeaten 60 as India amassed a formidable total of ⁠219-5 after being put into bat before dismissing Zimbabwe cheaply for 129 to secure the victory on Saturday.

Kishan, whose runs came off 44 balls, and Tilak, who took 29 balls to get ‌to 60, accelerated the scoring in the middle overs, taking advantage of bowling that was often too full.

They put on 94 off 44 balls for the fourth wicket before Ishan was caught in the deep mistiming a slog at a wide delivery.

Zimbabwe faced ⁠a record run chase and, although ⁠opener Brian Bennett offered some early hope, they were always up against it and were dismissed in 17.5 overs.

Bennett played an array of ⁠strokes for 32 runs off 19 balls before falling to Yash Thakur, who ⁠finished with 2-30 on his T20 ⁠international debut.

Once Bennett had been dismissed, there was a steady fall of wickets, with the slow left-arm bowling of Abhishek Sharma producing the ‌best figures of 3-17.

India won the opening match of the three-game series at the Harare Sports Club by ‌seven ‌wickets with 40 balls to spare.

The last clash is on Sunday.

The Hundred women’s competition, Sophia Gardens

Welsh Fire 177-4 (100 balls): Devine 52 (29); Matthews 2-52

MI London 117 (92 balls): Henry 30 (23); Potts 3-24

Welsh Fire won by 60 runs

Scorecard. Table

An impressive Welsh Fire earned their first win of the women’s Hundred with a 60-run thrashing of MI London in Cardiff.

Fire suffered a poor defeat by Southern Brave in their opener but bounced back to post 177-4, comfortably the highest total of this year’s tournament and the third-highest in the tournament’s history.

After openers Ella McCaughan and Georgia Voll added 49, captain Sophie Devine and all-rounder Georgia Wareham added 79 from just 35 balls for the fourth wicket as MI London’s bowlers wilted.

Devine was stumped from the penultimate ball for 52 from just 29 balls including four sixes, one of which was smacked out of the ground, while Wareham finished unbeaten on 43 from 20.

To conclude the entertaining innings, Em Arlott came out with one ball to face and launched it for six, as Fire’s performance provided some much-needed entertainment for the women’s tournament where the previous-highest team total so far was just 126.

In reply, MI London – despite a batting line-up stacked with international quality – crumbled to 117 all out and suffered their second successive defeat.

Fire seamer Grace Potts dominated the powerplay with figures of 3-24 as MI London crumbled under the run-rate pressure. Potts accounted for MI London’s powerful top three of Hayley Matthews for 10, Danni Wyatt-Hodge for 12 and Kira Chathli for two.

Devine backed up her knock with figures of 2-15, including the wicket of Chinelle Henry who was MI London’s top-scorer with 30, while Welsh left-arm spinner Sophia Smale chipped in with 2-17.

MI London will take on unbeaten Southern Brave on Monday as they search for their first win, while Fire face Trent Rockets on Wednesday.

NEW YORK — Kyle Tucker’s first home run in nearly a month lifted the Dodgers to a 4-2 victory over the New York Mets on Friday night.

Starting pitcher Roki Sasaki held the Mets to just three hits, which included a solo homer from Luis Roberts Jr. that accounted for the only run Sasaki surrendered. He threw seven innings for the third time this season.

The extra velocity that Sasaki mustered in his last start against the New York Yankees — when he surpassed 101 mph in a regular season game for the first time in his MLB career — didn’t make an encore against the Mets (43-61).

Instead, Sasaki leaned on his splitter, throwing it 47% of the time, compared to his season average of 26%.

The Dodgers tied the score 1-1 in the fourth inning. Freddie Freeman, who finished with three hits, led with a single. Mookie Betts matched him, then Miguel Rojas stayed back on a changeup and sent it to deep right field for a sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers twice fell victim to Mets right fielder Carson Benge’s arm in the fifth and sixth. First, Shohei Ohtani was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple after a relay throw by Francisco Lindor. Benge threw out Freeman at the plate in the sixth on a Rojas popout to right.

Kyle Tucker follows through on a two-run home run for the Dodgers in the eighth inning of a 4-2 win Friday night over the New York Mets.

(Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)

In the seventh, the Dodgers (66-38) started to build another rally. Dalton Rushing laid down a bunt with runners on the corners. But it bounced right to pitcher Brooks Raley, who flipped the ball to the plate to eventually snare Tucker in a rundown between third and home.

On the next at-bat, Ohtani drove in Teoscar Hernández from third on a sacrifice fly to center field.

Tucker’s two-run homer in the eighth provided the Dodgers some insurance they would end up using when Evan Phillips gave up a solo homer to Francisco Alvarez in the bottom of the inning. It was Tucker’s first home run since June 27.

Injury updates

Right-hander Tyler Glasnow (back spasms) has progressed to the live batting practice phase of his rehab progression, manager Dave Roberts said. It’s a promising sign for a pitcher who twice had to shut down throwing early in his rehab when he aggravated the injury.

Closer Edwin Díaz (arthroscopic elbow surgery) came out well from throwing on back-to-back days in a triple A rehab assignment.

“We talked about him flying across the country; doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Roberts said. “So I think he’s supposed to pitch on Sunday, and then if that goes well, he should be back with us when we get back on Tuesday.”

The Dodgers begin a six-game homestand Tuesday, against the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox.

Catcher Will Smith’s timeline to return from a neck injury remains unclear, after the Dodgers temporarily shut him down from baseball activities, beginning around the All-Star break.

“He’s pain free,” Roberts. “He’s getting back into being more active.”

Six days after winning his first race in nearly a year, the multiple Grade 1-stakes-winning colt Journalism has been retired.

Coolmore America and Journalism’s ownership group on Friday announced the 4-year-old son of Curlin sustained an injury at the start of Saturday’s San Diego Handicap at Del Mar. The nature of the injury was not revealed.

Journalism broke slowly in the race when he moved forward just before the gate opened, then hit the side of the stall. He spotted the field several lengths but rallied to capture the 1 1/16-mile race for his first victory in five starts since winning the Haskell Stakes last July at Monmouth Park.

In addition to the Haskell, Journalism earned Grade 1 wins in the Preakness Stakes and Santa Anita Derby and was second in the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes and Pacific Classic. The San Diego was his third Grade 2 win, along with the Los Alamitos Futurity and San Felipe Stakes.

He retires with seven wins, three seconds and three thirds from 14 starts, with earnings of $4,770,755.

Michael McCarthy trained Journalism for an ownership group headed by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which paid $825,000 for him as a yearling. The colt already was scheduled to begin stallion duty next year at Coolmore’s Ashford Farm in Versailles, Ky.

“What Journalism did at Del Mar was the mark of a true champion,” McCarthy said in the news release. “To suffer an injury in the gate, give away that much ground, and still win purely on heart and class tells you everything you need to know about him. He owes us absolutely nothing. While it’s tough to see his racing career end this way, protecting him is our top priority, and he goes to stud at the top of his game.”

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has set a date for a hearing over Senegal’s appeal against being stripped of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations title.

Hosts Morocco were declared the tournament winners after the Confederation of African Football (Caf) overturned the result of the final in January, which Senegal won 1-0.

The Senegalese players walked off the field after Morocco were awarded a stoppage-time penalty with the match goalless.

Following a delay of about 17 minutes, the players returned and Brahim Diaz’s penalty was saved before Senegal’s Pape Gueye scored an extra-time winner.

Senegal lodged their appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) on 25 March, seeking to set aside Caf’s decision and reinstate them as tournament winners.

Caf deemed that Senegal had forfeited the final and awarded Morocco a 3-0 victory.

Caf and the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF) did not agree to expedite the procedure so there will now be a hearing on 8 October.

According to a Cas statement, that follows the standard timeline.

Caf and the FRMF did not request that the hearing is made public so it will take place behind closed doors at the Cas headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Cas cannot state when a final decision will be announced but it will not be on the day of the hearing.