HIGH SCHOOLS
Shelby Sheldrick scored 10 points as Lake Region opened its girls’ basketball season Thursday night with a 44-18 win over Fryeburg Academy.
Liz Smith added eight points, while Carly Dyer, Elle Hall, Shawna Hancock and Brianna Sargent each finished with five.
Katy McIntyre scored five points for Fryeburg.
• Sage Fortin paced Winthrop (2-2) with 16 points as the visiting Ramblers defeated Boothbay, 44-26.
Jaelyn Crocker scored 10 points for Boothbay (1-3).
BOYS’ BASKETBALL: Logan Baird led Winthrop (2-2) with 15 points in a 44-35 victory at home against Boothbay.
Sullivan Rice paced Boothbay (1-1) with 14 points.
OLYMPICS
The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said Thursday he would not resign despite pressure on him to do so after making derogatory comments earlier in the week about women.
The controversy surrounding Yoshiro Mori, the gaffe-prone former Japanese prime minister, is one more problem the postponed Tokyo Olympics really didn’t need as organizers and the IOC try to pull off the games in the midst of a pandemic. They are scheduled to open on July 23.
“I am not thinking to resign,” Mori said. “I have been working hard and helped devotedly for seven years. I will not be stepping down.”
The International Olympic Committee said it will not urge Mori to resign, saying his apology was enough.
In an online meeting of the Japanese Olympic Committee board of directors earlier in the week, Mori was reported by the daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun as saying women talk too much in meetings. His comments have created a storm in Japan, where women are grossly under-represented in politics and in board rooms.
“The statement made at the Japan Olympic Committee was an inappropriate expression, contrary to the spirit of the Olympics and Paralympics,” Mori said. “I am deeply remorseful. I would like to withdraw the statement. I would like to apologize for any unpleasant feelings.”
In an online meeting, Asahi reported the 83-year-old official as saying: “Women are very competitive. When one of them raises her hand, they probably think they have to say something, too. And then everyone says something.”
Mori’s comment came when he was asked about the presence of few women on the board of the Japanese Olympic Committee.
“If we are going to have more women directors, someone has remarked, then meetings go on for a long time unless we restrict the comments,” he said. “I’m not saying who that is.”
In defending Mori, the IOC noted its support for gender equality as “one of the key pillars” of Olympic values, including an increase in the number of women on its own executive board to 33% with five of 15 members.
“President Mori has apologized for his comments today. With this, the IOC considers the issue closed,” the Olympic body said.
GOLF
PGA: Matthew NeSmith nearly made a hole-in-one on the par-3 16th and shot an 8-under 63 to share the lead with Mark Hubbard at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in Phoenix.
NeSmith and Hubbard were one stroke ahead of Nate Lashley and Sam Burns and two in front of 53-year-old Ryder Cup captain Steve Stricker.
EUROPEAN TOUR: David Horsey, ranked 282nd in the world, shot a course record-tying 9-under 61 to take the first-round lead at the Saudi International.
The Englishman got to the par-5 18th hole needing eagle for only the second 59 in the tour’s history but couldn’t reach the green in two, and wound up with a par to tie Dustin Johnson’s score from 2019.
The No. 1-ranked Johnson, winner of the inaugural Saudi International two years ago, is one of four top-10 players at the tournament and opened with a bogey-free 67 to be six shots off the lead.
BASEBALL
MLB: The average Major League Baseball salary dropped for an unprecedented third straight year, even before the shortened season caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Major League Baseball Players Association said the 2020 average would have been $3.89 million if a full season had been played. That was down 4.2% from the 2019 average of $4.05 million and represented a 5.2% decrease from the record average of just under $4.1 million in 2017. The average started to slip in 2018, falling by $1,436.
Because the pandemic caused players to receive roughly 37% of pay last year, the actual average plunged to $1.59 million, its lowest since 1998.
Before 2018 and 2019, the average had not dropped in consecutive years since the union started tracking it at $19,000 in 1967. Before the last three years, the only decreases had been in 1987, when clubs were found guilty by an arbitrator of collusion against free agents; in 1995, after the end of a 7 1/2-month strike; and in 2004.
• Versatile infielder Tommy La Stella completed an $18.75 million, three-year contract with the San Francisco Giants.
SOCCER
MLS: Major League Soccer extended the deadline for reworking the collective bargaining agreement with its players for another 24 hours, citing the progress the two sides have made this week.
The new deadline is at 11:59 p.m. Friday. Last week, the league warned that it is prepared to lock out players if a deal isn’t reached.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Germany will not allow Liverpool into the country to play a match at Leipzig on Feb. 16 because of border restrictions imposed over new variants of the coronavirus.
That means the first leg of the round of 16 can’t be played as scheduled. The German club could ask UEFA to move the game to a neutral venue. Switching the order of the legs so that Liverpool plays at home first could also be an option, but would likely require Leipzig’s players and staff to go into quarantine on their return to Germany from Britain.
CONCACAF: The CONCACAF Champions League will expand from 16 teams to 50 in 2023-24, restore its group stage, switch to a regionalized first-round alignment and fill 11 of 16 berths in the knockout stage from North America.
The championship match will switch to a single knockout from a two-leg, home-and-home format.
TENNIS
TRABERT DIES: Tony Trabert, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion and former No. 1 player who went on to successful careers as a Davis Cup captain, broadcaster and executive, has died. He was 90 years old.
The Tennis Hall of Famer’s death Wednesday night at his home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, was confirmed by his daughter, Brooke Trabert Dabkowski.
CYCLING
GIRO D’ITALIA: This year’s event will start in Turin on May 8, race organizer RCS Sport said.
The race will begin with a 5.6-mile individual time trial through the streets of Turin. The next two stages are also scheduled to take place in the Piedmont region.
Turin last hosted the start, known as the Grande Partenza, 10 years ago. The Giro will return to Piedmont in the final week of the race with a summit finish at Alpe di Mera in Valsesia on Stage 19, followed by a departure from Verbania the next day.
Sicily had been scheduled to host the start of this year’s Giro but the Italian island was instead the starting point of last year’s pandemic-affected race after it had to be moved to a later date and from its original start in Hungary.
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