Sophia Laukli
SKIING
Sophia Laukli of Yarmouth earned a career-best FIS Cross Country World Cup result, finishing fifth in the final stage of the FIS Tour de Ski in Val Di Fiemme, Italy on Tuesday.
Laukli finished the 10K freestyle race in 36 minutes, 13.1 seconds, 50 seconds behind first-place finisher Heidi Weng of Norway.
“It was quite a shock,” Laukli said of her fifth-place result. “After yesterday, I was extremely tired, so it was a bit of a 180. I was really looking forward to this race, though, and I knew that this was my style of course, so I was really excited.”
On Monday, Laukli finished 39th in the 10th freestyle mass start with a time of 32:49.
SOCCER
ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP: Liverpool has requested the postponement of Thursday’s match against Arsenal in the English League Cup semifinals because of more suspected COVID-19 cases at the club.
First-team training was canceled at Liverpool on Tuesday after more positive tests among players and staff. Liverpool said other factors impacting selection, such as injuries and players like Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah having left for the African Cup of Nations, are affecting player availability for the first-leg match at Emirates Stadium.
“With no prospect of the current situation improving ahead of Thursday’s fixture and the potential for it to worsen, the club considers it both prudent and reasonable to ask for the fixture to be rescheduled,” Liverpool said Tuesday.
The English Football League said it would make a decision “as soon as possible once the circumstances have been fully reviewed.”
Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp is among those currently isolating after contracting the virus.
SERIE A: One out of every 10 players in Serie A is positive with the coronavirus as the Italian league prepares to resume after a two-week break for the holidays. Still, despite more than 60 players reported as having contracted COVID-19, full slates of 10 matches involving all 20 clubs are scheduled to be played both Thursday and Sunday.
Last-place Salernitana is the hardest hit with nine of its players having COVID-19, while clubs like Inter Milan (Edin Dzeko), Napoli (Victor Osimhen) and Juventus (Giorgio Chiellini) are each missing leading players because of the virus.
Stadium capacities have been reduced from 75% to 50% following a government decree aimed at combatting the latest outbreak and spectators must now wear FFP2 masks.
There is still a question about whether the decree requires all Serie A players to be vaccinated but that debate could end if the government requires all workers in the country to be vaccinated by Feb. 1.
GERMANY: Bayern Munich players Leroy Sané and Dayot Upamecano have both tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the club’s current number of confirmed cases to nine.
Bayern is scheduled to play in the Bundesliga on Friday against Borussia Mönchengladbach, which has also reported players out with infections.
Also, Borussia Dortmund midfielder Marius Wolf will miss Saturday’s game at former club Eintracht Frankfurt.
FRANCE: Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the fifth PSG player to test positive in recent days. Seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi and Juan Bernat are among the four other players who recently had COVID-19. They were announced on Sunday as having tested positive.
WORLD CUP: Christian Eriksen is targeting a comeback from his cardiac arrest to play for Denmark in the World Cup in November. The 29-year-old Eriksen has not played since collapsing during Denmark’s opening match at the European Championship against Finland in June. Unable to play in Italy due to being fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, the playmaker’s contract with Inter Milan was terminated by mutual agreement last month.
“My goal is to play in the World Cup in Qatar,” Eriksen he told Danish broadcaster DR1 in an interviewed aired Tuesday. “That has been my mindset all along.”
SKIING
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: Only her Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova remained out of reach. Otherwise, Mikaela Shiffrin had a satisfying return to competition at a floodlit slalom in Zagreb, Croatia after testing positive for the coronavirus and missing two races last week.
The American trailed winner Vlhova by five-tenths of a second in the first World Cup race of the calendar year.
Shiffrin, who on Monday was cleared to race, was the only competitor in tough race conditions to finish within two seconds of Vlhova’s winning time as slalom world champion Katharina Liensberger in third was already a massive 2.11 seconds behind. Two weeks ago, Shiffrin placed first and second, respectively, in two giant slaloms in France but tested positive for COVID-19 prior to two technical races in Austria the following week.
Vlhova won the slalom in the Lienzer Dolomites while Shiffrin was quarantining last week. She has won four of this season’s five slaloms and leads the discipline standings by 140 points over Shiffrin with four races left. The American remained in the overall lead, 115 points ahead of her Slovakian rival.
TENNIS
AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Novak Djokovic will get a chance to defend his Australian Open title after receiving a medical exemption to travel to Melbourne, ending months of uncertainty about his participation because of the strict COVID-19 vaccination requirements in place for the tournament. The top-ranked Djokovic wrote on Instagram on Tuesday he has “an exemption permission.”
Djokovic, who is seeking a record 21st Grand Slam singles title, has continually refused to reveal if he is vaccinated against the coronavirus. The Victoria state government has mandated that all players, staff and fans attending the Australian Open must be fully vaccinated unless there is a genuine reason why an exemption should be granted.
Australian Open organizers issued a statement later Tuesday to confirm Djokovic will be allowed to compete at the tournament, which starts on Jan. 17, and is on his way to Australia. He earlier withdrew from Serbia’s team for the ATP Cup, which started last weekend in Sydney.
OSAKA RETURNS: Naomi Osaka is back in a place where she’s won two of her four Grand Slam singles titles and she’s feeling good vibes after some time off trying to rediscover her love for the game. The Australian Open champion opened her 2022 season with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Alize Cornet in one of the Summer Set of tournaments in Melbourne.
Osaka was returning to Rod Laver Arena for the first time since winning the Australian Open title in February. It was also her first tour-level match since a third-round loss to Leylah Fernandez at the U.S. Open in September. After that loss, Osaka said: “I honestly don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match.”
ATP CUP: Daniil Medvedev and Roman Safiullin won their singles matches before combining to win the doubles to give defending champion Russia a sweep of Australia and first place in Group B at the ATP Cup at Sydney.
Russia is 2-0 in the tournament but still has to beat Italy on Thursday in a rematch between last year’s finalists to ensure it advances to the semifinals.
Italy rebounded from its upset loss to Australia last Sunday to sweep France, with Jannik Sinner beating Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-6 (3) and Matteo Berrettini defeating Ugo Humbert 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the singles matches.
All four teams in Group C have 1-1 records after Germany beat the United States and Canada rallied to beat Britain.
Jan-Lennard Struff withstood 34 aces in a 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-5 win over John Isner to give Germany the lead and Alexander Zverev sealed his team’s victory, on his fifth match point, with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Taylor Fritz.
Isner and Fritz combined for a 6-0, 6-3 win over Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz in the doubles, earning the Americans a point that could prove important in determine the group winners.
Germany lost to Britain 2-1 in its tournament opener, and the Americans swept Canada 3-0.
HOCKEY
WHL: The Western Hockey League has postponed five games after suspending team activities for the Edmonton Oil Kings, Moose Jaw Warriors and Red Deer Rebels. The league said in a release that three teams have had multiple players and staff added to the WHL COVID-19 protocol list due to exhibiting symptoms or having tested positive for COVID-19.
The Warriors’ games Friday at Lethbridge and Saturday at Medicine Hat have been postponed, as have the Oil Kings’ games Friday at Red Deer and Sunday at Medicine Hat and Red Deer’s home contest Saturday against Lethbridge.
The postponements are in addition to three games in early January that the WHL pushed back because of capacity limits in Manitoba. Moose Jaw’s game Monday in Winnipeg was postponed, along Calgary’s games this Friday in Brandon and Saturday in Winnipeg.
AUTO RACING
OBIT: Kevin Kalkhoven, the team co-owner of Tony Kanaan’s Indianapolis 500-winning entry in 2013, died. He was 77.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced Kalkhoven’s death and did not detail a cause.
Kalkhoven was co-owner with Jimmy Vasser of the KV Racing Technology-SH Racing Chevrolet that Kanaan drove to an emotional victory.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.