CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Jessie Diggins won a 15-kilometer World Cup skiing event Friday, a week before the tour makes a stop in her home state of Minnesota.
Diggins’ time of 40 minutes, 26 seconds in the freestyle mass start race gave her a 2.6-second edge over Delphine Claudel of France for her fifth victory of the season. Heidi Weng of Norway was third in 40:29.3.
Sophia Laukli of Yarmouth finished second among Americans and eighth overall in 40:34.6.
Diggins helped the U.S. team earn its first Olympic gold medal in cross-country skiing six years ago at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea when she and Kikkan Randall won the team sprint. Diggins has since made it a mission to have a World Cup stop in Minneapolis, a goal that becomes a reality next weekend.
The races will be held at Theodore Wirth Park overlooking downtown Minneapolis on Feb. 17-18, marking the tour’s first American stop in 23 years.
HOCKEY
ECHL: Wyllum Deveaux scored twice in the final five minutes of regulation to force overtime, and Ryan Mast put in his own rebound on a breakaway in overtime to give the Maine Mariners a 5-4 comeback win against the Worcester Railers in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Alex Kile scored a shorthanded goal for the Mariners in the first period, and William Provost started Maine’s comeback from a 4-1 deficit early in the third.
SWIMMING
LEDECKY’S STREAK ENDS: Katie Ledecky’s 13-year unbeaten streak in the 800-meter freestyle is over, setting up a potential challenge from Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh at the Paris Olympics.
McIntosh, 17, finished almost 6 seconds ahead of Ledecky at a sectional meet in Orlando, Florida, on Thursday, becoming the second-fastest female in the history of a grueling event that Ledecky has dominated.
The teenager finished in 8 minutes, 11.39 seconds – an improvement on her previous best time by about 9 seconds. McIntosh went faster than Ledecky’s winning time of 8:12.57 at the Tokyo Olympics.
It was the 26-year-old Ledecky’s first defeat in the event since 2010. She finished behind American teammate Leah Smith in the preliminaries at the 2019 world championships, but bounced back to win the gold medal.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Philadelphia 76ers team president Daryl Morey expressed optimism that reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid can return from a knee injury in time for a possible postseason run.
“We’re hopeful,” Morey said three days after Embiid underwent surgery on his left knee. “Feedback has been more good than bad since we first heard about what led to his procedure. So, we’re hopeful and we’re building the team to make it better this year. Obviously, it’s not at 100 percent. But with Joel playing at an MVP level, hopefully, he could get back to that. And this is a year that we have a real shot.”
Embiid, averaging 35.3 points and 11.3 rebounds in 39 games, has missed the last five games since Golden State forward Jonathan Kuminga fell on his left leg, injuring the meniscus that required surgery.
GOLF
PGA: Nick Taylor matched the course record with an 11-under 60 in the first round, then shot 70 in the second to share the Phoenix Open lead with Andrew Novak at 12 under.
After completing the weather-delayed first round on Friday, Taylor had a five-shot lead, matching Jim Gallagher Jr. at the 1993 Tour Championship for the largest 18-hole lead in a PGA Tour stroke-play event since 1983.
Novak closed out a 65 in the morning and shot another 65 in the second round.
Maverick McNealy shot 67 to reach 10 under, and Doug Ghim was 9 under overall through 16 holes of his second round. More than half the field didn’t complete the second round.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Haydn Barron of Australia shot a bogey-free 67 and took the lead at the halfway stage of the Qatar Masters in Doha.
Barron was at 9 under overall, two strokes ahead of countryman Harrison Endycott and Rikuya Hoshino of Japan, with first-round leader Zander Lombard and Niklas Norgaard another stroke back.
LIV: Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau each shot 8-under 62 to share the lead at LIV Golf Las Vegas, with fellow major champion Jon Rahm two strokes back with a day left in his second event on the Saudi-funded tour.
Johnson and DeChambeau reached 11-under 129 at Las Vegas Country Club on another chilly day, with the temperature barely in the 50s. Rahm had a 63 to join Peter Uihlein (65) and Matthew Wolff (66) at 9 under.
TENNIS
DALLAS OPEN: Ben Shelton rallied for a 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Jordan Thompson to reach the semifinals.
The third-seeded American will face countryman Tommy Paul, the No. 2 seed, who beat Dominik Koepfer of Germany, 7-5, 6-3.
TRACK AND FIELD
OLYMPICS: Jamaican great Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce said the Paris Games will be her final Olympics.
The 37-year-old sprinter, who has won two gold medals at 100 meters and another in the 400 relay in four trips to the Olympics, told Essence.com she still loves the sport but will retire after Paris so she can spend more time with her husband and her 6-year-old son, Zyon.
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.