Sports

The Hadi’s World Inc Male and Female nationwide softball tournament begins today at various venues around the country from 09:30 hrs.

(Reuters) – The league-leading Bulls shrugged off the absence of Derrick Rose to outclass the Cavaliers 114-75 on Friday, handing Cleveland their worst home loss in franchise history as Chicago continued to dominate on the road.

The local rugby team engaged in a full practice yesterday at the National Park to work on some of their weak areas, while also trying to improve on their strong points ahead of their Las Vegas Invitational Sevens tournament.

The basketball season in Linden bounces off next Friday, January 27, with the Trophy Stall Basketball League, which is being held in collaboration with the Linden Amateur Basketball Association at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – An emotional Lleyton Hewitt somehow dragged his battered body into the fourth round of the Australian Open yesterday with a 4-6 6-3 7-6 6-3 victory over young gun Milos Raonic.

DOHA, Qatar, CMC – Mohamed Bin Hammam will continue his fight to clear his name of bribery allegations, when his case is heard before the Court of Arbitration for Sport tomorrow in Switzerland.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Jamaica reached the semi-finals of the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament, after a devastating spell from Krishmar Santokie set them up for an eight-wicket victory over the Netherlands in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament yesterday.

Guyana’s national Sevens rugby team has been seeded among the top four teams competing in the Las Vegas Invitational Sevens Tournament from February 9 to 11.

The Guyana Olympic Association is looking to ensure that locally-based 400 metres sprinter Winston George has the best opportunity to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics and  plans are also in place to set up the best all-round team for the summer games.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – An unbroken, second-wicket stand of 74 between their captain Kirk Edwards and Kevin Stoute followed another ruthless performance in the field to catapult Barbados to an emphatic nine-wicket victory over the Combined Campuses & Colleges in the Caribbean Twenty20 tournament yesterday.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Darren Sammy said commitment to Windward Islands and West Indies have forced him to opt out of the Bangladesh Twenty20 Premier League next month.

By Emmerson Campbell Guyana’s welterweight champion, Iwan ‘Pure Gold’ Azore is brimming with confidence ahead of his bout with Simeon ‘Candy Man’ Hardy for the vacant World Boxing Council’s (WBC) CABOFE welterweight title on January 27.

By Emmerson Campbell National rider Alonzo Greaves has underscored the importance of local cyclists getting opportunities to race against elite competitors overseas in order to raise their performance level for the London Olympics.

ADDIS ABABA, (Reuters) – Ethiopia has  indefinitely banned 35 athletes – including Olympic men’s 5,000  and 10,000 metres champion Kenenisa Bekele – from competition in  a row over training, the technical director of the Ethiopian  Athletics Federation said yesterday.

MUMBAI, India, CMC/IANS – Estranged West Indies batsman Chris Gayle inked a new deal yesterday with Bangalore Royal Challengers for the next two seasons of the Indian Premier League.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – Kobe Bryant confessed he was  finding life after Phil Jackson “strange” after the Los Angeles  Lakers fell to another road defeat at the Miami Heat on  Thursday.

(Reuters) – The time has come to clean up  soccer’s governing body FIFA “from top to bottom”, three-times  world champion Pele said yesterday.

DHAKA, (Reuters) – Former Australian batsmen Dean  Jones and Michael Bevan have taken up coaching roles with the  Chittagong Kings franchise in the forthcoming Bangladesh Premier  League (BPL) Twenty20 competition, officials said yesterday.

MIAMI,  (Reuters) – LeBron James shrugged off flu-like  symptoms to deliver a game-winning 31 points as the Miami Heat  beat Kobe Bryant and the L.A.

ITEN, Kenya, (Reuters) – Double world marathon  champion Abel Kirui, world record holder Patrick Makau and  three-time winner Martin Lel are among the six Kenyans named for  the London Marathon on April 22, race director Dave Bedford said  yesterday.