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Monday August 28, 2017

Mud Run attracts thousands in SZParticipants compete during the Mud Run at Mission Hills Shenzhen in Longhua District on Saturday.

The Mud Run was held in the city for the fi rst time and attracted about 5,000 participants. It is a unique experience whether running or watching. In a race with boot camp style obstacles that have been surrounded by or consist of mud, people cheered as participants slipped, slid and sloshed their way to victory.

Participants walked, ran or crawled through the mud pit, then scaled the hills and sand dunes of a 7.5-kilometer route with 20 obstacles.

Courtesy of Mission Hills Group

CHEN LONG’S hold on badmin-ton’s biggest titles was loosened by Viktor Axelsen at the world championships Saturday.

Chen won the worlds in 2014 and 2015 and the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and the Chinese star was looking good last week, having not dropped a game in reaching the semifi nals.

But he was blown away by Axelsen 21-9, 21-10. The Dane jumped ahead 13-2 in the fi rst game and won 11 straight points in the second to lead 15-6. It was all over in 39 minutes.

“He played the perfect game,” Chen said.

To become the fi rst Danish or European male to win the world title in 20 years, Axelsen will have to go through badminton’s greatest player, fi ve-time cham-pion Lin Dan.

“Denmark is a small country but I am very proud we can com-pete with the bigger countries,” Axelsen said.

Lin has reached the fi nal for the fi rst time since his last world title in 2013 by taking out No. 1-ranked Son Wan-ho of South Korea 21-17, 21-14 in an hour. The fi rst game was tight until it was 16-16, and the second was not a contest from 10-9 up, as Lin powered away.

(SD-Agencies)

Axelsen beats Chen to meet Lin Dan in final

LIONEL MESSI missed a pen-alty kick but rebounded by scor-ing his record 350th goal in the Spanish league in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at Alaves on Saturday.

Messi also scored the second in leading the club to its second consecutive victory to start the league.

Barcelona was still with-out Ousmane Dembele, who was announced as Neymar’s replacement Friday, and it also couldn’t count on the injured Luis Suarez.

With Messi as its lone star, Barcelona struggled in the begin-ning at Mendizorroza Stadium, but it gradually took control and cruised to victory following Mes-si’s pair of second-half goals.

“We overcame a tough test,” Barcelona coach Ernesto Val-verde said. “It was diffi cult to get the fi rst goal, we had to be patient.”

Messi missed the penalty when his mid-height shot into the left corner was saved by the fi ngertips of Alaves goalkeeper Fernando Pacheco.

Alaves, which surprised last season as a promoted club by fi nishing ninth in the league and reaching the Copa del Rey fi nal against Barcelona, opened with a 1-0 loss at Leganes.

Messi nets 350th league goal in Barca win

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi kicks the ball to score a goal against Alaves in Vitoria, northern Spain, on Saturday. SD-Agencies

Brazil midfi elder Paulinho, signed by Barcelona for 40 mil-lion euros (US$47.2 million) in the offseason, came into the match as a substitute late in the second half to make his offi cial club debut.

Messi scored the milestone

goal in La Liga more than 12 years after his fi rst, when he was only 17.

He has 66 more than Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, his closest challenger on the all-time list.

Messi is only the second player

to have surpassed 350 goals in the top fi ve European leagues, after Bayern Munich’s Gerd Mueller, who ended his career with 365 in the Bundesliga.

Messi has at least one Span-ish league goal in 14 straight seasons. (SD-Agencies)

DARIA GAVRILOVA doesn’t hide her emotions on the tennis court — and she put them on full display Saturday in winning her fi rst WTA tournament title.

The unseeded 23-year-old Russian-born Australian upset second-seeded Dominika Cib-ulkova 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Con-necticut Open.

She fi nished her comeback from a set down by breaking the 11th-ranked Slovak in the fi nal game, hitting a forehand winner,

throwing her racket and jumping into the air in jubilation.

The match was extremely close with Gavrilova winning 105 points and Cibulkova taking 102.

“It’s even more special to win it that way, against such a tough competitor,” she said. “I think I’ve beaten some great players to win my fi rst title.”

Gavrilova beat top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifi nals and is 9-18 in her

career against top-10 opponents. Cibulkova came in ranked 11th. She had been as high as fourth this season.

Gavrilova, ranked 26th in the world, gesticulated wildly throughout the match and yelled “Come on” after every big point. That included the turning point in the match, when she broke Cibulkova to go up 3-2 in the second set in a game that featured a 30-shot rally and fi ve deuces. (SD-Agencies)

Gavrilova upsets Cibulkova for fi rst WTA title

Daria Gavrilova

MANCHESTER City winger Raheem Sterling was sent off for exuberantly celebrating a stoppage-time winner that led to fans spilling onto the pitch at Bournemouth on Saturday.

Sterling was shown a second yellow card of the game after cel-ebrating scoring in the seventh minute of stoppage time among jubilant away fans to clinch a 2-1 victory in the English Premier League.

As City fans leapt on the fi eld, City striker Sergio Aguero also exchanged words with a police-man and Benjamin Mendy was held back by other offi cers.

A Bournemouth steward claimed to have been assaulted by Aguero but the club said the police complaint was later withdrawn.

“If you cannot celebrate with the fans, the best solution is not to invite the fans,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.

Bournemouth was left with

Sterling scores, sent off for sparking melee

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling (R) scores his side’s second goal against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, England, on Saturday. SD-Agencies

nothing to show for a strong showing after City forward Gabriel Jesus initially canceled out a fi ne strike from Charlie Daniels.

Before Sterling’s strike looped in off Andrew Surman on the south coast, it looked as though Guardiola was going to be left frustrated for the second time in

a week following the home draw against Everton.

“It is absolute madness,” City captain Vincent Kompany said. “Just like we had against Ever-ton, the few chances we have, we maybe don’t score them. Today we deserved to win but they made it incredibly hard for us.”

(SD-Agencies)

Viktor Axelsen