ROAD RACING

Piers, Shaw run notable marathons at Twin Cities

Sheri Piers of Falmouth won the women’s masters title at the Twin Cities Marathon Sunday in Minneapolis and Falmouth native Ethan Shaw qualified for the 2016 men’s Olympic Marathon Trials.

Piers, 42, finished the marathon in 2 hours, 38.33 seconds, good for eighth among nearly 4,000 women.

Overall winner Annie Bersagel, of Victoria, Minn., finished in 2 hours, 30 minutes and 52 seconds.

Shaw, a 23-year-old Dartmouth College graduate now training in Rochester Hills, Mich., was 13th overall in 2:17:26. His time is believed to be the fourth-fastest by any Maine runner.

Winner Nick Arciniaga, of Flagstaff, Ariz., had an unofficial time of 2 hours, 13 minutes and 12 seconds.

TENNIS

CHINA OPEN: Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in straight sets to win this Beijing tournament for the fourth time in five years.

Serena Williams of the U.S. took the women’s title, defeating No. 8 seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.

In a twist, Djokovic’s win comes a day before Nadal replaces him atop the ATP rankings. It was Nadal’s first loss in his 27 hard-court matches in 2013, a string that included three wins over Djokovic.

JAPAN OPEN: Top-seeded Juan Martin del Potro beat Milos Raonic of Canada, 7-6 (5), 7-5 to win at Tokyo and claim his third title of the season.

The Argentine was a runner-up to Tomas Berdych here in 2008.

SOCCER

MLS: Landon Donovan tied Jeff Cunningham’s career goals record in Major League Soccer with two first-half scores for the Los Angeles Galaxy at Carson, Calif.

Donovan scored two goals in the first 41 minutes against Chivas USA, giving him 134 career MLS regular-season goals.

Donovan passed second-place Jaime Moreno (133) and pulled even with Cunningham, who played for five MLS teams in a 14-year career.

GOLF

LPGA: China’s Shanshan Feng eagled the par-5 18th hole for a one-stroke victory over American Stacy Lewis in the smog-affected Reignwood Classic, the LPGA’s first tournament in Beijing.

For most of the tournament, the players couldn’t escape the capital’s notorious pollution — there was another smog delay of nearly three hours before the final round started Sunday.

SEVE TROPHY: Continental Europe put an end to a 13-year drought by defeating Britain and Ireland 15-13 at Saint-Nom-La-Breteche, France. Francesco Molinari beat Chris Wood 3 and 2 in the last singles match for the winning point.

GYMNASTICS

WORLDS: All-around champions Kohei Uchimura of Japan and Simone Biles of the United States added a gold medal in an individual event to cap outstanding performances at the world championships at Antwerp, Belgium.

Uchimura won the parallel bars to give Japan a fourth gold out of seven men’s events.

Like Uchimura, Biles finished with two gold medals and four overall. With a dozen medals, the Americans had almost double those of their nearest challenger, Japan.

SKIING

RETIRED: Former world champion Daniel Albrecht, 30, has retired almost five years after a horrific crash left the Swiss skier with serious brain and lung injuries.

Albrecht was the 2007 world champion in super-combined and a four-time winner on the World Cup circuit

MOTOR SPORTS

INDYCAR: Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti fractured two vertebrae and broke his right ankle when his car went airborne into a fence on the last lap of the Grand Prix of Houston. The accident showered debris into the grandstand, injuring 13 fans and an IndyCar Series official.

A caution flag froze the field, preventing Scott Dixon from making a final attempt to pass Will Power, the eventual winner.

— From staff and news services