ROAD RACING
Organizers of the TD Beach to Beacon 10K announced Thursday that the first 1,000 entrants in this year’s virtual event will be granted a chance to register early for the 2022 race.
An in-person race is not being held this summer. Instead, registration for a virtual 10K opens June 2 at 10 a.m. at www.beach2beacon.org. The entry fee is $35. There’s also a free virtual kids’ fun run.
Also, as announced last year, all runners who had a confirmed entry to the canceled 2020 race will be allowed to register early next year.
GOLF
PGA: Jordan Spieth shot a 7-under 63 on a breezy day in Fort Worth, Texas, and was tied for the first-round lead at the Charles Schwab Challenge with Sergio Garcia, who had a 15-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole that circled the edge of the cup but didn’t go in.
Both former champions at Colonial had bogey-free rounds.
Phil Mickelson, only four days after becoming the oldest winner of a golf major, was 10 strokes back after a 73 that ended with a 22-foot birdie while playing with local favorite Spieth and defending champion Daniel Berger (68).
LPGA: Danielle Kang and Lizette Salas set up a showdown for a spot in the final 16 of the LPGA Match Play by winning for the second day in a row in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
In hot conditions, Kang beat Madelene Sagstrom 2 and 1, and Salas topped Albane Valenzuela 3 and 2.
Second-ranked Inbee Park, the Hall of Famer from South Korea who went to high school in Las Vegas and lives in the area, rebounded from an opening tie to beat Celine Boutier 5 and 3.
Fourth-seeded Brooke Henderson dropped out of contention with her second straight loss, falling 1 up when Ashleigh Buhai won the par-5 18th with a birdie.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Three weeks after beating Steve Stricker in a playoff in the Regions Tradition for his first major title, Alex Cejka got off to a solid start in his pursuit of a second.
Cejka led the morning wave with a 3-under 67 in the Senior PGA Championship at Tulsa, Oklahoma. Stricker also was 3 under but had only played seven holes when a line of storms forced the afternoon wave off the course at 3:48 p.m. Play was suspended for the day at 6 p.m.
EUROPEAN TOUR: The European Open has been pushed back two days and will become a 54-hole event next week because of pandemic-related travel restrictions.
The tournament in Hamburg, Germany, was scheduled to start on June 3 and take place over 72 holes but it will now start on June 5 and be a Saturday-to-Monday event.
The change has been made as a result of the German government’s decision last week to place the U.K. on its travel “red list.” That means almost a third of the scheduled 156-player field – along with a similar number of caddies and a significant number of European Tour staff – would have been unable to enter Germany without observing a mandatory quarantine period if they had not been outside the UK for a minimum of 10 days.
• Two weeks after becoming the oldest first-time winner in European Tour history, 48-year-old Englishman Richard Bland shot 5-under 66 to share the first-round lead at the Made in Himmerland event in Farso, Denmark.
Bland was tied with Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal, Finland’s Lauri Ruuska, Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger and South Korea’s Yi Keun Chang.
HOCKEY
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Trevor Moore and 18-year-old Matty Beniers scored in a 1:47 span midway through the second period to help the United States beat tournament host Latvia, 4-2.
Brian Boyle and Matt Tennyson scored in the first period and Cal Petersen made 17 saves in the Americans’ third straight victory after an opening loss to Finland. They are second in Group B, a point behind Finland.
SOCCER
SPAIN: Zinedine Zidane is stepping down as Real Madrid coach, again. The club said the Frenchman is leaving his job, a few days after a season in which Madrid failed to win a title for the first time in more than a decade.
“(Zidane) decided to bring an end to his current spell,” the club said in a statement. “We must now respect his decision and express our gratitude for his professionalism, dedication and passion over the years and what he means to Real Madrid.”
Zidane had a contract through June 2022. Zidane left the club for the first time after leading Madrid to one of its most successful runs from 2016-2018, with three consecutive Champions League titles. In his two years and five months in charge, Madrid won a total of nine trophies, including two Club World Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, one Spanish league and one Spanish Super Cup.
CYCLING
GIRO D’ITALIA: Italian cyclist Alberto Bettiol timed his attack perfectly to win the 18th stage for his first victory in a Grand Tour, and Egan Bernal kept the leader’s pink jersey at the end of the race’s longest leg.
The 144-mile route from Rovereto to Stradella was mainly flat but ended with a series of short climbs through the rolling Pavia winelands. Rémi Cavagna appeared to be heading for the win after attacking on the approach to the fourth-category Castana climb and crossing with a 28-second advantage, but Bettiol had set off in pursuit and caught and passed the French time-trial champion with about seven kilometers remaining.
Bernal crossed the line in the peloton, more than 23 minutes behind. The 2019 Tour de France champion maintained his lead of 2 minutes, 21 seconds over Damiano Caruso and 3:23 ahead of third-place Simon Yates.
The Giro finishes Sunday in Milan with an individual time trial.
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