INDOOR TRACK
Isaiah Harris of Lewiston finished seventh in the 800 meters Saturday at the indoor track world championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Harris, the fastest qualifier in Friday’s heats, clocked 1 minute, 47.00 seconds for the second day in a row. Mariano Garcia of Spain won with a time of 1:46.20, followed by 17-year-old Kenyan Noah Kibet (1:46.35) and U.S. champion Bryce Hoppel (1:46.51).
Kibet became the youngest ever medalist in an individual track event at the indoor world championships.
HOCKEY
ECHL: Derek Gentile broke a scoreless deadlock 7:11 into the third period as the South Carolina Stingrays earned a 2-0 win over the Maine Mariners at Cross Insurance Arena.
Barret Kirwin added an empty-net goal in the final minute, and Ryan Bednard earned the shutout with 40 saves. Maine’s Jeremy Brodeur stopped 31 shots.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Chelsea earned its sixth straight win since Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich announced he’d be selling the London club, swatting aside second-tier Middlesbrough in a 2-0 win to reach the FA Cup semifinals.
Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech scored first-half goals that were celebrated by a smaller-than-normal pocket of visiting fans inside Middlesbrough’s Riverside Stadium. In light of the economic sanctions placed on Abramovich by the British government for his close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the invasion of Ukraine, Chelsea was only able to take around 700 supporters for the match in the northeast.
• Arsenal strengthened its hold on the final Champions League spot in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa, secured by a first-half strike by Bukayo Saka.
The England international latched onto a ball that was weakly cleared by the Villa defense and lashed a low, first-time shot past unsighted goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez from the edge of the area in the 30th minute.
Arsenal, missing first-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale because of injury and in-form winger Gabriel Martinelli because of illness, was in control for most of the lunchtime game at Villa Park despite the short turnaround from its loss to Liverpool on Wednesday night.
MLS: Charlotte FC, led by two goals from Karol Swiderski, beat the visiting New England Revolution, 3-1.
Swiderski broke a 1-1 tie with his second goal in the 57th minute.
Carles Gil scored for the Revolution (1-2-1).
TENNIS
BNP PARIBAS OPEN: Taylor Fritz ended Andrey Rublev’s 13-match winning streak with a 7-5, 6-4 victory in the semifinals at Indian Wells, California.
Fritz advanced to the final Sunday against Rafael Nadal, who improved to 20-0 this year by outlasting 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Seeded 20th, Fritz is the first American man to make the final since John Isner in 2012. Andre Agassi was the last American man to win at Indian Wells, in 2001.
GOLF
PGA: Davis Riley, a 25-year-old PGA Tour rookie, shot a 9-under 62 and took a two-shot lead in the Valspar Championship at Palm Harbor, Florida.
Riley was at 18-under 195. He’ll be in the final pairing Sunday with second-round leader Matthew NeSmith, who shot a 69.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Shaun Norris opened a four-shot lead after three rounds of the Steyn City Championship in Johannesburg, putting the South African in prime position for his first European Tour title.
Norris shot 5-under 67 and moved to 23 under par overall at low-scoring Steyn City, where players have been benefiting from preferred lies because of heavy rain ahead of the tournament. His nearest challenger is compatriot Dean Burmester, who moved to 19 under with a 66.
FOOTBALL
NFL: Quarterback Matthew Stafford has agreed to a four-year contract extension through 2026 with the Los Angeles Rams after winning the Super Bowl in his first season with the team.
The deal is worth $160 million, with $135 million guaranteed, according to ESPN.
• While they wait to welcome Deshaun Watson, the Cleveland Browns have agreed to trade backup quarterback Case Keenum to Buffalo for a seventh-round draft pick and plan to sign free agent QB Jacoby Brissett, a person familiar with the deals told The Associated Press.
AUTO RACING
XFINITY: Ty Gibbs pulled off a brilliant move after taking the white flag to lead his only lap of the day, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
On the second attempt to finish the crash-marred race in overtime, Gibbs spotted an opening between leaders Ryan Sieg and Austin Hill. He took the checkered flag ahead of Hill by 0.178 seconds. AJ Allmendinger finished third, while Sieg dropped all the way back to 10th.
TRUCKS: Nineteen-year-old Georgian Corey Heim raced to his first NASCAR Truck Series victory, getting a push from the lapped machine of John Hunter Nemechek at Atlanta Motor Speedway to deny Chandler Smith a second straight win.
Smith, another 19-year-old from the Peach State, took the white flag with the lead on the outside, just ahead of Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Heim, who was hugging the line at the bottom the track.
Nemechek, also racing for KBM, looked as if he was going to follow Smith, only to dart suddenly to the inside to follow Heim. That was all Heim needed to zip past Smith and take the checkered flag.
Ben Rhodes was second, 0.173 seconds behind the winner. Smith settled for a fourth-place finish.
FORMULA ONE: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stunned Formula One champion Max Verstappen by taking a brilliant pole position for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
SKIING
WORLD CUP: Andreja Slokar stepped up with a career-best result to win the slalom at the World Cup Finals in Meribel, France. The 24-year-old Slovenian skier finished 0.48 seconds ahead of Lena Dürr, who let another first-run lead slip as she did at the Beijing Olympics last month.
Petra Vlhová, who won five of the previous eight World Cup slalom races, was 0.81 back in third. Mikaela Shiffrin, the overall World Cup champion, finished eighth, 1.48 back.
• Marco Odermatt finished his standout season on top again, winning the giant slalom in his favored discipline at the World Cup Finals. The 24-year-old Swiss star was 0.49 seconds faster than Lucas Braathen in the sunshine and softening snow that made it tough for the late starters to find speed. Loïc Meillard was third, 0.63 back.
SLED DOG RACING
IDITAROD: Two back-of-the-pack mushers had to be rescued in separate incidents Friday after winds from a severe ground storm caused deteriorating conditions, race officials said.
Both rescues happened Friday morning as mushers were making the final push for the finish line in Nome. Gerhardt Thiart, who was nearing the checkpoint in Safety, 22 miles from Nome, activated his emergency beacon because of the storm. Edward Stang from a nearby village was in the area on his snowmobile and found Thiart and his dog team. Thiart had suffered a leg injury.
About the same time, another musher, Bridgett Watkins, called a family member in Nome seeking assistance. A search-and-rescue team from White Mountain was dispatched, but in the meantime Watkin’s husband Scotty located her. He and four other people on snowmobiles left from Nome to help mushers during the storm.
Watkins was taken to White Mountain, where she was evaluated at a local clinic. She was then flown to Nome and was with family.
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