5 min read

OLYMPICS

Giannis Antetokounmpo is now an Olympian.

Antetokounmpo is heading to the Olympics for the first time, after he scored 23 points and Greece held off Croatia 80-69 on Sunday in one of the four men’s basketball qualifying tournament finals being held to determine the final spots in the 12-team field for the Paris Games.

• Brazil is going to the Paris Olympics, after a 19-0 run over the final 3:21 of the first quarter set the tone in what became a surprisingly easy 94-69 victory over Latvia.

• Rudy Fernandez is going to the Olympics for the sixth time, a first for any men’s basketball player. And Spain had to dig deep to get him there.

Spain earned its seventh consecutive Olympic berth after holding off the Bahamas 86-78 at Valencia, Spain.

Advertisement

• Kevin Durant is dealing with calf soreness that has kept him from being a full participant in USA Basketball’s training camp for the Paris Olympics, though he has assured team officials that he does not expect the issue to be a major one.

Durant is the second forward who hasn’t been able to be a full participant in the U.S. camp that had its second day of on-floor workouts Sunday; Boston forward Jayson Tatum was excused from the first two days of camp workouts for personal reasons and is expected to be on the floor with his U.S. teammates for the first time on Monday.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: DeWanna Bonner scored 23 points, hitting a career-high seven 3-pointers, to help the Connecticut Sun beat the Atlanta Dream 80-67 in Uncasville, Connecticut, for their third win in a row.

Tiffany Mitchell added 13 points and Brionna Jones scored 11 points for Connecticut. Alyssa Thomas added seven points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

• A’ja Wilson scored 28 points and became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer Sunday as the Las Vegas Aces beat the Dallas Wings 104-85 in Las Vegas.

Advertisement

Wilson also grabbed 10 rebounds, her 11th double-double of the season, a made 11 of 22 from the field, 3 of 4 from 3-point range. The No. 1 overall selection in the 2018 WNBA draft, has 4,301 career points and moved past Sophia Young-Malcolm (4,300).

• Nneka Ogwumike scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help the Seattle Storm beat visiting Chicago 84-71 despite the Sky’s Angel Reese setting the WNBA record for consecutive games with a double-double.

• Natasha Cloud scored a career-high 31 points, Kahleah Copper added 25 points and 10 rebounds and the visiting Phoenix Mercury beat the Los Angeles Sparks 84-78.

GOLF

PGA TOUR: Davis Thompson won his first PGA Tour title with a a 7-under 64 to set the 72-hole scoring record at the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois, and leave all the drama to second place.

Staked to a two-shot lead, Thompson made a 45-foot birdie putt on the opening hole and no one got any closer to him the rest of the way. He opened with five birdies in six holes, stretched his lead to six shots and ended up winning by four strokes,

Advertisement

Thompson, a 25-year-old from Georgia, finished at 28-under 256 to break by one the John Deere Classic record set by Michael Kim in 2018.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Ewen Ferguson won the BMW International Open in Munich by two shots on Sunday for his third European tour title – and clinched a spot in the British Open taking place in his native Scotland this month.

The 168th-ranked Ferguson smiled as he rotated both of his shoulders before tapping in the winning putt for a final round of 4-under 68 at Golfclub München Eichenried.

CYCLING

TOUR DE FRANCE: Frenchman Anthony Turgis emerged victorious from a long breakaway through the dust of gravel roads to claim the ninth stage of the Tour de France in Troyes, France, after a hectic day of racing, marked by relentless attacks on Sunday.

Turgis, who rides for the Total Energies team, posted the biggest win of his career in a sprint, edging Tom Pidcock and Derek Gee in the Champagne city of Troyes. It was the third stage win by a French rider since the race started last week.

Advertisement

There was no major change in the overall standings, with Tadej Pogacar keeping his 33-second lead over Remco Evenepoel. Two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard remained in third place, 1:15 off the pace.

TRACK AND FIELD

WORLD RECORD: Ukraine’s best high jumper captured a world record on Sunday to go with her world championship, and now she has a good reason to think she might bring home an Olympic gold medal to her war-torn country.

Yaroslava Mahuchikh erased a mark that had stood for 37 years at a Diamond League meet in Paris, jumping 2.10 meters (6.88 feet) in one of the last big tuneups leading into the Olympics.

The previous record of 2.09 was set by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova in Rome in 1987.

• Faith Kipyegon of Kenya broke her own world record in the women’s 1,500 meters at the Diamond League track and field meeting in Paris.

Advertisement

Kipyegon finished in 3:49.04, surpassing her record of 3:49.11, which was set in Italy last year.

AUTO RACING

FORMULA ONE: Lewis Hamilton held off Max Verstappen’s late charge to win a thrilling British Grand Prix in Silverstone, England, and secure his first victory since the penultimate race of the 2021 season.

Hamilton became the first F1 driver to win on any track nine times and also extended his F1 record to 104 wins. His last came at the Saudi Arabian GP in December 2021 – the year he lost the title to Red Bull driver Verstappen.

The seven-time F1 champion beat defending champion Verstappen by 1.5 seconds, with Lando Norris finishing third for McLaren ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri.

INDYCAR: Pato O’Ward seized the lead with 24 laps remaining as Alex Palou stalled in the pits and held on to win the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, in the IndyCar series’ official debut of its hybrid engine.

The victory provided huge redemption for O’Ward, who was leading the final lap of the Indianapolis 500 in May before Josef Newgarden overtook him on the final half-mile for the victory. It was O’Ward’s second win this season but the first on-track after he was awarded the victory in the season-opening race at St. Peterburg, Florida, when Newgarden was disqualified for manipulating the push-to-pass system on his Chevy.

Join the Conversation

Please your Sun Journal account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can subscribe here. Questions? Please see our FAQs.