AFP Sports

Miami Heat sharpshooter James Jones will defend his title in the NBA All-Star Game Three-Pointer Contest against five rivals, including teammate Mario Chalmers, the league announced on Wednesday. The event will be staged on February 25 on the eve of the NBA All-Star Game at Orlando, Florida . The Three-Pointer field also includes Orlando's Ryan Anderson , Atlanta 's Joe Johnson , Minnesota 's Kevin Love and New Jersey 's Anthony Morrow . Jones claimed the crown last year, beating a field that...Read Full Story

US President Barack Obama is avidly following the rise of NBA basketball sensation Jeremy Lin, his spokesman said Wednesday, amid adulation over the sudden star's latest hardwood heroics. Lin, who plays for the New York Knicks , has overtaken Shaquille O'Neal 's league record for the most points in his first five games as a starter by clocking up 136 points. On Tuesday, he drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer in the game's final second to lead his team, now on a six-game unbeaten run, to...Read Full Story

Former Arsenal and Sweden midfielder Freddie Ljungberg has left J-League Shimizu S-Pulse after less than six months in Japan, saying staying at the club was "not the right project" for him. The 34-year-old, who played for the Gunners from 1998 to 2007, joined Shimizu from Celtic last September on an 18-month deal with his annual salary estimated at 60 million yen ($769,000). But Shimizu announced on Tuesday that the contract, covering the 2012 J-League season due to start on March 10, had...Read Full Story

Austria's Romed Baumann won Sunday's super-combined race at Chamonix for his second World Cup win, three years after he last topped a podium. The Austrian timed 2min 56.10sec to finish 1.10sec ahead of Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, with Switzerland's Beat Feuz a further 0.09sec adrift. Baumann dominated the downhill portion of the race where he opened up a 3.27sec advantage over Pinturault to give the 26-year-old a vital cushion, as the Austrian continued on from his good form of Saturday...Read Full Story

Spain's Iker Martinez matched the achievement of one of the Volvo Ocean Race greats on Saturday when he became the first skipper in 22 years to win three legs in a row. The 2011 World Sailor of the Year steered his Team Telefonica boat to a handsome 90-minute victory to claim his hat-trick triumph in the leg from Abu Dhabi to Sanya in Hainan Province, southern China. The last boat to win three legs running was Steinlager 2 in 1989-90, which was skippered by New Zealander Peter Blake and went...Read Full Story

Chicago Bulls playmaker Derrick Rose will remain on day-to-day treatment for back spasms after an MRI exam on his back on Monday revealed no structural problem, an official for the NBA club said. The 2011 NBA Most Valuable Player will continue with therapy and massage treatments while working with the team medical staff to address the spasms that have kept him out of Chicago's past two games, Bulls general manager Gar Forman told ESPN . "There's nothing structurally wrong with his back. It's...Read Full Story

Scottish champions Rangers were on the brink of financial collapse after their intention to go into administration was announced by an Edinburgh court on Monday. The Glasgow giants have lodged papers with the Court of Session notifying an intention to declare an administrator. Rangers are awaiting the verdict of a tribunal which could leave them with a bill of as much as £49 million ($77.5 million) should they lose their dispute with British tax authorities. The Ibrox club were forced to sell...Read Full Story

The Tour of Qatar has lost one of its marquee names after Germany's Andre Greipel pulled out of the race due to illness Thursday. Greipel, who claimed his maiden Tour de France stage win last year, has enjoyed a blistering start to the season winning three stages and a pre-race criterium at the Tour Down Under two weeks ago. But his bid to test his early season sprinting legs against the likes of British world champion Mark Cavendish will have to wait as he is suffering from fever, caused by...Read Full Story

Croatia's Ivica Kostelic stayed in contention to defend his World Cup super-combined title in what is the finale of two-discipline event Sunday at the 2014 Sochi Olympics alpine venue. On-form Swiss Beat Feuz topped the times for the downhill part of the super-combined, which will be decided by a slalom beginning at 1000 GMT. But with a deficit of only 1.52secs to the Swiss, slalom specialist Kostelic is well poised to claim the points he needs to claim his second successive super-combined...Read Full Story

Croatia's Ivica Kostelic won the last super-combined race of the season to successfully defend his World Cup title in the discipline here on Sunday on the 2014 Sochi Olympic course. Kostelic, who was 1.52secs behind downhill section winner Beat Feuz, produced a flawless performance in the deciding slalom to eventually finish 1.16secs ahead of the Swiss. Thomas Mermillod-Blondin, who was only 1.07secs off Feuz's downhill pace, finished third at 1.77secs behind Kostelic to hand France their...Read Full Story