Advertisement

Sports in brief

 
Published April 18, 2015

Running

Fake finisher banned

ST. LOUIS — Organizers of the St. Louis Marathon stripped the winner of her title, saying she had crept onto the course late in the race for the second consecutive year to make it appear she had run all 26.2 miles.

St. Louis Marathon officials said Friday that Kendall Schler, 26, of Columbia, Mo., slipped into Sunday's race after the final checkpoint and appeared to be the first of 582 female finishers. The race actually was won by Andrea Karl.

Race president Nancy Lieberman said race officials had immediate questions about Schler's performance.

Schler admitted she removed the timing strip from the bib each of the past two years, explaining why her seven interval times were not registered, Lieberman said. Schler was third last year with a time that qualified her for Monday's Boston Marathon. Lieberman said that time has been voided and her spot in the Boston race vacated, and that Schler is banned from St. Louis racing events.

Tennis

Djokovic, Nadal square off in semi

Novak Djokovic cruised past U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-3 in a quarterfinal at the Monte Carlo Masters. Djokovic faces Rafael Nadal, an eight-time champion at the Country Club. Nadal outlasted David Ferrer 6-4, 5-7, 6-2.

Hingis back: Five-time Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis will play her first competitive singles match since 2007 in a Fed Cup playoff today. The Swiss player faces Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the opening singles match.

Swimming

Phelps misses 400 free final

Michael Phelps failed to qualify for the 400-meter freestyle final in Mesa, Ariz., finishing 17th overall in his first meet since serving a six-month suspension. The 18-time Olympic gold medalist was fourth in his heat in 4 minutes, 2.67 seconds.

Record set: Adam Peaty of Britain broke the men's 100-meter breaststroke world record, clocking 57.92 seconds in the British championships at the London Aquatic Centre.

Et cetera

Soccer: The French league accepted a recommendation from the national Olympic committee to reduce Zlatan Ibrahimovic's ban to three games. The Paris Saint-Germain forward was suspended four matches last week after his harsh criticism of a referee.

Olympics: Carlos Nuzman, the head of the Rio de Janeiro 2016 organizing committee, promised the venue for rowing and canoeing would be safe despite a massive fish die-off in the small lake that will host the events. Sanitation workers have removed at least 37 tons of rotting fish from the Rodrigo de Freitas lake since last week.

Obituary: Jaroslav Holik, a forward who helped Czechoslovakia win a hockey world title and an Olympic bronze medal in 1972, died Friday after battling an unspecified, long-term illness. He was 72. His son, Bobby Holik, played 18 NHL seasons.

Times wires