Sport briefs

Champs defend title

THE team of Burry Stander and Christoph Sauser won the Cape Epic for the second consecutive year yesterday.

Stander and Sauser completed the eight days of the gruelling mountain bike race, which covers 781km and 16300m of climbing, in an overall time of 31:46.50.5.

Second were South Africans Kevin Evans and David George, with German-Swiss duo Hannes Genze and Andreas Kugler third. - Sapa

Real good show

CRISTIANO Ronaldo inspired Real Madrid to a rampaging 5-1 win at Osasuna as the leaders hit the 100-goal mark this season and maintained a six-point lead over chasing Barcelona on Saturday.

The champions responded with a 2-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao when Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, with a penalty, saw off the side they will play in the King's Cup final in May.

Jose Mourinho's Real, on 78 points, moved closer to a first league title in four years with eight matches left. - Reuters

Record rugby crowd

A WORLD record crowd for a club rugby match of 83761 turned up to watch English Premiership leaders Harlequins beat London rivals Saracens 24-19 at Wembley stadium on Saturday.

The previous record was 82208 for a 2009 Heineken Cup quarterfinal between Leinster and Munster at Croke Park in Dublin.

The two clubs attracted 82000 people earlier this season at Twickenham. - Reuters

Wariner eyes Games

FORMER Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner has his sights set on the London Games after recovering from a toe ligament injury that forced him out of last year's World Championships.

Wariner anchored his Central Texas All Stars squad to victory in the 4x400m relay at the Texas Relays meeting on Saturday in 3min 1.54sec, and said afterwards his left foot was fine. - Reuters

Djokovic victorious

WORLD tennis No1 Novak Djokovic defeated Britain's Andy Murray 6-1 7-6 to win the Sony Ericsson Open yesterday. Djokovic's victory was his third at Miami and avenged his 2009 loss to Murray at Crandon Park.

"I thought I played a great match," said Djokovic, who did not drop a set throughout the tournament.

He ran out 7-4 winner in the tie-break to follow up his Australian Open title with his second win of the year. - Reuters

Blitz Boks beaten

THE injury-hit Blitz Boks narrowly lost the Tokyo Sevens plate final 14-10 against Fiji yesterday.

Earlier they lost their cup quarterfinal against England and got the better of Wales in their plate semifinal. They remain third in the World Series standings on 105 points.

Australia were the fifth cup winners of the season, Matt Lucas slotting a conversion from wide in the final seconds to beat Samoa 28-26. - Sapa