Falmouth native Chris Poole, 34, skippered his Riptide Racing team to victory in the U.S. Match Racing Championship regatta, held on Lake Ontario outside of Rochester, New York.
Poole, with teammates Austin Colpaert and Andres Guerra, beat the boat led by David Dellenbaugh, 3-1, in Sunday’s final, held during stormy conditions with wind gusts approaching 30 mph. It is the first time Poole has won the event, continuing what has been an outstanding season for the professional sailor.
In April, Poole and his five-man team went an unprecedented 24-0 in a week’s worth of match races to win the U.S. Congressional Cup, a world-class event and part of the World Match Race Tour. Poole also won the four-race U.S. Grand Slam Series, capping it with victories in the Thompson Cup and Oakcliff International in waters near his home in Oyster Bay, New York. Match races consist of sailors competing in identical boats. The type of boat changes depending on the regatta.
“We’ve hit the United States trifecta, which is pretty cool,” said Poole.
Poole is ranked No. 1 in the World Match Race Tour point standings heading into the regular-season finale in Bermuda, Oct. 2-7. The top 11 sailors after that event are eligible to compete for the World Match Race Tour Championship in China in December.
COLLEGES
MICHIGAN STATE: Mel Tucker’s attorney says Michigan State does not have cause to fire its suspended football coach after Tucker acknowledged having phone sex with an activist and rape survivor because he did not “engage in unprofessional or unethical behavior” or violate his contract.
Attorney Jennifer Belveal denied in a statement Monday that Tucker’s actions were acts of moral turpitude at the university that operates in the shadow of Larry Nassar’s abuse of more than 100 athletes. Michigan State informed Tucker it planned to fire him last week.
Activist and rape survivor Brenda Tracy said Tucker sexually harassed her during a phone call in April 2022. Tucker says the phone sex was consensual.
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: IndyCar will return to the Milwaukee Mile next season and Texas Motor Speedway is off the calendar for the first time since 1997 as part of the 2024 schedule released Monday.
The 17-race schedule features two Saturday night races, a $1 million all-star race in Southern California, 12 races aired on NBC and a shift of the season finale from the Laguna Seca road course in California to the downtown city streets of Nashville.
Gone is the traditional stop at Texas Motor Speedway – the oval has been on the schedule since IndyCar’s first full season in 1997 – as well as a shared late-summer weekend with NASCAR on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NASCAR is expected to return to the oval, and IndyCar will race the Indianapolis road course only once – in May ahead of the Indianapolis 500.
Roger Penske, owner of both IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, indicated dropping Texas is likely for one year only and because of scheduling conflicts. NASCAR on Sunday completed its only Cup race of the year at Texas, a track that held two annual events for nearly two decades.
SOCCER
FRANCE: Homophobic chanting by sections of Paris Saint-Germain fans targeting Marseille players has again marred the biggest game in French soccer, prompting calls for sanctions.
Olivier Klein, the inter-ministerial delegate for the fight against racism, anti-Semitism and anti-LGBTQ+ hatred (Dilcrah), posted a video on Monday of PSG supporters using insulting homophobic slurs aimed at their Marseille rivals.
PSG won the game at the Parc des Princes 4-0.
“Very shocked by the unbearable homophobic chants heard at the Parc des Princes,” Klein said on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter. He added that he will ask PSG and the French league authorities to bring in sanctions, and will look at the possibility of starting judicial action.
In another video, some PSG players were filmed using insults directed at Marseille supporters while celebrating with youngsters at the end of the match.
TENNIS
CHENGDU OPEN: Top-seeded Alexander Zverev will play for a 21st career title after beating third-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the semifinals Chengdu, China.
The 26-year-old German will meet Roman Safiullin in Tuesday’s final. The 55th-ranked Russian defeated second-seeded Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 6-4.
Zverev hit 10 winners and four aces in the first set and his serve continued to be effective in the second set.
The 26-year-old Safiullin will be playing in his first career final in his eighth year on tour.
ZUHAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Top-seeded Karen Khachanov defeated fourth-seeded Sebastian Korda 7-5, 6-4 to move into the final in his second tournament since returning from injury.
Khachanov will face Yoshihito Nishioka in Tuesday’s final. The eighth-seeded Japanese player beat Aslan Karatsev 6-4, 6-4.
NINGBO OPEN: Russian wild-card Vera Zvonareva upset seventh-seeded Katie Boulter 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3) to advance to the second round on the first day of play.
Zvonareva, a two-time Grand Slam finalist, will next play Clara Tauson, who beat Elina Avanesyan 6-4, 6-1.
Yulia Putintseva, a semifinalist last week at the Guangzhou Open, defeated Daria Saville 6-4, 6-1. The Kazakh will play seconded-seeded Petra Kvitova, who beat Anna-Lena Friedsam 7-6 (2), 6-1.
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