A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MoNday, JUNE 28, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
MLB
Mariners ejection
1st under new rule
Seattle Mariners
pitcher Hector Santiago
became the first player
to be ejected as part of
Major League Baseball’s
new foreign substance
protocols when he was
thrown out of Sunday’s
game against the Chi-
cago White Sox.
Santiago was checked
by the umpires as he ex-
ited in the fifth inning.
His glove was confis-
cated, and it was later
announced that Santiago
had been ejected.
Santiago was charged
with one run and three
hits in 2 1/3 innings in the
resumption of Saturday’s
game, which was post-
poned by rain.
Major league umpires
last week started regular
checks of all pitchers for
sticky substances used
to get a better grip on
the balls, but can also
increase the spin of the
balls and make hitting
them more difficult.
Santiago could be sus-
pended for 10 games,
but there is an appeals
process.
The Mariners won 3-2.
Ashley Landis/AP
Heat waves come off the track as Annie Kunz walks to the heptathlon long jump at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene earlier Sunday.
— Associated Press
GYMNASTICS
Biles, Lee lock up
Olympic spots
Simone Biles’ Olympic
encore is finally here.
The reigning world
and Olympic gymnastics
champion locked up her
spot in Tokyo by easily
winning the U.S. Olympic
Trials on Sunday night.
The 24-year-old’s two-day
total of 118.098 earned
her one of two automatic
spots on the plane to Ja-
pan next month, where
she will try to become the
first female gymnast in
more than 50 years to win
consecutive all-around
Olympic golds.
Sunisa Lee also
grabbed the other auto-
matic bid with a 115.832
while posting the top
scores on beam and un-
even bars and actually
putting up a higher all-
around score than Biles
on the night.
Jordan Chiles — who
hasn’t fallen in 24 rou-
tines in 2021, something
even Biles can’t say — is
also heading to Tokyo
two years after it ap-
peared her elite career
might be in jeopardy.
Grace McCallum
rounds out the four-
woman team after com-
ing in fourth during trials.
MyKayla Skinner, an al-
ternate in 2016, will go as
a specialist. The 24-year-
old will be a threat to
medal on vault.
Kayla DiCello, Kara
Eaker, Leanne Wong and
Emma Malabuyo will
serve as the alternates.
Biles’ teammates will
have a front-row spot to
what promises to be one
of the biggest spectacles
in the Games.
Biles will arrive in To-
kyo as the face of her
sport, U.S. delegation
and perhaps the Olympic
movement. She’s become
more than just a gymnas-
tics star since her coro-
nation in Rio in 2016. Her
consistent excellence —
her last second-place fin-
ish in a meet came more
than nine years ago —
combined with her cha-
risma and her possibili-
ty-pushing routines have
thrust her into the com-
pany of Michael Phelps
and Usain Bolt, athletes
whose dominance on the
world stage have made
them Olympic icons.
Lee will be the first
Hmong American at the
Olympics.
— Associated Press
TOO HOT FOR TRACK
Olympic trials halted midafternoon in Eugene
BY EDDIE PELLS
Associated Press
E
UGENE — The U.S. track
and field trials came to a halt
Sunday afternoon with tem-
peratures reaching at least 108 de-
grees. One athlete, heptathlete Tali-
yah Brooks, was carted off the field
in a wheelchair and eventually had
to withdraw from the competition.
Fans were filing into the stadium
for the headline races of the final
day of Olympic qualifying when, at
around 3 p.m., the track announcer
came onto the PA system and said
action was being suspended due to
extreme heat. He asked all specta-
tors to evacuate.
A USA Track and Field official told
NBC that temperatures on the surface
of the track exceeded 150 degrees.
Brooks had been in fourth place
after five of the seven heptath-
lon events. She was taken out on
a wheelchair during warmups for
the sixth event, the javelin. She was
listed as a “DNS” — did not start
— but hours later, USA Track and
Charlie Riedel/AP
Taliyah Brooks is helped off the track after collapsing during the heptathlon. Events
were suspended due to high temperatures. Brooks’ agent later said she was OK.
Field said she had been granted a
request to re-enter the javelin com-
petition. But when the time came
for the throws, she did not appear,
and USATF said she had withdrawn
from the meet.
The meet resumed in the eve-
ning, with the temperature reading
99 degrees. Among those waiting
deep into the night to try to to se-
cure spots in the Olympics were
Noah Lyles in the men’s 200, and
GOLF | KPMG WOMEN’S PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney
McLaughlin, who were set to face
off in the women’s 400 hurdles.
Earlier, JuVaughn Harrison won
the high jump, contested under
cloudless conditions in 105-degree
temperatures. Harrison was also
entered in the long jump, which
kicked off the evening’s action.
With the humidity, Eugene felt like
113 in midafternoon. Third-place
high jump finisher Shelby McEwen
called the heat “mind blowing.”
“It’s crazy. I wasn’t expecting it to
be this humid,” he said. “We just had
to be mentally locked in, mentally
prep ourselves for it, stay hydrated
and go out and get the job done.”
The men’s 5,000 took place at
10 a.m. in a nod to the forecast,
which since early last week had pre-
dicted triple-digits over the week-
end. In temperatures reaching 90
degrees on the track, Paul Chelimo
fended off a pair of runners for a
0.19-second victory.
“Honestly,” Chelimo said, “I
wanted it a bit hotter.”
HOCKEY | STANLEY CUP PREVIEW
Whoa, Nelly! A major title Canadiens, Lightning
for Korda and No. 1 ranking in Cup Final: It’s NHL
royalty vs. Hockey Bay
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — First
came the tears when Nelly
Korda hugged her older sister
and didn’t want to let go. That
was followed by the spray of
champagne on the 18th green
to celebrate a day that will be
hard for her to top even at age
22.
With one round, she became
a major champion for the first
time and reached No. 1 in the
world.
“Is this week even real?”
Korda said. “It’s amazing.”
Just like her performance
Sunday in the KPMG Women’s
PGA Championship.
Korda powered her way to a
pair of eagles that wore down
Lizette Salas at Atlanta Athletic
Club and put an American
atop the world ranking for the
first time in seven years.
BY STEPHEN WHYNO AND
JOHN WAWROW
AP Hockey Writers
John Bazemore/AP
Nelly Korda kisses the trophy after winning the KPMG Women’s PGA
Championship golf tournament Sunday in Johns Creek, Georgia.
Korda nearly holed out with
a 7-wood from 243 yards for a
tap-in eagle. She seized control
by using her length from that
graceful swing, leaving her a
6-iron into the par-5 12th hole
that narrowly cleared the water
and set up an 8-foot eagle putt.
The final stroke was a 15-foot
par putt for a 4-under 68 and a
three-shot victory over Salas.
See Korda / A6
TAMPA, Fla. — Brian Eng-
blom sat in the lower bowl
at Amalie Arena with the
Tampa Bay Lightning’s two
Stanley Cup banners to his
right and the team looking to
add a third skating on the ice
in front of him.
Reflecting on his days play-
ing for the Canadiens and
winning the Stanley Cup in
the late 1970s, Tampa Bay’s
TV analyst sees the makings
of the Lightning growing a
championship culture just
as Montreal has for nearly a
century.
“They already have,” Engb-
lom said Sunday. “You’re sup-
posed to win it all, and creat-
ing that kind of environment
is difficult and takes time, but
they’re already there.”
The Lightning face the
Canadiens in the Stanley
Cup Final starting Monday,
a series pitting the defend-
ing champions against the
NHL’s most decorated fran-
chise. Tampa Bay is going for
a third title since beginning
play in 1993, the last year the
Canadiens — or any team
from Canada — won the
Cup, making this a matchup
of old-school winners against
a modern-hockey model of
success.
“A lot of people need to do
a lot of good work in order to
build a good organization,”
said Lightning general man-
ager Julien BriseBois, who cut
his teeth with the Canadiens.
See Hockey / A6