SHOOTING

China's Lu dethrones world champ for gold

China's Lu Kaiman held her nerve to beat defending champion Anna Korakaki of Greece 16-10 to claim women's 10-meter air pistol gold at the world championships in Cairo on Saturday.

Earlier, the 22-year-old Lu beat Zorana Arunovic of Serbia by 0.1 points thanks to a 10.6 final shot to squeeze into the gold-medal match against Korakaki.

The 26-year-old Korakaki, the champion at the 2016 Rio Olympics, made six sub-10s from her first 10 shots as Lu moved to one step from the gold at 14-6. The Greek launched a late fightback to get to 14-10, but it proved too little, too late as Lu scored 10.4 to her opponent's 9.8 for an impressive victory.

Arunovic's bronze was enough to earn Serbia one of the four quotas up for grabs for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Elmira Karapetyan also obtained one for Armenia despite a fifth-place finish behind China's Li Xue because quotas are capped at one per National Olympic Committee in individual events.

Lu's gold wrapped up a fruitful day for China. Earlier, Liu Jinyao and Zhang Yifan had a one-two finish in the men's 10m air pistol.

CYCLING

Chinese rider Guo wins bronze at track worlds

China's Guo Yufang won a bronze medal in the women's 500m time trial at the UCI Track World Championships in Paris on Saturday, securing the second medal for Team China at the event.

France's 20-year-old Marie-Divine Kouame took the gold at 32.835 seconds, 0.216 ahead of German Emma Hinze and 0.379 faster than Guo.

Germany's Franziska Brausse, who was second in Roubaix 12 months ago and third in Berlin in 2020, finally turned the medal's color to gold in the women's individual pursuit.

"It was bronze, then silver, so today it had to be gold. It was a super hard fight to get this jersey and the gold medal," said Brausse, who pipped New Zealand's Bryony Botha in the final at the velodrome near Paris which will be used for the 2024 Olympics.

Britain's Josie Knight claimed bronze ahead of Germany's Mieke Kroeger.

Earlier on Saturday, Belgian pair Lotte Kopecky and Shari Bossuyt edged France's Clara Copponi and Valentine Fortin to clinch the women's madison title.

SOCCER

Legend Cafu backing Brazil to reign in Qatar

Brazil World Cup-winning captain Cafu said Saturday that his country has the quality and depth of talent to win this year's FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The former Roma and AC Milan right-back said the five-time World Cup champion would not depend so heavily on talismanic forward Neymar as it did in previous major tournaments.

"I'm very excited and confident that the Brazil team will achieve great results at this World Cup," Cafu told reporters during an event in Porto Alegre to promote his new biography.

"Brazil today is much more prepared and experienced. The team does not depend exclusively on a single player. Instead we have a group that makes him (Neymar) stand out. We have had very positive results and built up confidence, which is of utmost importance. I think Brazil has a great chance of winning."

The Selecao has been drawn in Group G — alongside Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon — for soccer's showpiece event to be played from Nov 20 to Dec 18.

Chinese girls lose to Colombia at U17 Cup

Linda Caicedo scored a brace as Colombia beat China 2-0 in their second Group C match at the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in Mumbai on Saturday.

Colombia broke the deadlock in the eighth minute, as Caicedo capitalized on chaotic Chinese defending to tap home. Caicedo doubled the lead on 23 minutes when she latched onto a diagonal pass from Orianna Quintero.

China had a great chance to pull a goal back in the 37th minute when Qiao Ruiqi was one-on-one with goalkeeper Luisa Agudelo, but Qiao mistimed her shot.

Although the Chinese girls improved after the break, they still struggled to contain Colombia and could not find a goal. A Yin Lihong volley forced a good save from Agudelo in the closing stages as the Colombians saw out victory.

China, which defeated Mexico 2-1 in its opening Group C match, will next meet defending champion Spain on Tuesday.

VOLLEYBALL

Serbia defeats Brazil to retain world title

Superstar Tijana Boskovic impressed again as Serbia defeated Brazil 26-24, 25-22, 25-17 in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, on Saturday to claim its second FIVB Women's World Championship title in a row.

Serbia's fourth victory over Brazil in 22 international encounters made it just the sixth nation to win back-to-back world championship titles.

Boskovic led all scorers in the final with 24 points, all from attacks, and her teammate and middle blocker Jovana Stevanovic added 11.

In the third-place match earlier in the day, Nations League winner Italy beat Tokyo Olympic champion the United States 25-20, 25-15, 27-25.