Sports, in brief

Brandon McNulty, a 28-year-old American, won the men's road race at cycling's world championships in Montreal on Sunday. [3][4]

He is the first American man to win it since Lance Armstrong in 1993, 33 years ago. [6][4]

He rode 273.4km in 6 hours 17 minutes and finished 13 seconds clear. Michael Matthews of Australia was second and Mathieu van der Poel of the Netherlands third. [4][3]

For most of the year McNulty's job is helping someone else win. He rides for the professional team UAE Team Emirates as a helper to Tadej Pogacar, the five-time Tour de France winner. [2][4]

At the world championships riders race for their countries, not for the teams that pay them. Pogacar, winner of the last two titles, missed this one with a broken collarbone. [2][1]

The United States brought three riders who could win: McNulty, Matteo Jorgenson and Quinn Simmons. Riders and coaches called it the strongest US team at the worlds in at least 20 years. [2]

Simmons joined an early breakaway with just under 100km left. Other countries then had to do the chasing, while McNulty and Jorgenson saved their strength. [1][2]

With about 32km to go the leading group slowed, and McNulty attacked alone. Italy's Giulio Ciccone, at the front of the group, waited for someone else to chase, and nobody did. [3][2]

Jorgenson stayed in the chasing group and followed every attack, which stopped the others sharing the work. [1][2] The gap fell to 10 seconds with 10km left, but McNulty held on. [3]

Team radios are not allowed in world championship races, so each team's plan is made in a meeting beforehand. Jorgenson said the Americans agreed to put their egos aside and get any American to win. [5][2]

Americans took three of the top 10 places: Simmons was fourth and Jorgenson eighth. Belgium's Remco Evenepoel, a pre-race favourite, finished 12th. [1][4]

Slovakia had no professional rider fit to start, so it entered its team masseur, Vladimir Kovacik. An empty place would have cost Slovakia ranking points that help its riders get into big races. [1]

Why it matters. Watch what UAE Team Emirates asks of McNulty next season: he will wear the world champion's rainbow stripes for a year, while his job there has been helping Pogacar win. [1][2]

The United States beat the International team, golfers from outside Europe, 17-13 at Medinah near Chicago on Sunday. It was their 11th Presidents Cup win in a row. [8][9] The US had eight of the world's 11 top-ranked golfers, and the Internationals had one player in the top 20. [10][7] Their captain, Geoff Ogilvy, used his weakest players as little as the rules allowed, and led 10.5-7.5 after three days. [7][11] On Sunday all 12 players on each side had to play, and the Americans won nine singles and halved one. [8][10]

Why it matters. Jacob Bridgeman clinched the cup on the last green, after losing both his foursomes matches, where partners take turns hitting one ball. [7][11] The Internationals' only win is from 1998, and the next cup is in Australia in two years. [8]

George Russell of Mercedes won Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku. [14] Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who started eighth, was 0.196 seconds behind, and Isack Hadjar was third on his return from a broken wrist. [14][15] Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli, who leads the Formula One championship, crashed in qualifying, started 16th and finished fifth. [14] That cut Antonelli's lead over Russell by 15 points, to 66, after 15 races. [14] New rules this year changed how the cars handle, and Russell has said they suit Antonelli's driving better than his. [16]

Why it matters. Russell himself says his title chance hangs by a thread. [16] Next weekend's race is at Sepang in Malaysia but carries Bahrain's name, because the war in the Middle East pushed the Bahrain race back from April. [15]

Czechia won the Billie Jean King Cup, the women's world team tennis competition, by beating Ukraine 2-0 in the final in Shenzhen, China, on Sunday. [17][18] Linda Noskova, ranked sixth in the world, and Karolina Muchova, ranked eighth, won both singles, so the doubles was not needed. [18][17] In July the two played each other in the Wimbledon final. [18] It is Czechia's 12th title and its first since 2018. Only the United States, with 18, has won more. [17]

Why it matters. Ukraine's best player, Elina Svitolina, is seventh in the world, but its second singles player was ranked 47th. [18] Czechia, a country of 11 million people, has 15% of the women in the world's top 50. [19]

Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia won the Berlin Marathon on Sunday in 2 hours 11 minutes 4 seconds, 68 seconds outside the women's world record. [22][20] She was 20 seconds inside world-record pace at 35km, then cramps hit in the last two kilometres. [22] She still beat her own course record of 2:11:53, set in 2023, and won by six minutes. [21][20] Ethiopians took the top five places in the women's race, and Guye Adola, also Ethiopian, won the men's. [21][22]

Why it matters. The world record she missed, 2:09:56, was set by Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago two years ago. [20][22] Berlin started 30 minutes earlier this year because last year's race was run in heat. [20]

The Philadelphia Phillies beat Tampa Bay 7-3 on Sunday, the last day of baseball's regular season, to take the final National League playoff place. [23] They had lost their four games before that and scored only three runs in them. [23] The Arizona Diamondbacks needed a Phillies defeat and a win of their own, but lost 9-4 in San Diego. [24] Arizona finished 86-76, six wins better than last year, and missed out. [24] Its catcher Gabriel Moreno won the league's batting title, the first catcher to do it since 2012. [24]

Why it matters. The Phillies, led by interim manager Don Mattingly, start a best-of-three series away to the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. [23][26] The San Diego Padres, who won 17 of their last 20 games, host the Chicago Cubs. [24]

The Houston Astros won baseball's American League West division on Sunday, after the Texas Rangers lost their last game. [26] The two teams began the day level on 80 wins and 81 defeats, and Houston held the tiebreak. [25] A division winner goes to the playoffs whatever its record. [25] So the Astros are the first team in Major League history to reach the playoffs over a full season without a winning record. [25]

Why it matters. Houston hosts the Chicago White Sox from Tuesday. [26] The White Sox had 83 wins and 78 defeats by Saturday, a better record, but they did not win their division, so they play away. [27]

The Baltimore Ravens beat the Dallas Cowboys 34-31 on Sunday at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, the NFL's first game in the city. [28] Tyler Loop kicked a 56-yard field goal as time ran out, seven seconds after Dallas had tied the game. [29] The announced crowd was 72,792. The NFL's two earlier games in Brazil were in a 48,000-seat arena in Sao Paulo. [28] The Maracana's grass, shared by two football clubs, had been stitched with synthetic fibres, and it held up. [30][29]

Why it matters. Dallas was listed as the home team, so a Cowboys home game was played in Brazil. [31] Baltimore's Derrick Henry scored twice and moved to ninth on the NFL's all-time list for rushing yards. [28]

Team Europe beat Team World 13-5 at the Laver Cup, a three-day team tennis event, in London on Sunday. [32] Alexander Zverev clinched it by beating Learner Tien 7-6, 6-3. [32] Zverev won his first two Grand Slam titles this year, the French Open and the US Open, and has played in all six of Europe's Laver Cup wins. [32] A win counts one point on Friday, two on Saturday and three on Sunday, and the first team to 13 takes the cup. [32]

Why it matters. Team World had won last year in San Francisco. [32] At one set all, a Laver Cup match goes straight to a 10-point tiebreak; the Grand Slams use one only when a final set reaches six games all. [33]

Groups hoping to own a new NBA team in Las Vegas had to hand in second-round bids by 17 September, The Athletic reported. [39] The NBA is also looking at Seattle, where the only known bidder is Samantha Holloway, owner of the city's Kraken team. [39] Commissioner Adam Silver says the league aims to decide by the end of the year, with new teams possibly starting in 2028-29. [39] The NBA hopes for $7bn to $10bn for each team. [39]

Why it matters. Several groups are bidding for Las Vegas, which could push its price towards $9bn, while Seattle may become a one-to-one negotiation. [39] Las Vegas has not yet picked a site for an arena. [39]

China had won 107 gold medals at the Asian Games in Japan by Saturday, halfway through the two weeks, against 31 for Japan in second place. [35] At least 11,000 athletes are taking part, more than the 10,700 at the Paris Olympics. [35] To save money, the organisers built no athletes' village, so athletes sleep on a cruise ship, in hotels and in wooden huts. [35] After complaints about short beds, leaking roofs and mixed-up rooms, the organising committee apologised on Saturday. [35]

Why it matters. Japan won the right to host in 2016. The Tokyo Olympics then officially cost $13bn, and sponsors had little interest in spending on that scale again. [35]

Tom Kim of South Korea beat Wyndham Clark in the Presidents Cup singles on Sunday, and was due to leave for the Asian Games golf in Japan late that afternoon. [7][13] South Korean law makes most able-bodied men serve 18 to 21 months in the military. [13] Athletes are excused if they win any Olympic medal or an Asian Games gold. [13] Kim, 24, missed an Olympic bronze by four shots in Paris two years ago. [13]

Why it matters. Professional golfers were first allowed at the last Asian Games, in 2023, when South Korea won the team gold by 25 shots. [13] This year's golf starts on Wednesday. [13]

Australia beat a second-string South Africa 42-38 at rugby in Perth on Sunday. [34] South Africa are the world champions, and their coach Rassie Erasmus made 13 changes after a 3-1 series win over New Zealand. [34] Australia led 42-17 after 65 minutes. Then four of their players were shown yellow cards in the last 10 minutes, and they finished with 11 men. [34] Australia are unbeaten in five games under their new coach, Les Kiss. [34]

Why it matters. Erasmus put first-choice players on the bench, and they nearly overturned a 25-point gap. [34] Australia play New Zealand twice in October, with six games in a row without defeat, their best run since 2017. [34]

Silver Lake, a private equity firm, sued the billionaire Carl Icahn and dozens of hedge funds in a Delaware court on 21 September. [40] In 2024 it agreed to buy Endeavor, an entertainment agency, for $13bn, or $27.50 a share. [40] Endeavor owned most of TKO, the company behind the UFC and WWE wrestling. [40] The hedge funds bought Endeavor shares after the deal was announced. Delaware law lets them ask a judge to set a higher price for those shares. [40]

Why it matters. Silver Lake says the funds are twisting the law for profit, and a ruling against it could cost hundreds of millions of dollars or more. [40] Icahn has filed a separate case saying insiders took Endeavor's assets for themselves. [40]

The Trump administration confirmed that Major League Baseball had asked it about playing a game in a national park. [38] The Washington Post reported that sites in Grand Teton National Park were looked at, and that a senior Park Service official scouted three this week. [38] The Trump administration said the idea was not its priority, and the US National Park Service has not given a permit. [38]

Why it matters. Baseball has already staged single games at unusual places, including the Field of Dreams site in Iowa and Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee last year. [38]

Yuki Kurihara, an 11-year-old Japanese schoolboy, won a gold medal in esports at the Asian Games on Saturday. [35][36] His event was Puyo Puyo, a Japanese puzzle game like Tetris, and he beat a 28-year-old from Thailand 10-1 in the semi-final. [36] Japanese media say he is Japan's youngest athlete in the history of the Games. [36] Esports has been a medal event at the Asian Games since 2022. [36]

Why it matters. China's Yu Zidi, a 13-year-old swimmer, has won three golds at the same Games. [35][36]

Mutaz Barshim of Qatar, a three-time world champion high jumper, pulled out of the Asian Games final on Sunday with an injury, his national federation said. [37] He also withdrew from last year's world championships after a foot injury. [37] His best-known win came at the Tokyo Olympics, where he shared the gold with Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi after both cleared 2.37 metres. [37]

Why it matters. The federation did not say what the injury is. [37]