Reigning champ Malinin leads Japan’s Kagiyama at world championships

BOSTON>> American figure skating sensation Ilia Malinin sheepishly grinned when his closest rival, Japanese star Yuma Kagiyama, said what seems to be on everyone’s minds these days: “I’m starting to think he’s invincible.”

The 20-year-old Malinin certainly looked that way at the world championships Thursday night.

The reigning gold medalist delivered a season-best short program, highlighted by a pair of quads and a brilliant triple axel, and scored 110.41 points, just three off the world record set by American predecessor Nathan Chen at the 2022 Winter Olympics. The big score put Malinin three points clear of Kagiyama in what is quickly becoming a two-man race to this year’s title.

Charley Hull sets the pace in Arizona with 63 to lead LPGA’s Ford Championship

CHANDLER, Ariz.>> Charley Hull ended her long and active day without any blood seeping through her sock, only a bogey-free card of 9-under 63 that gave her a one-shot lead over Nanna Koertz Madsen in the opening round Thursday at the Ford Championship.

Nelly Korda, returning to work after skipping the Asia swing, rallied with four birdies on the back nine and opened with a 67 in her bid to catch up to Hull.

League “back to drawing board” for All-Star Game

NEW YORK >> The NBA will not bring back its All-Star Game mini-tournament next season.

Commissioner Adam Silver said Thursday that the format used last month — a four-team tournament made up of 24 NBA All-Stars and another team of rookies and sophomores that played their way in by winning the Rising Stars event on All-Star Friday, all the All-Star matchups playing untimed games to a target score of 40 points — “was a miss.”

“We’re not there in terms of creating an All-Star experience that we can be proud of and our players can be proud of,” Silver said.

NBA and FIBA announce new European league

NEW YORK >> The NBA may soon be significantly expanding its presence in European basketball, in the form of partnering with FIBA on a new league that the sides have been talking about for many years.

Specifics are few, with the initial target — for now — being that it would be a 16-team league. But the announcement made Thursday by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis is a major step forward after a long process of the sides going back and forth with ideas about what might work.

No timetable in place yet for league expansion

NEW YORK>> NBA Commissioner Adam Silver addressed expansion again Thursday following a two-day Board of Governors meeting. In short, there is still no timetable for when the league will look to add to its current 30-team format but the league is continuing to study what a 31- or 32-team NBA might look like.

U.S. wins team aerials gold at freestyle world championships

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland>> The United States retained the aerials team title at the world freestyle and snowboard championships on Thursday.

The team of Kaila Khun, Quinn Dehlinger and Christopher Lillis scored 344.63 points, finished 32 points better than second-placed Ukraine. Switzerland was third.

Dehlinger and Lillis helped to successfully defend the 2023 title won in Bakuriani.

“This is my first team event,” Kuhn said. “I was so happy to put that triple to my feet. That was the first one that I’ve landed.”