Motor Racing: Austrian Alex Wurz, a former F1 racer and double Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar winner, announced his retirement yesterday. The 41-year-old said he would hang up his helmet after this weekend’s final Bahrain round of the FIA endurance championship for Toyota. “I’ve enjoyed half of my lifetime competing at the top of motorsport and another quarter of it working my way up there, so I feel the time is right to call it a day,” he said. Wurz is currently also the chairman of Formula One’s Grand Prix Drivers’ Association. In Formula One, Wurz raced for Benetton, McLaren and Williams and made three podium appearances ­– one with each team between 1997 and 2007.

Basket, NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves held on to end Atlanta Hawks’ seven-game winning streak and, in the process, they stopped a stretch of futility that went back 13 years. Guard Andrew Wiggins scored 33 points, including eight down the stretch, and the Timberwolves won 117-107 despite letting a 34-point lead temporarily slip away. The Hawks (7-2) took a 107-106 lead on a basket by forward Paul Millsap, but Wiggins converted a three-point play with three minutes left, and the Timberwolves (4-2) pulled back away from there. The Timberwolves had lost 12 straight in Atlanta since recording a 103-93 victory on Nov. 20, 2002.

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Triathlon: French triathlete Laurent Vidal (picture) has died of a heart attack at the age of 31, the International Triathlon Union has confirmed. Vidal, who finished fifth in the London 2012 Olympics, retired in April last year after suffering a cardio-pulmonary arrest during a swimming training session. He recovered after being placed in a medically induced coma for 48 hours. Vidal was engaged to New Zealand triathlete Andrea Hewitt.

Rugby Union: The growth of North American rugby is expected to be enhanced further by the formation of the region’s first professional league, helping build on the sport’s popularity following a successful World Cup and its inclusion in the 2016 Olympics. The six-team league was scheduled to kick off next April and featured city-based teams from around the northeast US, the Rocky Mountains and California, the Professional Rugby Organisation said. The inaugural season will run over 10 rounds until July with teams from Canada joining the franchise in 2017.

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