Hilo drops marathon contest in softball

The UH Hilo softball team came up short in a four-hour, 20-minute marathon against Biola, falling 6-5 in nine innings on Wednesday in La Mirada, Calif.

The game was delayed by lightning and injury timeouts. Early on, it looked like Biola (10-9, 5-4 PacWest) would win easily, jumping out to a 5-0 lead after two innings. But Vulcans pitcher Billi Derleth quieted the Eagles offense, and Hilo (17-6, 12-3) was able to get the five runs back in the sixth inning. Derleth held Biola in check through the eighth, but in the ninth surrendered a single and an error, before Kayla Neff singled in the winning run for the Eagles.

The second game of the scheduled doubleheader was suspended at 10 p.m. It will continue today at noon.

Slater dazzles in Australia

Kelly Slater, the 11-time world champion, got his 2019 season underway, winning his opening heat to qualify for round three of the WSL Vissla Sydney Surf Pro on Wednesday at Manly Beach, New South Wales.

Slater will surf in Heat 5 when the WSL Qualifying Series 6000 event resumes today.

Hawaii included in German doping probe

MUNICH >> As many as 21 athletes from five sports may have been part of a doping ring stretching around the world — including Hawaii — German prosecutors said Wednesday.

Austrian police arrested five competitors at the Nordic skiing world championships last month and the case has since spread to cycling. Munich prosecutor Kai Graeber said the scandal could spread further.

Graeber said blood doping has occurred in at least 10 different countries since late 2011 and “there is believed to have been a three-figure number of cases of blood withdrawal and re-transfusion around the world.”

The athletes come from eight different countries, Graeber said.

Authorities aren’t naming suspects or the sports affected, but Graeber said three of the five sports are winter events.

Graeber added that doping allegedly took place in European countries such as Italy, Sweden and Croatia, along with Hawaii and last year’s Olympic host South Korea.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency confirmed that it was investigating the Hawaii connection.

“We can confirm that we are cooperating with officials in Germany and Austria and have offered all assistance in this case,” the agency said in a statement to the Associated Press.

The International Olympic Committee did not immediately respond when asked whether it feared blood doping could have compromised last year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Since the five skiers were arrested last month shortly before a world championship race, another Estonian skier has admitted to doping and two Austrian cyclists who raced in the Tour de France have been suspended.