Sports news in brief

Bowls: Seventh title for Midlothian women

Midlothian’s women turned in a stunning fightback to claim the Greengauge Premier League title for the seventh time in ten years, beating East Fife at Ardrossan. Midlothian looked home and hosed at 51-39 ahead after 13 ends, but East Fife drew level at 56-56 with five ends remaining. However, Midlothian pulled away over the closing stages. Gaynor Blair’s rink hit back from 12-12 after 12 ends against Alice Fyall and then dropped only one more of their 21-end match for a 32-14 win. Carol Ashby followed, picking up five shots on the last end for a 21-17 win ahead of Lynn Stein. East Fife had clawed back the shots over the closing stages on the other two rinks skipped by Karen McAndrew and Celia Smith.

Diving: Starling qualifies for Olympic team

Hannah Starling ensured Great Britain will take a full diving team to the London Olympics at the FINA World Cup. Starling secured a second Olympic spot in the women’s 3 metre springboard after winning yesterday’s dive-off at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. It meant Britain will have a full complement of divers at an Olympic Games for the first time. This week’s test event had doubled as final qualification for the Olympics with Starling narrowly failing to secure a second springboard place earlier this week when she finished a single place outside the qualification berths. But the 16-year-old Leeds diver produced her best yesterday as she returned a score of 318.

Skiing: Blardone win shows he’s back to best

Italian Massimiliano Blardone confirmed his return to form with victory in the Crans-Montana giant slalom ahead of World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher. The powerful Italian, dubbed Superman on the circuit, was the only one of the leading contenders to master the tricky second run on a broken course and won in a combined time of two minutes and 33.77 seconds. It was Blardone’s second victory this season after his spectacular comeback in Alta Badia in December following two barren seasons. Hirscher now leads Kostelic by 92 points and Feuz by 95 in the overall World Cup standings.