Sport in Brief

* CAIRO – Egypt’s Al Ahli romped to an easy 3-0 win over Etoile Sahel of Tunisia to win the African Champions League in Cairo on Saturday and confirm their domination of the continent’s club football over the last year.

The three-goal triumph followed a goalless draw in the first leg of the final in Sousse a fortnight ago, stretching the club’s unbeaten run to 52 matches. * LONDON – New Zealand showed the depth of their World Cup ambitions by inflicting a 45-7 defeat on Ireland on Saturday with a team showing 15 changes from the side that thrashed Wales 41-3 a week ago.The Tri-Nations champions crushed the life out of the Irish to silence the Lansdowne Road crowd after just 25 minutes.Wingers Sitiveni Sivivatu and Doug Howlett scored two tries each and New Zealand are now confident they can complete their first grand slam tour of Britain since 1978.* LONDON – Spain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic all moved a step closer to the World Cup with victories on Saturday while Australia kept their hopes alive despite losing in the first leg of the final playoffs.Trinidad and Tobago were held at home by Bahrain in the only drawn match so apart from Spain, who crushed 10-man Slovakia 5-1 in Madrid, the ties are all finely balanced ahead of Wednesday’s second legs in the battle for places in Germany next year.* SHANGHAI – Briton David Howell held off Tiger Woods to win the inaugural Champions Tournament by three strokes yesterday.The Englishman fired a four-under-par 68 to finish on 20-under 268 in Shanghai, erasing the pain of his previous head-to-head with the world number one at this year’s US Masters.Woods had to settle for second place in his first official tournament in China after returning a final-round 70 at the $5 million event, Asia’s richest ever.* LONDON – New Zealand showed the depth of their World Cup ambitions by inflicting a 45-7 defeat on Ireland on Saturday with a team showing 15 changes from the side that thrashed Wales 41-3 a week ago.The Tri-Nations champions crushed the life out of the Irish to silence the Lansdowne Road crowd after just 25 minutes.Wingers Sitiveni Sivivatu and Doug Howlett scored two tries each and New Zealand are now confident they can complete their first grand slam tour of Britain since 1978.* LONDON – Spain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic all moved a step closer to the World Cup with victories on Saturday while Australia kept their hopes alive despite losing in the first leg of the final playoffs.Trinidad and Tobago were held at home by Bahrain in the only drawn match so apart from Spain, who crushed 10-man Slovakia 5-1 in Madrid, the ties are all finely balanced ahead of Wednesday’s second legs in the battle for places in Germany next year. * SHANGHAI – Briton David Howell held off Tiger Woods to win the inaugural Champions Tournament by three strokes yesterday.The Englishman fired a four-under-par 68 to finish on 20-under 268 in Shanghai, erasing the pain of his previous head-to-head with the world number one at this year’s US Masters.Woods had to settle for second place in his first official tournament in China after returning a final-round 70 at the $5 million event, Asia’s richest ever.