Sports news and briefs

Handball was the country’s most popular sport at the Olympics, grabbing the top four TV ratings in week one, and top two in week two. The most watched game was the men’s group match against Spain (1.42 million), followed by the quarter-final against Sweden (1.365). The most watched individual was swimmer Lotte Friis in the 800m freestyle final (0.672), and the top non-Danish moment was the men’s 200-metre final (1.086).

Thomas Bjørn birdied his first four holes on day three of the US PGA Championship, the final major of the golf season, which ended on Sunday at the Kiawah Island course in South Carolina with a win for Caroline Wozniacki’s boyfriend Rory McIlroy. But three consecutive bogies followed, ending his brief challenge. Bjørn finished 48th, 21 places behind Thorbjørn Olesen, who shot a final round 69. 

Rasmus Glarbjerg, considered by many to be this country’s brightest ever basketball prospect, has signed a four-year contract with the Spanish side Manresa. The Catalonian outfit, which plays in Spain’s EBA, persuaded Glarbjerg that despite its limited budget it was the best club for him as it would be a “good development space” where “the wait for action wouldn’t be as long” as other EBA clubs. 

Ahead of the final major of the season, the US Open, which starts on Monday August 27, Caroline Wozniacki has been in action at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, where the world number eight reached the semi-finals, losing 6-3, 2-6, 3-6 to Czech rival Petra Kvitova, the world number five, on Sunday. A day earlier, she had needed to play twice, contesting 49 games to move on from the last 16 to the semis.  

Ahead of the Vuelta a España, which starts on Saturday in Pamplona, Bjarne Riis, the manager of Danish side Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, has signed Ireland’s Nicolas Roche, 28, an all-rounder who finished 12th in July’s Tour de France and is the son of 1987 winner Stephen, and 23-year-old Slovenian all-rounder Marko Kump. The Vuelta marks the return of Saxo’s star rider, Alberto Contador, following a two-year ban.

Following his loan acquisition of left winger Nicolai Jørgensen from Bayer Leverkusen, FC Copenhagen’s new Belgian coach Ariël Jacobs has made his first signing, snapping up 26-year-old left back Michael Jakobsen from Spanish Segunda Liga outfit UD Almeria. Jakobsen, who has five caps, joins a FCK side that is so far undefeated this season and currently leading the Superliga, five points ahead of last season’s champs FC Nordsjælland.