Category: 6. Sports

1. Which RWC 2025 second-Saturday try do you prefer?

We hope you enjoyed the second Saturday of Rugby World Cup 2023. Four superb matches and a mountain of tries. You can catch up with all the highlights here. 

But in the meantime, here are a few of our favourite tries to check out, starting with Fiji’s opening stunner against Scotland: 

What about this one from Canada’s Asia Hogan-Rochester on her RWC debut? 

Then there is this one from Australia’s flying teenager Caitlyn Halse: 

Finally, what a way for Jess Breach to bring up her 50th England touchdown: 

2. Samoa smiling after slotting first RWC 2025 points

They may have gone down heavily to tournament favourites England – a side ranked 14 places higher than them – but there is no doubt Samoa won a legion of fans in Northampton on Saturday evening. 

First for this: 

And then this: 

3. Sophie de Goede: an all-action superhero

Some rugby players excel ball in hand, some are supreme defenders, others never miss a kick, while still more offer unrivalled power in close-quarters. Canada’s Sophie de Goede does them all.

Check this out: on Saturday she carried 19 times, made more than 100m, secured two turnovers and slotted six out of six conversions. All from second-row.

No wonder she was the Mastercard Player of the Match, as Canada became the first team to secure a quarter-final spot.

4. Scotland fan shows support by darning 285 thistles

Needlework has been a theme of RWC 2025, with England’s players particularly devoted (see below). But now rivals Scotland have got in to the act, thanks to a super-fan who darned a remarkable 285 thistles in order to inspire her nation.

After sending 50 to the Scotland squad, the knitter extraordinare gave 235 out to the crowd at the Pool B double-header in Manchester on Saturday. It clearly worked with Scotland beating Fiji to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time since 2002.

5. While England follow ‘knitting trail’ to victory 

Captain for the game against Samoa in Northampton on Saturday, England’s Marlie Packer said she was “definitely not” one of the squad’s ‘crocheting crew’ but admitted it was “absolutely awesome” to see the knitting trail (part of which is below) that the local WI (women’s institute) had created from Northampton Train Station to Franklin’s Gardens.

“The bus drove us past it on the way back from our team run,” said the back-row forward. “Abby Dow [England’s crocheter-in-chief) was giving us some insight, explaining that the yarn was of a particular type so that they can reuse it [to make clothes and blankets] for homeless shelters.”

For Packer, it was another “fill-your-cup-up moment” as the England team witness communities up and down the country embracing Rugby World Cup 2025.

6. Victorious Lioness adds star power to England’s campaign

Just weeks after driving England to the Women’s European Football Championship title, Chloe Kelly was in Northampton and adamant that together, the Lionesses and the Red Roses can do great things: 

Something that the squad enjoyed hearing in person: 

 

Shadab Khan is a cricketer whom people have loved for his performances on field and personality off field. He became a star after his great performance in a match with India. The cricketer has always been very private about his personal life. He got married to legendary cricketer Saqlain Mushtaq’s daughter Sana. His wedding pictures went viral but his wife observes pardah thus he only shared his clicks.

Shadab Khan has now entered a new phase in his life. He has welcomed his first child. He is over the moon as he welcomes his baby girl. He took to Instagram and shared some sweet pictures with his baby girl. He has not yet revealed his daughter’s face. He also wrote a sweet note for her:

Shadab Khan’s wife Sana also shared the cutest moments as her dad Saqlain Mushtaq and her mother also accompanied the couple as they brought home their little angel. Check out the sweet moments:

Congratulations to Shadab Khan and his wife Sana from our side!

As Tokyo prepares to host the World Athletics Championships, we take a deep dive into Japan’s passion for road running and how it helped inspire a love for the sport of athletics as a whole.

Japanese athletes have become synonymous with pounding the streets of the world’s marathons. But increasingly the nation’s elite athletes are branching out into other athletics avenues. The fourth and final instalment of this series looks at how Japan is increasingly making its mark on the world stage in everything from race walking to hammer throwing.

——

Koji Murofushi 

Koji Murofushi was genetically predisposed to throw things distances. His father Shigenobu was a hammer thrower, who held the national record before his son broke it 23 years later, while his Romanian mother, Serafina Moritz, was a javelin thrower. Taught by his father, Koji took up the hammer aged 10. His crowning glory came at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. At the time, he finished second behind Hungary’s Adrian Annus, but was later elevated to the gold following Annus’ disqualification for a doping violation. Seven years on from his Olympic gold, Koji repeated the feat in Daegu at the World Athletics Championships, making him the oldest ever champion in the hammer at that event. He was just shy of his 37th birthday at the time. 

Toshikazu Yamanishi

Japan’s athletes are venturing into long distance of a different kind outside just the marathon, changing markedly with Toshikazu Yamanishi back in 2019 initially. A two-time world champion, he sealed his first gold in the 20km race walk in Doha and he had a successful defence of that title three years later at the Covid-delayed World Championships in Oregon. At the 2019 event, it also proved a double gold for the Japanese men’s race walkers, with Yusuke Suzuki victorious over the longer 50km distance.

Haruka Kitaguchi

Aged 24, Haruka Kitaguchi announced herself on the world stage with a first medal by a Japanese woman in any throwing event at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon – a bronze. A year later in Budapest, she finished infinitely better as she was crowned world champion, sealing it with her sixth and final throw, a winning distance of 66.73m. Cementing her status as the world’s best, she then added Olympic gold in Paris a year later. This season, though, she has been curtailed by an elbow injury.

Rachid Muratake

Rachid Muratake has high ambitions at the World Championships in Tokyo, with his sights set on a podium finish after his fifth place at the Paris Olympics in the 110m hurdles last summer. The son of a Togolese father and Japanese mother, the 23-year-old is currently studying at Juntendo University. He earned plaudits for his Paris exploits but, particularly closer to home, also his decision to pose like a character from the manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure on his arrival at the track for the final. This season he has set a Japanese record of 12.92, making him the second-fastest athlete of the year and putting him joint 11th on the world all-time list. 

Nozomi Tanaka

The daughter of two runners, Nozomi Tanaka would enter parent-child marathons with them from a young age. A versatile athlete, she is adept at the 1500m, 3000m and 5000m and reached the Olympic final of the 1500m at her home Games back in 2021. When not running, she loves nothing more than reading and has a penchant for children’s literature, in particular Anne of Green Gables to The Little Country That Could. She is coached by her father, Katsutoshi.

Towa Uzawa

Ranked in the world’s top 20 for the 200m so far this season, Towa Uzawa reached the semifinals of the event at last summer’s Paris Olympics. He had achieved the same feat at the previous World Championships in Budapest the year before. Having qualified for Tokyo earlier this season, the aim is to go a step better than he achieved in both Paris and Budapest. His best time this season is a slightly wind-assisted 20.05 (2.1m/s) for the 200m.

Yumi Tanaka

The 26-year-old high hurdler Yumi Tanaka has steadily been climbing up the global ranks at major championships. At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, she failed to make it out of her heat with the 34th quickest time of the entrants. A year later, she made it to the semifinals in Paris and then at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing this year she was among the top 10 fastest. Her personal best of 12.80 puts her at No.4 on the Japanese all-time list.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics

 

RIGA (Latvia) – It may be one of Europe’s best-kept secrets, but Estonia is among the corners of the continent where basketball is king. And nowhere is that more visible than at FIBA EuroBasket 2025, where thousands of Estonian fans have painted Riga blue.

Even if you’re in just one arena, EuroBasket feels like it stretches across the continent. We saw the impressive crowds for Slovenia and France in Poland. We enjoyed the packed stands in Tampere. We sang along, not knowing the words, to what the Bosnia and Herzegovina faithful were singing in Cyprus.

And the historic moment of Cyprus and Greece singing their anthem together brought chills down our spines.

But the secret is out: no group has traveled quite like the Estonians.

More than 8,000 of them have poured into Riga, turning every game into a home game for the nation quite symbolically set to host FIBA EuroBasket 2029.

“It’s crazy. People are having parties here, and it should be like this,” Estonia’s Henri Drell gasped when asked about the gigantic group following their team.

Of course, the trip southward from Estonia to Latvia is not a long one, but when you see the blue jerseys all over the city of Riga, you’re asking yourself if there’s anybody left in Estonia.

“I’m very, very happy for us, for the Estonian people that they got to see us, and I’m very thankful for them,” Drell added after a magnificent win over Czechia.

He smiled to the notion that his phone is probably blowing up with ticket requests these days.

“A couple of… I got some. But I tell you that, I got all my people satisfied.”

With the sea of blue spreading in thousands on the Baltic coast, we wondered what was the largest travelling group in recent FIBA EuroBasket history.

Think back to 2022, and Finland had around 5,000 fans basically moving to Prague for a week to follow Lauri Markkanen and his teammates in the Group Phase.

In 2017, as Slovenia stormed to the Final, there were talks of somewhere between 10 and 15 charter flights from Ljubljana to Istanbul, but that was the first ever Slovenian appearance in the Final, not just a random Group Phase game on a Friday afternoon.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s like 10,000 of them, or how much can it be here? They support us like crazy. It gives us energy,” Kristian Kullamae added his two cents about the people with Estonian shirts and jerseys in Riga.

“We were able to use this energy on the court. Super thanks to the fans. It definitely feels like we’re hosting the EuroBasket. We’re playing at home,” Kullamae added.

While Riga feels like a home away from home, Estonia will welcome the next edition of EuroBasket, so consider their 8,000 traveling fans a sign of things to come when we move to Tallinn four summers from now.

The preview of the stands is in line with the preview of what’s happening on the court, too. Estonia nearly stunned Latvia, they blew out Czechia with ease, and at 1-2, they have a legit chance of making the Round of 16.

“It might be like that, we are the team like this, then we play against the bigger teams, and they’re scared of us like that, so yeah, this is a preview,” Drell was showing off his endless confidence after the game on Saturday.

Just like most big cold waters, the Baltic sea is dark, giving off shades of gray for most of the year. But add an asterisk to that description.

For a couple of weeks in late August and early September, it might turn completely blue, reflecting the gigantic migrating group traveling along the coast from Estonia to Latvia to witness Drell, Kullamae and others fight their hearts out for that jersey with Eesti embedded on the front.

FIBA

Manchester United are considering making a move for Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez before Monday’s transfer deadline.

United have been looking to address their goalkeeping issues and have been negotiating with Royal Antwerp about their highly rated 23-year-old Belgian Senne Lammens.

Lammens is keen to join United and has been left out of Antwerp’s past two games. It is known the Belgian Pro League club need to make a sizeable sale so they can meet an external loan they have previously taken out.

However, he lacks high-level experience, while Martinez is a World Cup winner with Argentina and a two-time Fifa goalkeeper of the year with 197 Premier League appearances under his belt.

After Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Burnley, United head coach Ruben Amorim admitted: “I think it is hard to be a Manchester United goalkeeper in this moment.”

TAMPERE (Finland) – Germany became the first team to lock up a spot at the Final Phase with a 3-0 start in Tampere, and it’s been no surprise to see Dennis Schroder and Franz Wagner leading the way.

Schroder is averaging 23.3 points and 5.7 assists per game, just ahead in the scoring department with Wagner putting up 22.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 steals across the three wins, so far.

Since making his major tournament debut at FIBA EuroBasket 2022, Wagner has already played a key role in Germany’s success – most notably, of course, winning the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 title.

But the recently turned 24-year-old is still eager to earn as much as possible from his more experienced teammate.

“Dennis is teaching me some things, giving me a lot of responsibility, and letting me experience what it is like to be one of the main guys on the team and push me into that role a little bit, too,” Wagner said.

“So obviously, as a young kid coming in, it gives you a lot of confidence when you know the best player on the team wants you to get active out there on the court and make decisions for the team.

“I think that transcends our relationship. For me, I would love to be the leader that Dennis is right now, but he’s showing me that you have to be that leader in your own way. Kind of helping me build my own path.”

Following elimination in the Group Phase at EuroBasket in 2013 and 2015, Germany’s wheels began to turn in the right direction under Schroder’s direction, as they finished sixth in 2017, before making the podium in 2022.

Despite being 31, Schroder’s international career still has plenty of legs left. But the elevated status of Wagner has been a huge help, and the floor general is confident the national team will be in good hands for years to come.

“He’s been great,” Schroder says of Wagner. “Since he joined the team, we’ve been successful, and he brings a lot to the table, character-wise, but on the court, he’s just unique, can do a pass, shoot. He’s 6’9”, he’s just unique.

“He’s a winner, I’m going to war with him every single game and making sure that he’s good.

“He’s certainly our future, in terms of the national team. But at the same time, we have so many great players that can lead as well, we are a team and we’re all in it together.

“But Franz is showing everyone what he can do, and I want him to shine in EuroBasket.”

The thoughts of the Sacramento Kings guard are certainly echoed by the German team, as well as his new head coach in the NBA, Doug Christie – who has been a keen onlooker in Tampere.

“Wagner and Dennis, I think they have a one-two punch that’s going to be tough to deal with. Possibly the best in this tournament,” he said.

Daniel Theis, who produced a big performance of his own against Lithuania added pre-tournament: “The opposition is so focused on Dennis and now Franz, that it’s a matter of time before people notice Franz’s big numbers more.

“He’s a great player. Humble, and works hard.”

And there’s no question, if Germany are to claim a first EuroBasket title since 1993 – and second overall, to go with their World Cup triumph – Schroder and Wagner’s partnership will be at the forefront of that success.

FIBA