Category: 6. Sports

Kenya’s Valentine Jepkoech Rutto achieved a World Mountain Running Association World Cup double in Chongli, China, this weekend (5-6), while Germany’s Lukas Ehrle won the men’s uphill race and Kenya’s Michael Selelo topped the men’s classic race.

The World Cup made its debut in China on Saturday with a spectacular uphill race held in the scenic mountain resort of Yunding, a venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Runners from all over the world faced fresh temperatures, cloudy skies and mud-slicked forest trails, turning the race into an unforgettable battle of strength, strategy and endurance.

Rutto delivered a commanding performance in the women’s race, taking the lead from the start. She crossed the finish line in 40:59, writing her name in the history books as the first-ever WMRA race winner on Chinese soil.

Close behind was Great Britain’s Scout Adkin, the 2024 World Cup champion, who kept the pressure on and secured second place in 41:58. Rutto’s compatriot Gloria Chebet completed the podium in 43:05.

The men’s event saw a spectacular duel between Ehrle and Selelo. The two athletes exchanged the lead multiple times on the steep climbs and slippery turns of the Chongli forest trails and ski slopes, before Ehrle edged Saoli by just one second, taking the win in 35:13.

Italy’s Andrea Rostan rounded out the podium in 35:37, confirming his strong form this season.

The action continued on Sunday with a classic 21.9km race featuring 1417m of ascent and matching descent.

Under brilliant sunshine and already warm temperatures at the 7am start, the athletes tackled an immediate descent before facing a steep climb of 450m. A fast descent to the 7km checkpoint was followed by a sustained ascent back to 2100m for the race’s midpoint. Runners then remained on high ground before a heart-pounding 2km drop into the valley finish.

In contrast to her wire-to-wire victory on Saturday, Rutto let leaders Adkin and Chebet dictate the pace during the first uphill kilometre. But on the second, longer ascent, Rutto unleashed her trademark strength – surging away and never looking back.

Rutto’s decisive move midway, combined with her smooth downhill technique, earned her a comfortable win in 1:55:43, while Adkin and Chebet held on for second (2:01:04) and third (2:04:52), respectively.

Selelo and Ehrle clashed again in this race, surging to the front on the opening incline, with Kenya’s Paul Machoka tagging close behind. By the 10km mark, Selelo had asserted full control, leading Machoka and Ehrle by slim margins. The Italian duo of Rostan and Alberto Vender rounded out the top five in a fierce mid-race battle.

Selelo’s well-timed push on the final climbs and controlled descent secured him the first classic distance victory in Chongli in 1:38:19, while Machoka and Ehrle lit up the trails with a thrilling tussle for the podium. Machoka clinched second place in 1:39:38, while Ehrle was third in 1:40:17.

Hector Rubio (WMRA) for World Athletics

A Chinese soccer club has been fined by the Chinese Professional Football League (CFL) for placing ‘feudal superstitious items’ in the away team’s dressing room.

Changchun Xidu FC, who play in China League Two — the nation’s third division — have been fined 30,000 yuan (£3,070, $4,100) for the incident against Shanxi Chongde Ronghai on June 28.

A statement from the CFL said the club had “placed a number of feudal superstitious items in the away team’s dressing room” before the match, and in accordance with the CFL’s Discipline and Ethics Code, they had breached Article 115 and Article 116.

A report in the Shanghai-based City News Service claims how photos that had been widely shared online showed yellow paper charms inscribed with messages such as: “By decree, Shanxi Chongde Ronghai must be defeated.”

“The CFL will resolutely and seriously deal with all kinds of violations of regulations and disciplines in accordance with the provisions of the Discipline and Ethics Code,” the CFL statement added. “This is in place to purify the atmosphere of the stadium, and for all participants to jointly maintain the order of the game and hard-won environment.”

Changchun Xidu, second in the China League Two standings, won the match 2-0.

(Catherine Ivill – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

WEURO 2025 – Mariona Caldentey, Spain’s makeshift gem assuming leadership responsibilities

Mariona is one of the five captains picked by Tomé, encouraged to create a core leadership group within a squad that is stacked with world class talent in every position.

She joins Olga Carmona, Irene Paredes, Aitana Bonmatí, and Alexia Putellas as the team’s leadership quintet. That being said, the Mallorcan does not see it as a huge change to the previous dynamic that led La Roja to World Cup glory.

“I don’t think that the role has changed so much to say that you are captain,” Mariona explained. “There are many experienced and influential players that the team will listen to. The two main captains are Irene [Paredes] and Alexia [Putellas], they are the best role models and captains that we could have. When they speak, everyone goes quiet.”

Mariona comes into the continental tournament already a European champion at club level. Having left FC Barcelona after a decade for Arsenal last year, she helped the London side to UEFA Women’s Champions League glory for the first time since 2007.

A lot has changed in women’s football since then, especially for the Spanish national team, who have gone through immense transformation.

If the starting line-ups contain names such as Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala and Kingsley Coman on one side, with Bradley Barcola, Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the other, there is a high probability of entertainment.

Yet how both teams approach the game factors in whether we see the individual flair or not.

Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich didn’t disappoint the audience on Saturday, with their proactive and positive approaches resulting in a thrilling match where Luis Enrique’s side came out victorious.

PSG and Bayern played to the strengths of their forwards, focusing on isolating their wingers to get the best of their dribbling abilities. However, different methods were used to reach that target.

Luis Enrique’s team wanted to shift Bayern’s block towards one side of the pitch, by overloading that area, before switching the play quickly to put Barcola or Kvaratskhelia in an isolated situation.

In this example, Vitinha and Joao Neves are overloading the right side, which drags Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlovic towards the touchline, with Bayern’s right-back, Konrad Laimer, moving inside to mark Fabian Ruiz.

As Vitinha plays the ball to Fabian, Barcola attacks the space inside the pitch…

… and combines with the Spain midfielder, with Laimer completely out of position.

On the other side, Kvaratskhelia is free and calling for the pass…

… which Fabian plays in the space vacated by Laimer.

Meanwhile, Olise drops to cover for his right-back and intercepts the pass…

… but Kvaratskhelia wins the ball back. Doue then picks up the loose ball, but his shot misses the target.

Laimer’s pressing role meant that if PSG could drag him out of position and switch the play in time, Kvaratskhelia would be in a one-versus-one situation against Dayot Upamecano.

Here, PSG are shifting the ball from the left side to the right to move Bayern’s block, and Laimer is moving towards Fabian as Kimmich and Pavlovic are keeping an eye on Vitinha and Neves.

With Kimmich and Pavlovic in advanced positions, Achraf Hakimi plays the ball inside the pitch to find Barcola’s run behind the midfield duo.

Once PSG penetrate Bayern’s block, Laimer’s pressing role becomes a liability because as he is marking Fabian in the centre of the pitch, Kvaratskhelia (out of shot) is in acres of space down the wing.

After Barcola receives Hakimi’s pass, he dribbles inside…

… and switches the play to put Kvaratskhelia in a one-versus-one situation.

The Georgian dribbles past Upamecano with ease…

… but he is denied by a brilliant save from Manuel Neuer.

In another example, Vitinha, Neves and Fabian are near the left side of the pitch, and Willian Pacho immediately switches the play towards the right wing.

Barcola’s immaculate first touch creates an isolated situation against Bayern’s left-back, Josip Stanisic, because it allows him to control the ball before Kimmich and Pavlovic can shift across.

The right-winger then dribbles inside the pitch and drags Stanisic out of position, which allows PSG to combine and find Hakimi’s third-man run.

The Morocco full-back then plays a low-curling ball across goal…

… but Kvaratskhelia only manages to hit the side-netting.

After the first-half cooling break, Vincent Kompany altered his side’s pressing scheme by leaving the role of marking Fabian to Bayern’s centre-backs, or Olise when PSG were building the attack on the other side.

By adjusting their pressing, Bayern stifled PSG’s possession game and were able to have more time on the ball for the remaining hour.

Bayern’s isolation method revolved around putting their full-backs in the half-spaces to create a direct passing lane into their wingers and prevent PSG from doubling up against them.

In this example, Laimer, who moved to left-back after Sacha Boey replaced Stanisic, plays the ball to Coman and attacks the space between Hakimi and Marquinhos.

Laimer’s movement occupies Hakimi and creates a one-versus-one scenario for Coman, who dribbles past Neves twice…

… forcing PSG’s right-back to change his focus and leave Laimer to Marquinhos.

This sequence of events means that Harry Kane has a bigger space to attack inside the penalty area if Bayern can find him with a cross. This happens when Coman dribbles past Neves again…

… and puts in a left-footed cross that the England striker heads over the bar.

In another example, Boey dashes forward in the right half-space to prevent Fabian from doubling up against Olise.

In the one-v-one, Olise wrong-foots Nuno Mendes and dribbles inside the pitch…

… but his shot is saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Despite Bayern’s control in the second half, PSG managed to take the lead through Doue in a transitional moment after Neves won the ball back in midfield.

Later in the game, Ousmane Dembele scored on another transition to make it 2-0 and seal PSG’s place in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup.

PSG’s goals reflected another part of the game that made it more exciting. Both teams were willing to press high up the pitch, counter-press when they lost possession and hit on the counter whenever there was an opportunity — all of this suited the match’s most skilful players.

Tactics doesn’t shackle individual talent, rather they empower it to help it flourish.

FIA Formula 2: Hello and welcome to Silverstone for the press conference of our top three finishers in today’s FIA Formula 2 Feature Race. In third place we have Luke Browning for Hitech TGR, in second is Alexander Dunne for Rodin Motorsport and your race winner is Jak Crawford from DAMS Lucas Oil. Jak your third win of the season, but was that maybe the most stressful?

Jak Crawford: You know I wish it was a lot more straight forward, if it was just a wet race the entire race. But we knew it was going to start to dry out. We knew it was going to be a long race and that we needed to save the tyres. Obviously, the end was super stressful, what tyre to go on, all of that. I had Alex behind me as well within half a second the last couple of laps before I boxed. I had to make all those decisions with the pressure from Alex. It was definitely quite a chill race until the last five laps

FIA Formula 2: You set that up though with a rocket start off the line, talk us through that launch and taking the lead.

Crawford: On the formation lap I knew that I was going to be quite strong at the start. I felt good grip, I had the perfect launch, Victor barely moved, Alex had a decent start and I just had to split the gap. I already positioned my car ahead of time. I felt I was going to have a good start. I did and that sets you up the best. When you are out front leading the race.

FIA Formula 2: With this win you are just six points off the Championship lead now, you’ve had such a strong run since the Jeddah Feature Race, just how are you feeling about the title fight?

Crawford: Yeah great, I’d say I am properly in it now. After Austria I knew it was changing every weekend, I am racing the same guys every week, Luke and Alex here are also fighting for the Championship, so it seems like we are always racing each other which is keeping it close. It is just about getting the wins like today that separates you a part a little bit.

FIA Formula 2: Congratulations on the win. Alex, second place from second on the grid, but it looked like you had every chance of winning in those closing stages, what’s the reaction to that one?

Dunne: I think towards the end when the deg properly started kicking in that the pace was really good. It was kind of difficult to time when to box coming out of Stowe my engineer came on the radio and said, ‘if Jak boxes follow him in’ but it was already too late at that point, I had to stay out. Also, if I had followed him in, he probably got in just in time with the VSC, but I don’t think I would have made it in on time, so it was probably a good thing that I stayed out. I think it was a good race, it’s my first time driving this car in the rain. There was a couple of things to adjust to at the beginning, and I think we adapted to it well and the pace was strong. Overall, I’m pretty happy.

FIA Formula 2: How tough was it to make decisions in race in terms of pitting or not pitting, especially with the fact that the track was drying but not that quickly and the risk of rain as well.

Dunne: It was tricky, but I was pretty chilled to be honest. I think my plan was just to go as long as possible. I felt like the pace was good and the tyres felt like they were in a relatively good window. For me the decision making wasn’t too tricky, I knew when I wanted to pit, and we pitted at the right time, I think. It was just that we lost a bit of time under the VSC because Amaury Cordeel was in front of me on slicks going really slowly, which isn’t his fault but it’s just one of these things that we got caught out with unfortunately. Overall, it was a good race, the start was good once again, made up one place. Of course, Jak’s start was a little bit better.

FIA Formula 2: We looked like we were going to have a two-lap shootout there with everyone on new wet tyres. How aggressive were you planning on being at that stage, were you going all out for the win or were you looking to bank the points?

Dunne: I was pushing pretty hard at the restart. I think we probably would have had a good race, of course it wouldn’t have been easy to get past even if I felt like I was quicker. It would have been a good battle, and I wish we could have had the opportunity to race until the end but unfortunately these things happen. It was tricky conditions and that showed today, especially at the end when it started drying and people started to push a little bit more and people started to consider changing to slicks. That’s when it became difficult, that’s when the race almost flipped on its head. It would have been nice to have a fight but in the end the result is still pretty good. To score good points after what happened last week is good for the Championship.

FIA Formula 2: Thanks, well done. Luke from 12th to third for you today, you looked like you had a lot of fun out there.

Luke Browing: Yeah it’s bittersweet, that’s the way to put it. You go so fast in qualifying, picked up some damage coming into the second run and it was major, so I couldn’t fight in the second run in qualifying. But we knew we had pace coming into the race weekend. We were very fast yesterday in the dry and we were very fast today in the wet. Equally we look at these weekends and go, these are the weekends that maybe we could win, but equally we got as many points as we could from it. I am very happy with the overtakes and the pace we showed today. Overall, you need this perception to get to Formula 1 and that is the goal.

FIA Formula 2: You were very much in the frame for the win then as you were climbing through the field, were you always planning on making that late pit stop, before we got those interruptions or was that a late call?

Browning: No honestly, we were planning on doing it earlier. We were unsure about the risk of it drying and then if people boxed for slicks and did us at the end. We were trying to cover all aspects, when you go from twelfths to third you want to cover the positions. Maybe we could have boxed five or four laps earlier than we did for a new set of wets and maybe undercut massively but it wasn’t to be today. I am very happy with third, the team did a fantastic job. This second half of the European season I am really looking forward to. Pace is coming to us, direction is good, confidence is growing evermore. We are ready to fight for this now.

FIA Formula 2: It is your home race here at Silverstone. I know you have been on the podium in other categories before but how special was it to be out on that podium today?

Browning: Yeah, it alluded me last year. Formula 3, it feels like it’s scarred me. It is one of those… I don’t need to go into it but basically the weather took it away from me. But also, I have been rewarded with the weather in the past and I doubt I would have got to third today on a normal strategy so maybe it rewarded me today.

FIA Formula 2: Well done Luke, congratulations everyone.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova said a game was ‘stolen’ from her when Wimbledon’s electronic line-calling system failed during her fourth-round match against Britain’s Sonay Kartal.

There was no ‘out’ call when a Kartal backhand went long at 4-4 in the first set, with chair umpire Nico Helwerth shouting “stop, stop” to halt play.

Russian Pavlyuchenkova had seen the ball was out – and a TV replay showed that was the case by some distance.

Addressing the crowd, Helwerth said: “We’re just going to check if the system was up and running, because there was no audio call.”

After a telephone call, he said the electronic system “was unfortunately unable to track the last point so we will replay the point”.

Had the ball been called out, Pavlyuchenkova would have won the point and taken the lead.

Instead, it was replayed, Kartal won the point and went on to break for a 5-4 lead.

Seven-times champion Novak Djokovic scored his 100th match win at Wimbledon and led the march of the old guard into the last 16 on Saturday while an ailing Barbora Krejcikova’s title defence ended in defeat and tears.

World number one Jannik Sinner was at his ruthless best yet again as the Italian gathered momentum in his quest for a maiden All England Club title while American Ben Shelton and Australian Alex de Minaur announced themselves as dark horses.

Djokovic is on an altogether different plane as he looks to capture his eighth title to match Roger Federer’s record on the pristine lawns of London and his 25th major overall to surpass Margaret Court on the all-time list of champions.

The 38-year-old showed exactly why Wimbledon could be his best chance of achieving the elusive targets when the 2023 and 2024 runner-up dismantled Davis Cup teammate Miomir Kecmanovic 6-3 6-0 6-4 in a little under two hours.

A ton of victories put him among elite company as the sixth seed became only the third player to achieve that feat at the tournament after nine-times champion Martina Navratilova and Swiss great Federer.

“Wimbledon is a favourite and a dream tournament for not just myself, but probably the majority of players. Growing up, most of the kids dream of playing here and winning here,” Djokovic said.

“I’ve been blessed to do it multiple times. Any history that I make in my favourite tournament, I’m blessed.”

Grigor Dimitrov, the Bulgarian 34-year-old, also scored his 100th match win across the four Grand Slams when he quelled the challenge of Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-3 6-4 7-6(0).

Joining him was fellow veteran Marin Cilic, the Croatian 36-year-old getting past spirited Spaniard Jaume Munar 6-3 3-6 6-2 6-4 to book a meeting with Italian 22nd seed Flavio Cobolli who took apart big-serving Czech teenager Jakub Mensik 6-2 6-4 6-2.

While Cobolli may not be relishing a meeting with the tricky Cilic, his compatriot Sinner will welcome the chance to test his metronomic hitting against Dimitrov’s elegant approach in what promises to be a classic.

Sublime Sinner

A sublime Sinner booked that clash with a 6-1 6-3 6-1 hammering of Pedro Martinez. The top seed, who has lost just 17 games in his first three matches, equalled the professional era record for fewest games dropped to make the Wimbledon fourth round along the way.

“About the games lost, this is whatever,” Sinner said, his grounded nature coming into sharp focus.

“I’m not looking on these kind of records. I know everything can change very quickly from one round to the other.”

After the unexpected high of last year’s title triumph, Krejcikova came crashing down when she was beaten 2-6 6-3 6-4 by American 10th seed Emma Navarro in a disjointed Court One contest.

The distressed 29-year-old Czech, who has endured her share of injuries this season, was in tears as she prepared to serve to stay in the tournament at 3-5 in the deciding set before eventually crashing out.

“It was tough, neither of us played our best tennis, she was dealing with some injuries and I was dealing with whatever I was dealing with,” Navarro said, adding that it was difficult to focus when her opponent was struggling.

“It’s not easy to be composed. Part of you is saying just put a bunch of balls in the court and that’s all you need to do. But then you trick yourself into not playing the way that you want to play.”

Krejcikova’s exit and 2022 champion Elena Rybakina’s 7-6(6) 6-3 defeat by Danish powerhouse Clara Tauson means a first-time women’s champion will be crowned at the Grand Slam for the eighth consecutive year.

Iga Swiatek will hope she can be the one after the five-times major champion secured a 6-2 6-3 victory over American Danielle Collins, whose compatriot Hailey Baptiste crashed to 18-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva 6-1 6-3.

Shelton gave Americans something to smile about when the powerful left-hander made quick work of Hungarian lucky loser Marton Fucsovics 6-3 7-6(4) 6-2 while De Minaur swatted aside Dane August Holmgren 6-4 7-6(5) 6-3 to go through.