Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Shock resignation comes just weeks out from first Test
Paine says he is sorry for damage done to sport’s reputation
Australia’s Test cricket captain Tim Paine has stepped down from his role on the eve of the Ashes series after a historic investigation into text messages sent to a colleague surfaced.
Paine made the decision to resign – just weeks out from the start of the series against England – after it became clear to him that details of the incident in 2017, which predated his appointment as Test captain, were about to be made public.
To fall just short? To never know how it feels to get close? To land between, avoiding either pole? Emma Kemp, deputy sport editor, recommends Geoff Lemon’s treatise on the losing team
State leader Daniel Andrews says it is ‘the only fair thing to do’
Prime minister earlier said unvaccinated players could quarantine
The Victorian government will not apply for exemptions for unvaccinated players travelling from overseas to appear at next year’s Australian Open, the state’s premier has said.
Daniel Andrews said refusing to consider exemptions for players like Novak Djokovic, who has repeatedly refused to reveal his vaccination status, was “the only fair thing to do”, given fans and people working at the tournament are required to be double-jabbed.
Previously only women permitted to wear leggings during games
Amendment implemented on ‘welfare and accessibility grounds’
Skinned knees could soon be a thing of the past in rugby union after the sport’s governing body amended its laws to allow players at all levels to wear tights or leggings during games.
Law Four of the sport, which covers players’ clothing, previously only permitted women to wear “cotton blend tights or leggings, with single inside seam under their shorts and socks”, but has now been extended to all participants with immediate effect, World Rugby said.
Wheelchair tennis: Hold your horses. Reid breaks back, coming to the net and punching a classy forehand volley past Kunieda. That was some lovely play from the Brit with his back to the wall. There was a beautiful, deft drop shot off the half-volley earlier in the game. He’s trying to gee up himself. It’s 4-2. Reid to serve.
Wheelchair tennis: It’s going to be tough for GordonReid from here. The Brit is now down a second break, trailing 4-1 against Shingo Kunieda of Japan.
Road cycling: Sarah Storey eclipsed all competition to win her second gold medal in the C5 time trial on Tuesday morning. In doing so she also drew level with the swimmer Mike Kenny as the most successful British Paralympian of all time.
The Dame finished a minute and a half clear of teammate Crystal Lane-Wright and, at points, was catching the tail of the men’s race at the Fuji International Speedway circuit, so dominant was her performance. That is standard for Storey, who spoke afterwards of the “single-mindedness” that has brought her 16 gold medals to this point and the prospect of another, a record-breaking 17th, in two days’ time.
Athletics: Another Aussie success on Tuesday morning for James Turner, who won the men’s 400m (T36). Turner finished well ahead in 52.80 seconds, pushing himself so close to the limit he required medical attention afterwards (all was fine).
“I’m quite emotional right now,” he said. “A lot of work has been done by a lot of people to get me here. The last 50 of a 400 is always hard – the heat and the effort. My muscles started tightening up, I started losing control of them, but I was able to hold it together with my training.”
Wheelchair rugby: Japan lead 45-36 at the final break and it’s very difficult to see Australia recovering in the time they have left. The Steelers were never on the front foot against the host nation and barring some kind of outrageous late drama it looks as if the Steelers will leave a Paralympics without a medal for the first time since 2004 and just the third time since the sport was introduced in 1996.
Wheelchair rugby: The Steelers are in a hole. A big one. Japan lead 41-33 with two minutes to play in the third quarter and Australia’s defensive errors are letting them down.
Some handy background reading on Australia’s early gold medal hopes who are due to compete in not too long:
Australia has the chance to snare the first two gold medals of the Tokyo Paralympics after Paige Greco and Emily Petricola posted new cycling world records to qualify for their respective finals.
Thanks Geoff. I will indeed travel with you. To the track, for sure. But first, to other destinations yonder in the Paralympics field of dreams. But before that, and because Tokyo 2020 isn’t really Tokyo 2020 without a Covid scare, this from the Guardian’s man on the ground Paul MacInnes:
Two more athletes have tested positive for Covid 19 in the Paralympic village, with officials awaiting information to confirm if a cluster of infection has broken out.
The news comes as ParalympicsGB confirmed a member of their coaching staff, part of the wheelchair tennis team, has been confirmed as having the virus and is now in isolation.
Daily results published by the Tokyo Paralympics organising committee found that 16 positive cases had been recorded amongst the extensive testing programme. Five of those individuals were in the Village, where athletes, coaching and support staff are supposed to be within a Covid secure bubble.
The rest of the positive results were found amongst contractors and games personnel, while one member of the media tested positive.
Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya said the results would now be referred to specialists.
“It seems that those with the positive cases come from different sports and different countries”, he told Inside the Games. “Whether or not there is a cluster should come from the advice from the specialists. We will continue to listen to the advice and try to provide accurate information to the media.”
ParalympicsGB said that a staff member had tested positive for the virus before arriving at the village after testing negative upon arrival in Japan and at a training camp.
The GB chef de mission, Penny Briscoe, said “we fully respect and continue to adhere” to the Tokyo 2020 Covid protocols. British officials are now tracing the individual’s recent contacts.
ParalympicsGB also confirmed that a member of the table tennis team, David Wetherill, has been deselected for breaching his team’s code of conduct. The organising body said they would be providing no further information while an arbitration process was conducted.
Men’s keirin - Kenny (GBR) rode a superb race to nick the semi on the line. Glaetzer (AUS) defended his place well throughout to come second. Both progress into the final. Carlin (GBR) misses out in fourth.
Men’s keirin - Semi-final time for the men’s keirin. Up first we have Glaetzer (AUS), Carlin (GBR), and Kenny (GBR) gunning for a spot in the top three in a field of six.
Madison gold: Great Britain drop to third. Denmark 25, France 24, Great Britain 23. We have 77 laps to go.
Madison gold: France wins the sprint with 90 laps to go, taking five points. Denmark second with three, Great Britain third with two. The latter two teams share the lead on 22 points, France on 19.
Wellbrock is well away from the field and seems to be following the racing line well, with the rest of the pack well behind him. They probably think they know better than going off like that. This is a heroic choice of tactics.
Early doors in Tokyo, and off they go in the swimming marathon. A couple of swimmers stay back on the pontoon, and away they go. Germany’s Florian Wellbrock takes up the early pace around the red buoy with German colleague Rob Muffels for company. The water is still, like a millpond.
Tubthumping is one of my favourite songs! Well done. Just curious why female track athletes are required to wear singlets that expose their midriffs. But males wear full length ones.
Women’s basketball:USA, unbeaten after two games in Group B, have started a little slowly and trail France 35-30 early in the second quarter. The French are on fire from the perimeter, hitting three after three.
Earlier today, Japan beat Nigeria 102-83 to lead Group B but the winner of USA-France will overtake the host nation.
Gymnastics: Max Whitlock tells BBC he’s “lost for words”, “completely overwhelmed,” and it’s “totally surreal”. It’s been an incredible journey, he says, and retaining the gold is “a million times harder”, noting “the most pressured environment I’ve ever been in”. He’s only getting older, but “experience pays a lot” and he “can’t quite believe it”.
He doesn’t know if it helped going first. It’s easy to say with the gold around his neck now, but every gymnast knows it’s hard to go first and he had to lay down a big routine, he couldn’t wait to see what others did. He can’t believe he’s done it, but he’s done the job, scored near his target score, and knew that if someone beat it, he’d still done his job. He now has six Olympic medals and when he was younger, he only did the sport because he enjoyed it – he wasn’t aiming for or expecting medals. It “feels very, very surreal” and he thinks he’s almost going round in circles trying to make sense of it.
Women’s 200m breaststroke final: this is all about Tatjana Schoenmaker, who starts well but is trailing USA’s Lily King at the halfway mark.
Men’s 100m butterfly semi-final 2: Dressel dominates, not in world record time but the American obliterates Milak’s semi-final winning time of 50.31 to clock in with a blistering 49.71 ahead of Noe Ponti (SUI) and Jakub Majerski (POL). Milak held the Olympic record for all of three minutes. The USA’s Tom Shields touched home in last place.
Australia’s Matthew Temple qualifies for the final sixth fastest.
Swimming: We’re in for a blockbuster 200m freestyle final. Katie Ledecky saw what Ariarne Titmus accomplished in her first semi and laid down a marker, leading from the front to win in 1.55.34. Barbora Seemanová (CZE) finished second, Italy’s incredible champion Federica Pellegrini powered home at the death to snatch third, beating out Maddy Wilson (AUS) and 14-year-old Summer McIntosh (CAN).
Wilson’s time was good enough to sneak into the final in eighth spot, but all eyes will be on another Titmus v Ledecky duel in the pool.