Like many her age, Bahraini teenager Ritaj Amin, 13, likes listening to American pop idol Charlie Puth on her phone, reading books, and wearing nail polish. This week though, as the youngest competitor at the world championships in Budapest, Amin has been rubbing shoulders with swimming greats like US superstar Katie Ledecky, and South Africa’s … Read more
Cameron McEvoy expects a “very fast” men’s 100m freestyle final at the world championships on Thursday with a “dog-fight” on the cards and the blue riband event wide open. France’s Mehdy Metella clocked the fastest time from Wednesday’s semi-finals of 47.65 seconds, but all of the top five swam under 48 secs. With both Olympic … Read more
The United States broke the world record for the mixed 4x100m medley relay at the world aquatic championships in Wednesday’s heats. The US quartet of Ryan Murphy, Kevin Cordes, Kelsei Worrell and Mallory Comerford clocked 3mins 40.28secs to break the previous record of 3:41.71 set by Great Britain two years ago in Kazan. This is … Read more
Britain’s Adam Peaty warned the men’s 50m breaststroke world record could fall again in a fierce battle over the sprint distance in Wednesday’s final. The British ace broke his own world record from 2015 by clocking 26.10 seconds in Tuesday’s heats, then lowered it again to 25.95sec in the evening’s semi-finals. The record is under … Read more
Katie Ledecky will shake off any fatigue in her bid to make history on Tuesday in the 1500m freestyle final by becoming the first woman to win 12 golds at world aquatic championships. The 20-year-old freestyle expert picked up two golds on Sunday in Budapest when she won the 400m freestyle title for the third … Read more
Sun Yang was gracious following his 400m freestyle victory at the world championships on Sunday as he took revenge over Olympic champion Mack Horton. Sun clocked 3min 41.38sec, finishing 2.47 seconds ahead of second-placed Horton, who had previously dubbed his rival a dope cheat prior to beating the Chinese superstar at the Rio de Janeiro … Read more
Katie Ledecky of the United States made history on Sunday by becoming the first woman to win a third straight 400m freestyle gold at the world aquatic championships. The 20-year-old clocked three minutes, 58.34 seconds, setting a new championships record, with compatriot Leah Smith second at 3.20secs back and China’s Li Bingjie, who is only … Read more
China’s Xie Siyi burst into tears after winning the men’s 3m springboard gold at the world aquatic championships on Thursday as reigning Olympic champion Cao Yuan finished a lowly 10th. Having won the 1m springboard title at the 2015 world championships in Kazan, Xie made a seamless transition to the higher height in Budapest to … Read more
Australia’s Mack Horton and China’s Sun Yang will resume their bad-tempered rivalry in the pool when the swimming section of the world aquatic championships starts on Sunday. Horton ended Sun’s four-year domination of the 400m freestyle event in spectacular style at last year’s Rio De Janeiro Olympics after branding Sun a ‘drug cheat’ in the … Read more
Black Stars midfielder Mubarak Wakaso has signed a three-year deal with Deportivo Alaves in a move that will see him return to the Spanish La Liga. Wakaso joins Alaves, who finished ninth in the league last season, from Greek giants Panathinaikos. The former Ashanti Gold player has featured previously for Villarreal, Elche, Espanyol, Las Palmas … Read more
A change of partner just before the world swimming championships paid off for China’s Lian Junjie and Ren Qian, who won mixed 10 metre synchronised diving gold on Saturday. The duo had been working together for only a month before Budapest, but dominated the five dive programme, the first diving event of the championships. Ending … Read more
Timo Werner netted twice as Germany set up a Confederations Cup semi-final against Mexico with a 3-1 win on Sunday against 10-man Cameroon, who initially had the wrong player sent off. Germany midfielder Kerem Demirbay opened the scoring just after the break before Werner struck either side of Vincent Aboubakar’s consolation effort for Cameroon on … Read more
Portugal saw off New Zealand 4-0 to win Group A and progress to the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017 semi-finals, in front of 56,290 fans in Saint Petersburg. Cristiano Ronaldo, with rumours abound of him being rested ahead of the game, started and was Portugal’s protagonist once more. He hit the crossbar with a header … Read more
Australia captain Mark Milligan converted a second-half penalty in Thursday’s 1-1 draw with Cameroon in Saint Petersburg that left both teams heading for an early Confederations Cup exit. Cameroon midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa scored with a superb flick on the stroke of half-time, but Milligan slotted home a spot-kick on 60 minutes as both sides … Read more
New Zealand coach Anthony Hudson says the All Whites must be brave against Mexico, knowing defeat on Wednesday will effectively end their Confederations Cup hopes. Their 2-0 loss to hosts Russia in Saturday’s opening Group A match means Oceania champions New Zealand have now gone a record 10 games without a win at the Confederations … Read more
Australia head coach Ange Postecoglou cut a disappointed figure after their 3-2 opening Confederations Cup defeat to Germany, but expects the Socceroos to bounce back against Cameroon on Thursday. Having been hammered 4-0 by Brazil in Melbourne last week in a friendly ahead of the tournament in Russia, Australia stumbled again, losing to the world … Read more
A youthful Germany side weathered a second-half fightback by Australia to open their Confederations Cup campaign with a 3-2 win over the Socceroos on Monday in Sochi. Goals by Lars Stindl and Leon Goretzka, either side of a penalty by Julian Draxler, saw Germany home to leave them second in Group B behind Chile, who … Read more
Africa’s leading Digital TV operator, StarTimes has announced that the FIFA Confederations Cup, RUSSIA 2017 will be broadcasted live on its channels, ST World Football, channel number 245 and ST Sports Premium, channel number 246. The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup will be the 10th FIFA Confederations Cup, a quadrennial international men’s football tournament organised by … Read more
World record-holder Katie Ledecky blazed to victory in the women’s 1,500m freestyle at the Santa Clara Pro Swim on Thursday in 15min 35.65sec — the fifth-fastest time in history. It’s also the fifth-fastest time ever by Ledecky herself — who now owns the six fastest swims in the event. Ledecky hadn’t raced a 1,500m free … Read more
Ghana midfielder Mubarak Wakaso has vehemently refuted growing reports that he spewed word on Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah for snubbing him in his call up. The 26-year-old has come under line of fire after reports claimed he has taken a stinging pot-shot over his surprised national team snub. Wakaso’s exclusion has split heads in the … Read more