Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 19 March 12:30 pm

Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:

# We kick off with rugby: The Springbok Women arrived in Spain ahead of their first Test match of the year. They will be empowered by good learnings from their training sessions with Scotland and Wales. The Boks will play a Test against Spain in Valladolid on Saturday and a week later they will take on the USA at Twickenham in London. These games will be another important step in the team’s preparations to qualify for the World Cup in England next year.

# Tennis: The big names are converging on Miami after the completion of the Indian Wells tournament, the first leg in the so-called Sunshine Double. Among them are the male and female winners in Indian Wells, Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Iga Swiatek of Poland. Alcaraz, the world number two, is the top-seed in Miami after Novak Djokovic of Serbia withdrew. Among the women, there will be huge interest in Romanian Simona Halep, who is playing in her first tournament since her doping ban was reduced.  

# Soccer: Nottingham Forest has been handed a four-point deduction for breaching the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules. The club admitted to breaching the threshold by more than 650-million-rand in 2022-23. The deduction drops Forest into the relegation zone in 18th position, one point behind Luton, who move up to 17th, with nine games left. The club, which has seven days to appeal, has expressed its disappointment, saying this was unaccepted given its exceptional cooperation throughout the process.

# Motorsport: Formula One team Mercedes says it is working on solving fundamental issues with its W15 car ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix. Mercedes has scored just 26 points from the opening two races of the season, leaving it fourth in the constructors’ standings. The car has lacked one-lap and race pace. Mercedes’s trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, says there is a lot of work being done within the aerodynamics department, which will hopefully help with performance.

# And finally, Commonwealth Games: Malaysia’s government will decide this week if it will host a downsized Games in 2026 while the Commonwealth Games Federation is struggling to get a new host. The Australian state of Victoria withdrew last year due to spiralling costs. It later agreed to pay a 4.5-billion-rand settlement offer. The federation offered Malaysia 2.4-billion-rand to organise the event it last hosted in 1998. Cost-cutting measures will include smaller opening and closing ceremonies, using standard hotels and accommodation for athletes, and only ten sports instead of 15.

Stay tuned for more news………….