Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 4 February 12:30 pm

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

# We start off with mixed martial arts: UFC middleweight world champion Dricus du Plessis, who will fight a rematch with American Sean Strickland in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday, says he hopes to bring the event to his home country of South Africa later this year. Du Plessis defeated Strickland in January last year to claim the world title, and went on to defend it against New Zealander Israel Adesanya in August. He believes an event will come to South Africa at some stage, hoping it would be sooner rather than later.  

# Cricket: A place in Saturday’s final of the SA20 is at stake in today’s first qualifier between neighbours MI Cape Town and Paarl Royals in Gqeberha. The winner will have the luxury of waiting for the confirmation of their opponent at the Wanderers, while the loser will still have a chance to rectify the situation. That team will play the winner of tomorrow’s eliminator between Joburg Super Kings and Sunrisers Eastern Cape in Centurion. The winner will earn 34-million-rand and the losing finalist 16.25-million.

# Rugby: Stormers lock JD Schickerling will miss Saturday’s United Rugby Championship derby against the Bulls in Cape Town, due to a shoulder injury. He suffered the injury in the first half of the loss to Leinster in Dublin last month. In Schickerling’s absence, Salmaan Moerat will likely link up with Ruben van Heerden in the second row. Meanwhile, assistant coach Norman Laker says Manie Libbok, who sustained a knee injury, also against Leinster, might be up for selection after getting a few days off to try and recover.

# Hockey: The South African men’s team got their FIH Indoor World Cup campaign off to a good start following an eight-six victory over hosts Croatia in Pool A in Poreč. Captain Dayaan Cassiem, his brother Mustapha, who scored four, and Hans Neethling’s hat-trick secured an important opening day victory. Meanwhile, the South African women’s team was held to a four-all draw against Thailand in their opening game. South Africa, having successfully staged the showpiece event in 2023, finished sixth and fourth in the men’s and women’s divisions respectfully.

# And finally, swimming: Twelve-time surf-ski world champion Oscar Chalupsky plans to tackle the coming weekend’s annual Midmar Mile in KwaZulu-Natal together with his 87-year-old father, Paul. Chalupsky is still defying the odds since being diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2019 and given only six months to live. He says he’s feeling good and training is going well. Chalupsky says it didn’t take too much to convince his father to join him in the iconic open water event. Paul Chalupsky will be the oldest of the estimated 12-thousand swimmers.

Stay tuned for more news………….