Sports News 12:30
BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 10 June 12:30 pm
Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:
# We begin with cricket: Experts put their money on defending champion Australia to beat South Africa in the final of the World Test Championship, starting at Lord’s in London tomorrow. Both teams haven’t played Test cricket for months. Former England captain Michael Vaughan said earlier the Proteas reached the final by beating pretty much nobody, while the lop-sided schedule posted Australia against much stronger teams. Kagiso Rabada will lead South Africa’s seam attack, with coach Shukri Conrad describing the encounter as the biggest thing in the team’s existence.
# Athletics: South Africa’s Marione Fourie finished second behind local athlete Nadine Visser in the women’s 100-metre hurdles at World Athletics’ Continental Tour Gold meeting in Hengelo in the Netherlands. In the men’s 100-metres, local runner Elvis Afrifa secured victory, with South Africa’s Benjamin Richardson second and Sweden’s Henrik Larsson third. Uganda’s gold medallist at the Tokyo Olympics, Peruth Chemutai, cruised to a dominant win in the women’s three-thousand-metre steeplechase.
# Soccer: Twenty-eight players remain in Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis’s preliminary squad for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. She cut the group from 46 for the tournament, starting in Morocco early next month. Twenty-four of the remaining players will report for a training camp in Johannesburg on the 19th while the other four still have club commitments overseas. Ellis will announce the final squad on the 23rd. Banyana faces Ghana, Tanzania and Mali in their group matches.
# Rugby: A calf injury ruled out Scotland’s prop, Zander Fagerson, of the British and Irish Lions’ tour of Australia. This follows his heartbreak during 2021’s tour of South Africa, when he was the only Scot that didn’t play in the series against the Springboks. Fagerson’s withdrawal exacerbates the Lions’ tighthead prop problems following concerns over Tadhg Furlong’s fitness for the tour. Most of the players assembled for a six-day training camp in Portugal, with Ireland and Connacht’s Australian-born prop Finlay Bealham replacing Fagerson.
# And finally, motorsport: Formula One has confirmed the 2026 season will have 24 races, the same as this year, while new technical regulations will be introduced. Madrid has been added as the new host of the Spanish Grand Prix, replacing the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola in Italy. Another change will see the Canadian race taking place in May for the first time, in an attempt to make the calendar more sustainable. Australia will still host the opening round, with Abu Dhabi closing off the season in December.
Stay tuned for more news………….