Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 11 July 12:30 pm

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

# We start with athletics: Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has welcomed the judgment by the European Court of Human Rights in Caster Semenya’s case. The court ruled the double Olympic champion’s right to a fair hearing was violated by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court when she lost a 2020 appeal against World Athletics regulations. The department’s spokesperson, Zimasa Velaphi, says this is a critical moment in the battle for the dignity and human rights of female athletes with differences of sexual development:

# Tennis: Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek will face American Amanda Anisimova in the Wimbledon final tomorrow. The Polish former world number one eased past Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in straight sets while Anisimova stunned world number one, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, winning in three sets. Both Swiatek and Anisimova will play in their first Wimbledon final. Twenty-three-year-old Anisimova says to be in the final is just indescribable:

Meanwhile, the men’s world number one, Jannik Sinner, says he is 100-percent fit for this afternoon’s semifinal against seven-time champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The 23-year-old Italian hurt his elbow during his fourth-round match against Grigor Dimitrov on Monday, but survived when the Bulgarian had to retire through injury. Sinner showed no discomfort when he defeated American Ben Shelton in the quarterfinal. Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic was also injured during his quarterfinal victory over Italian Flavio Cobolli.

# Rugby: Former England captain Owen Farrell could play his first match for the British and Irish Lions on the current tour against a combined Australian-New Zealand team in Adelaide tomorrow. The flyhalf was picked on the bench after he was an injury replacement a week ago. This is the 33-year-old’s fourth Lions tour. Farrell played the last of his 112 Tests during 2023’s World Cup. The Lions won their first four matches and tomorrow will be their final preparation for the first Test against the Wallabies.

# And finally, motorsport: Two-time Dakar motorcycle champion Sam Sunderland will try to ride around the world in under 19 days from September. The 36-year-old Briton says he realises it would be mentally more challenging than anything he had ever done before. Kevin and Julia Sanders set the current record of 19-days-eight-hours-25 minutes in 2002, but the Guinness World Records no longer recognise the feat because of the dangers involved. For Sunderland to succeed, he will have to drive over one-thousand-600-kilometres per day.

Stay tuned for more news………….