Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 25 July 12:30 pm

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

# We start with the Olympic Games’ rugby tournament: The Springbok Sevens can still reach the quarterfinals despite losing both of their pool matches on the opening day of the tournament in Paris yesterday. They lost 10-5 to Ireland, followed by a 17-5 loss to New Zealand. The Blitzboks can still qualify as one of the two best third-placed sides, but need to beat Japan convincingly today and hope other results go in their favour. Coach Philip Snyman says they need to play better:

Meanwhile, swimmer Tatjana Smith, who was South Africa’s golden girl at the previous Games in Tokyo, says she is ready to compete in Paris. Team SA only managed to win three medals in Japan, with two of those belonging to Smith. She won gold in the 200-metres breaststroke and silver in the 100-metres breaststroke. The 27-year-old says she is hoping for more Olympic success:

Fifteen South African Police Service public order members have been deployed to assist in performing policing functions in Paris. The seven women and eight men each has over ten years of experience in the public-order police environment. Spokesperson Athlenda Mathe says their duties will include crowd management in various areas and patrolling public roads around Olympic venues:

In another development Canada has sent two soccer staff members home after a scandal surrounding the use of a drone to spy on its New Zealand opponents in the women’s competition. They are assistant manager Jasmine Mander, and Joseph Lombardi, described as an unaccredited analyst. New Zealand filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee’s Integrity Unit while French police detained the drone operator. Soccer manager Beverly Priestman took responsibility for her colleagues’ actions and withdrew from today’s match against New Zealand.

# And equestrian sports: The whistleblower that revealed how British Olympian Charlotte Dujardin beat a horse, says she did it to save dressage. The 39-year-old, who claimed six Olympic medals, was shown in a video repeatedly whipping a horse around its legs during training. She withdrew from the Games afterwards, and was also provisionally suspended by British Equestrian. The woman who released the video says it isn’t fun to ruin a career, but the issue of abuse of horses is wide-spread in the sport.

Stay tuned for more news………….