Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 6 November 12:30 pm

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

# We kick off with rugby: Springbok Women’s Sevens assistant coach, Cecil Afrika, says as the defending champions they are extra motivated to do well in the Africa Women’s Sevens tournament in Accra, Ghana this weekend. South Africa will face Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, and Tunisia in Pool A on Saturday. The tournament will serve as the qualifier for the 2025 World Rugby Challenger Series. Afrika says despite the pressure, the players know what is needed to be successful:

More rugby news: England lock Jonny Hill will miss Sale Sharks’ next three Premiership matches after being given a ten-week ban following an altercation with a spectator. Four weeks of the ban had been suspended. Hill physically abused the spectator after a match against Bath in June. An independent disciplinary panel accepted his guilty plea and deviated from the appropriate starting point of a 20-week suspension due to exceptional circumstances and substantial mitigation. Hill played 13 Tests for England since 2020 and represented Sale 21 times since 2022.

# Tennis: Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka has clinched the women’s year-end world number-one ranking for the first time in her career. The reigning Australian Open and US Open champion is the 16th woman in WTA history to finish a year at number one. This achievement was confirmed after American Coco Gauff beat defending WTA Finals champion Iga Swiatek of Poland, 6-3, 6-4, to make the semifinals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sabalenka says achieving this feat is a dream:

Meanwhile, this season’s eight best singles men’s players and doubles pairings will fight it out for total prize money of 265-million-rand at the ATP Finals, starting in Turin, Italy, on Sunday. The singles champion will take home 85-million-dollar if he ends the tournament undefeated, and 39-million-rand if he lost a match underway to the final. The eight players are divided in two groups in the round robin phase, and the top-two in each group advance to the semifinals. The final takes place next Sunday.

# And finally, motorsport: The season’s final MotoGP race will take place in the Spanish city of Barcelona next weekend after being moved from the flood-ravaged eastern city Valencia. The death toll has now risen to at least 217, with many people still missing. Barcelona hosted the Catalunya Grand Prix earlier this season. The race, which will be held in solidarity with the community of Valencia, will decide the championship. Local rider Jorge Martin is leading defending champion Francesco Bagnaia of Italy by 24 points on top of the standings.

Stay tuned for more news………….