Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 13 January 12:30 pm

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

# We start with motorsport: Toyota delivered a South African one-two in the eighth stage of the Dakar Rally as Saood Variawa won the stage with Henk Lategan in second. Variawa denied his compatriot the top spot by just three seconds, clawing back the 45-second deficit he faced at the final checkpoint before the finish. Sweden’s Mattias Ekström finished just 29 seconds off the lead in third place for Ford. The result also marked only the second stage win of Variawa’s short career in Dakar, after his breakthrough victory last year.

# Cricket: Pretoria Capitals thrashed defending champions MI Cape Town by 53 runs in their SA20 clash in Centurion. Sherfane Rutherford scored 53 off 27 balls, his maiden half-century in the competition, as the homeside posted 185 for six. In reply, despite Reeza Hendricks’ unbeaten 68, the visitors were restricted to 132 for seven, with Gideon Peters taking three wickets. The bonus-point victory has propelled Pretoria Capitals to the top of the table, while MI Cape Town remains at the bottom.

# Rugby: The Stormers’ humiliating 61-10 loss to Harlequins in London on Sunday didn’t dent the team’s hope of advancing in the Champions Cup. They are still in with a very good chance of qualifying for the round of 16, and victory over Leicester in Cape Town this coming weekend could even hand them a home match in the play-offs. Coach John Dobson says he did go to London with an under-strength team because of the short turnaround, but the match against Leicester has now become much more important.

# Soccer: Real Madrid has parted ways with manager Xabi Alonso by mutual respect after just seven months in charge. This comes after Madrid were beaten 3-2 by Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Alonso came under pressure before Christmas after a difficult run of just two victories in eight games. Álvaro Arbeloa, who has been the coach of the reserve team since June, has been named as Alonso’s replacement. Madrid is second on the LaLiga table, four points behind leaders Barcelona.

# And finally, Olympics: American figure skater Maxim Naumov says he experienced his late parents’ presence when he qualified for next month’s Winter Games in Italy. Former Russian world champions Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, who moved to the US in the 1990s, died along with 67 other people when a passenger plane collided with a military helicopter in Washington a year ago. Their 24-year-old son says his dream to go to the Olympics was one of the last things he spoke about with his parents before they died.

Stay tuned for more news………….