Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 17 April 12:30 pm

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

# We start off with roadrunning: Last weekend’s Two Oceans half-marathon had been plunged into controversy when it was revealed two athletes finishing among the top-ten women were actually men. They were disqualified and banned from the race for two years, together with the two women who provided their entries to the cheaters. Two Oceans chairperson Chris Goldschmidt says the man who finished in seventh position competed under the name of Larissa Parekh and the man finishing tenth those of Tegan Garvey.

# Rugby: The Springbok Sevens recorded one victory and one defeat in Hong Kong today in the first of three World Championship tournaments. The Blitzboks narrowly defeated Uruguay 12-7 in their opening match, followed by a 31-12 thrashing at the hands of Spain. Philip Snyman’s men will face Argentina in their final Pool A match tomorrow morning. The other two tournaments will take place in Valladolid, Spain, in May, and Bordeaux, France, in June, before a grand champion will be crowned. 

Other rugby news: Ruan Vermaak will start on the bench in his 50th match for the Bulls in tonight’s United Rugby Championship game against Dragons in Wales, with Cobus Wiese wearing the number-four lock jersey, alongside Ruan Nortjé. This is coach Johan Ackermann’s only change to the forwards pack, while Handré Pollard and Embrose Papier remain the half-bak pairing. Canan Moodie moves from outside centre to wing in the absence of injured Kurt-Lee Arendse and Cheswill Jooste. The Bulls are currently eighth on the log.

# Cricket: Undefeated Punjab Kings moved to the top of the Indian Premier Leauge table when they defeated Mumbai Indians by seven wickets. Quinton de Kock scored an unbeaten 112 off 60 balls as Mumbai posted 195 for six. Prabhsimran Singh then scored an unbeaten 80 and shared a 139-run partnership with captain Shreyas Iyer to ensure Punjab sailed to victory with 21 balls to spare. Iyer credited his bowlers for restricting Mumbai to under 200:

# And tennis: The prize money for the French Open will be almost ten-percent higher than last year. The organisers announced a 9.5-percent increase to a total of 1.19-billion-rand, with the singles champions taking home over 49-million-rand each and first-round losers pocketing 1.9-million-rand. Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz and American Coco Gauff are the defending champions. The claycourt Grand Slam tournament starts at Roland Garros in Paris on the 24th of next month.

Stay tuned for more news………….