Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 4 May 12:30 pm

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

# We begin with athletics: South Africa won silver in the men’s four-by-100-metres final at the World Athletics Relays in Botswana. The team consisting of Akani Simbine, Cheswill Johnson, Bradley Nkoane and Mvuyo Moss set a new African record of 37.49 seconds while the US won gold and Germany bronze. South Africa also secured silver in the men’s four-by-400-metres, finishing in two-minutes-57.07-seconds, a national record, behind Botswana, with Australia finishing third. South Africa’s men’s four-by-100, four-by-400 and four-by-400-metres mixed relay teams have qualified for next year’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing.

# Cricket: UK-based Indian business tycoon, Lakshmi M Mittal, and his family have agreed to acquire the Indian Premier League franchise Rajasthan Royals. The deal is around 27.5-billion-rand and also includes Paarl Royals in South Africa and Barbados Royals in the Caribbean. The Mittal family will own around 75-percent of the franchise following completion of the transaction, with Adar Poonawala of the Serum Institute of India holding around 18-percent. The remaining stake of about seven-percent will remain with the existing investors, including Rajasthan Royals’ current lead-owner Manoj Badale.

# Tennis: World number one Jannik Sinner won the Madrid Open title, becoming the first man to win five consecutive Masters 1000 titles. The Italian defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev, 6-1, 6-2. He has now won 28 consecutive matches at this level, a streak that includes titles in Paris last year and Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo this year. If the 24-year-old wins the Italian Open this week, he would complete the career Golden Masters. Sinner says there is a lot of work behind his success:

Meanwhile, the world’s top players say they are deeply disappointed in the French Open’s organisers for only increasing prize money by 9.5-percent this year. Sinner and the top women’s player, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, joined other players last year, demanding the Grand Slam tournaments pay players a target of 22-percent of tournament revenue, which would bring it in line with the one-thousand-level events. They say Roland Garros’ income increased by 14-percent last year, but players’ share reduced to 14.3-percent of revenue.

# And motorsport: Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli won the Miami Grand Prix to claim his third successive race win. The 19-year-old Italian managed to hold off McLaren’s Lando Norris to extend his lead at the top of the world championship to 20 points. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri finished third, Antonelli‘s teammate George Russell fourth, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen fifth, despite receiving a five-second time penalty. Antonelli says this was a difficult race:

Stay tuned for more news………….