Sports News 12:30

BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 19 October 12:30 pm

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

# We start with swimming: Twenty-two-year-old Pieter Coetzé has become the fifth South African to win the Swimming World Cup title. He clinched the overall title with 172.9 points across the three World Cup legs in Baku, Tashkent and Astana, where he took home ten medals, including a 50-metre backstroke world record. Coetzé has pocketed a career-high of around 1.6-million-rand for the overall title and two Triple Crown bonuses of about 165-thousand-rand each, after winning gold in the 100 and 200 metres backstroke at all three legs of the World Cup.

# Rugby: Lions head coach Ivan van Rooyen praised his men for honouring Saturday’s Champions Cup fixture against Stade Francais in France despite the death of teammate Hyron Andrews on Friday morning. He was found unresponsive in his hotel room and declared dead later, with the cause of death not yet confirmed. Saturday’s match was very emotional, especially when Andrews’ number 5 shirt was laid on the field beforehand. The Lions lost 31-14, but Van Rooyen says they played to show respect to their fallen teammate.   

More rugby: Sizophila Solontsi will take over the Springbok Women captaincy duties for the final two Tests in the W-15 Global Series against Ireland in Cape Town on the 24th and 31st of this month. This comes as regular captain Babalwa Latsha has been ruled out of the series due to an ankle injury. Nombuyekezo Mdliki is also out with a rib injury. Unam Tose has been named vice-captain for the two Tests, the first internationals between the two countries on South African soil.

# Motorsport: Former Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admits he put pressure on then race director Michael Masi in 2021’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Masi was fired over his handling of a late safety car period, leading to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen overtaking Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to win his first world championship. Horner told the High Performance Podcast he urged Masi not to let the race finish under the safety car:

# And tennis: Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina has risen to a career-high of 13th in the latest ATP world rankings after winning the Shanghai Masters title in China. He defeated compatriot Rafael Jodar for the biggest title of his career. Jodar, who is enjoying a standout debut ATP season, is up to a career-high of eleventh and remains on track to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin. Italian Jannik Sinner remains atop the rankings, while Serbian Novak Djokovic has dropped four spots to 12th place.

Stay tuned for more news………….