Archive July 6, 2025

The final day of the German Track Cycling Championships was abandoned after several spectators were injured when two cyclists crashed into the crowd.

The incident happened on the final bend of the men’s keirin semi-finals as the two riders careered over the barriers at a speed of about 35mph at the track in Dudenhofen, western Germany.

Seven spectators were injured, some seriously, with two needing to be airlifted to hospital. The two cyclists escaped with minor injuries.

Two helicopters, six ambulances and an emergency doctor attended the incident.

“The health of athletes and spectators always comes first. Cancelling the event was therefore unavoidable. Best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to all those injured,” said German Cycling marketing and communications officer Oliver Streich.

The final day of the German Track Cycling Championships was abandoned after several spectators were injured when two cyclists crashed into the crowd.

The incident happened on the final bend of the men’s keirin semi-finals as the two riders careered over the barriers at a speed of about 35mph at the track in Dudenhofen, western Germany.

Seven spectators were injured, some seriously, with two needing to be airlifted to hospital. The two cyclists escaped with minor injuries.

Two helicopters, six ambulances and an emergency doctor attended the incident.

“The health of athletes and spectators always comes first. Cancelling the event was therefore unavoidable. Best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to all those injured,” said German Cycling marketing and communications officer Oliver Streich.

If a bad team plays badly, it does not hurt so much.

When a team that can be great gets thrashed, those are the ones that really cause pain.

And that is why Ben Stokes’ England Test team are stuck in this cycle of frustration.

From the sensational win at Headingley last week, to a thrashing in the second Test in Birmingham.

As England’s fate was sealed on day five, Edgbaston was alive to the beat of an Indian drum.

“England get battered everywhere they go,” sang the tourists’ support.

This 336-run defeat can be added to the 423-run loss in Hamilton, the nine-wicket thrashing in Rawalpindi, the meek eight-wicket loss at the hands of a poor Sri Lanka at The Oval or the 434-run thrashing by India in Rajkot last February.

When England lose, they lose badly.

Two of those, against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, could be written off as dead rubbers. Were the list shorter, you could put them down to the odd bad day.

But until the trend of one England hammering a series is ruled out, they are not going to get to where they want to go.

Series wins could come – they may beat India over five matches here – but some have been talking about this team going on to become the best England side since the one Andrew Strauss led to the top of the world rankings.

No-one represents England’s feast or famine better than Ollie Pope.

After a fine century in Leeds, he made a duck and 24 in his two innings at Edgbaston.

It is a familiar problem for a batter who did not make a fifty in the four Tests in India at the start of last year after his epic 196 in the first Test.

Before play on day five he was working with batting coach Marcus Trescothick on his head position, attempting to prevent himself falling to the off side before contact, as he did when edging Akash Deep in the first innings.

With its slope, Lord’s is not the ideal place to have such issues.

Zak Crawley is another batter unable to break free of his own troubles.

His 65 in the first Test, which followed 124 against Zimbabwe, was crucial to England’s win but his wild drive in the second over of England’s chase was the worst dismissal in an otherwise sensible quest for a draw.

The Test also resulted in some ugly numbers for England spinner Shoaib Bashir.

The 21-year-old’s match figures of 5-286 are the most expensive for England since 1950 and the third-most costly in his side’s Test history.

No Test spinner who has bowled as many overs (679. 1) as Bashir has as high an economy rate (3. 80). Not pretty.

England’s Bashir experiment is at an interesting phase. Picked for his debut last year after just 10 first-class matches and still unable to get a game for his county, he has been picked on potential.

Against Zimbabwe at the start of the summer, he looked to be finding success by bowling tighter to the stumps, resulting in a more accurate line, while he was also bowling a fuller length.

He deserves credit for working on a ‘carrom ball’ – an off-spinner’s mystery delivery which is flicked from the hand and turns from right to left – which he bowled at least three times in the first innings.

But six of his eight wickets in this series have come caught in the deep. The others were a lower-order stumping and a top-edged slog he caught himself.

That leads nicely to England’s pace bowlers. Having opted to pick an unchanged side for Edgbaston, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue have now bowled 82, 77 and 81 overs respectively.

Mohammed Siraj is the only India quick to have bowled more than 62.

All three of England’s pacemen struggled at times in Birmingham. Woakes was not as threatening after his new-ball spell while Tongue has been played well by India’s top order and was not as successful against the tail as in the first Test.

Change will surely come at Lord’s given three days off is little time to recover and Jofra Archer is waiting in the wings.

Could England conceivably leave out all three?

Gus Atkinson, who has not played since May because of a hamstring injury, is back in the squad but it would be a risk to play Atkinson and Archer, who has bowled in two innings in a match once in four years, in the same XI.

Woakes, 36, may need a rest but England like variety in their attack and he averages 12. 9 at Lord’s – the best of any bowler in Test history.

England would also need to replace his batting at number eight if he is left out – even more so if Carse, an able batter, was also absent at number nine.

Sam Cook is the Woakes replacement in England’s squad but does not offer that same batting depth.

That it is England with selection problems is a remarkable turnaround from six days ago. India came into the second Test facing endless questions around their XI.

Their big calls have been proven right, however.

Picking batting all-rounder Washington Sundar at number eight looked a defensive move but he shared an important stand of 144 with his captain, Shubman Gill, in the first innings and had Stokes lbw shortly before lunch with his off-spin on the final day.

The other big call was to rest Jasprit Bumrah. His replacement Akash Deep was majestic and took 10 in the match.

In truth, Gill could not have asked for a better week.

Some questioned his declaration on day four but its timing meant England faced Deep with the new ball late on and again when it was still hard the next morning. The result was two wickets in each spell.

Aryna Sabalenka, the reigning world no. 1, defeated Elise Mertens to advance to the quarter-finals and maintain her winning streak.

The 27-year-old, who reached the semi-finals in 2021 and 2023, defeated 104-year-old Laura Siegemund 6-4 7-6 (7-4) to advance to the last four.

Sabalenka was the only top six seed remaining in the women’s draw at the time of this tournament, which saw many seeds fall.

Sabalenka has overcome a difficult match to defeat British No. 1 Emma Raducanu to prepare for her meeting with Mertens.

Even so, this time around was perhaps more difficult than anticipated, especially since Sabalenka had previously defeated 24th seed Mertens nine times in a row before meeting at Wimbledon.

“The performance was fantastic,” I said. A battle ensued. Sabalenka expressed his satisfaction with this victory.

She is a fantastic athlete and person. She is smart, and I already knew she would fight until the very end. She really put me in a challenge today.

Although Sabalenka initially had a comfortable win as she raced to a 4-1 lead, Mertens got a break as she began to move her opponent further around the court.

Sabalenka broke Mertens once more to win the opening set, but the Belgian’s aggressive tennis kept her on the hook.

When Sabalenka struggled to get her first serve to work before thumping down a backhand winner, she was rewarded for her brave play when she took advantage of it to take the match’s opening break early in the second set before holding the lead 3-1.

Two games later, Sabalenka and Mertens broke through, and the pair met in the middle all the way to a tie-break.

But Sabalenka showed that she could win and advance by coming back from 2-0 down.

Sabalenka remarked about winning Wimbledon, “Everything is possible.”

“I’m just trying to give it my best,” he said.

The oldest woman in the Wimbledon singles draw is Siegemund, 37, who will face Sabalenka next.

Solana Sierra, a veteran German, put an end to her extraordinarily successful tournament run.

Sierra only learned 15 minutes before her first-round game after losing in qualifying but being accepted into the main draw after withdrawing.

The Argentina-born 21-year-old was hoping to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, but Siegemund’s victory in round four put her in the lead.

Amanda Anisimova, the 13th seed, defeated Linda Noskova, the 30th seed, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, to end her strong grass season.

This was her 10th victory on this surface in 12 appearances in 2025, which highlights her standing as a title contender.