Category Sports News

Lora Fachie, the double Olympic cycling champion, has announced her retirement.

Fachie, 36, a visually impaired woman, has spent 15 years playing for the Great Britain team and has won seven medals and 15 world titles overall.

She and her husband, who is visually impaired, famously both won gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

In the B 1, 000m time trial, first Neil and sighted pilot Matt Rotherham won, and Lora and her pilot Corrine Hall won the B 3km individual pursuit to defend their title from Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

She stopped competing in 2022 after giving birth to Fraser, but she did so again at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow, where she shared a silver medal with Hall and took a break from the sport.

Fachie and Hall won three bronze medals at the Paris Paralympics, the first of which was won in the pursuit and the other of which was won in the time trial and road races.

“I’ve had such incredible experiences over the past 15 years, and I’m forever grateful to British Cycling for all the amazing opportunities I’ve had,” said Fachie, who received an MBE in 2017 and an OBE in 2022.

“I’ll treasure the memories I make along the way forever.”

I’m sad that my career is about to end, but I know I have plenty of exciting opportunities to take advantage of in the years to come.

By working for British Blind Sport and thereby hopefully enhancing the experiences of others with visual impairment in sport and leisure, I’m looking forward to giving back in some small way.

Director of British Cycling’s performance, Stephen Park, stated that “Lora has been a significant member of the squad for over 15 years, and what she has accomplished in that time is nothing short of remarkable.

After Australia coach Joe Schmidt highlighted some of the players’ ancestry, the British and Irish Lions players rallied around their foreign-born team-mates.

As the Ireland and Scotland stars teamed up against Argentina in Dublin, Schmidt called Bundee Aki, who is from New Zealand and Sione Tuipulotu, a “southern hemisphere center pairing.”

Flyhalf Finn Russell told BBC Sport, “I have no issues with them being born in New Zealand or Australia.”

“Everyone has a different background, a different path to rugby, and we all have different paths to where we are now.” These boys unquestionably deserve a spot on the team.

Schmidt, a New Zealander who led Australia and established himself as a coach in France and Ireland, has brought up the irony of this situation.

Schmidt would be aware that some Lions fans might find this article offensive.

England captain Danny Care commented on the podcast of the Rugby Union Weekly that “it doesn’t sit that well with me.”

“There are young men who have never, in their mid-20s or even childhood, dreamed of wearing a red Lions jersey.”

Eight of the Lions’ 38-man squad in Australia were raised in southern Australia and had previously moved north.

They have chosen England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and thus the British and Irish Lions, through two different means.

On grounds of residence, Aki, his Ireland team-mates James Lowe and Jamison Gibson-Park, and Scottish duo Duhan van der Merwe and Pierre Schoeman, all qualify for adoption in their adopted countries.

Three years of living in a nation was enough time to represent that quintet as they went through the process.

Before moving to Ireland’s Leinster province later that year at the age of 25, Lowe played for the Maori All Blacks against the British and Irish Lions.

Gibson-Park, 24, who previously played for the Maoris against the Leicester Tigers, had previously made the same transition.

Shortly after spending three years in Dublin, both made their Irish debuts.

Aki has previously acknowledged that his own 2014 move to Connacht from New Zealand was largely driven by his desire to play in Ireland and to play in the Tests.

However, Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen from Ireland and Tuipulotu from Scotland qualify via a different route.

The trio, who were born and raised in Australia, have always been eligible to play for the Lions due to their parents’ or grandparents’ birthplaces.

It’s not new for the Lions to pick players from the southern hemisphere.

Mike Catt, who was born in Port Elizabeth, was educated in South Africa before becoming a licensed agent through his mother. Before winning the World Cup in 2023, he made notable stops on his road trips in 1997 and 2001.

The 2005 touring group included Brent Cockbain, whose brother Matt was a Wallaby. Riki Flutey, who was born in New Zealand, visited South Africa in 2009 and won the third Test there.

After representing Ireland in the 2010s, CJ Stander, a former South African under-20 international, also played for New Zealand. There are numerous more examples.

This tour stands out in comparison to other players because of the volume of players who were born abroad and, in some cases, only moved to Britain and Ireland in their 20s.

This selection has an antipodean feel, more so than any other Lions tours that have taken place during the British and Irish Lions tour, ex-lion Ugo Monye said.

It’s sort of a perfect storm in some ways. By the time the team travels to New Zealand in 2029, the situation is likely to become less contentious.

In 2021, World Rugby extended the eligibility period for a nation on grounds of residency to five years.

It immediately increased the risk and appeal of bringing over a southern-hemisphere prospect in the hope that they will develop into a key Test player.

All three of Ireland’s, Scotland’s, and Wales’ programs are focused on locating players who can play for them but who also reside abroad.

Russell claims that his team-mates’ accomplishments are more important to him than their paperwork.

Sione is “likelier than Sione because he plays for Scotland,” he continued.

“We are all pulling in the right direction to try to win a Test series,” the statement states.

Aki, Lowe, Gibson-Park, Bealham, and Hansen have long-standing team-mates, but Josh van der Flier has refuted any suggestion that their claim to a Test shirt is any worse than his own.

Luis Enrique, the manager of Paris St-Germain, has criticised the stadiums during the Club World Cup, claiming that the “ball bounced like a rabbit” in the Seattle Sounders’ victory.

The Seattle Seahawks and the MLS team the Sounders played the match at Lumen Field, where the artificial turf was used to temporarily replace the stadium’s artificial turf for the tournament.

The Spaniard claims that the Club World Cup must be “the most high-level competition in the world” for football’s world-governing body Fifa to “bear in mind” the quality of both match and training pitches.

After his team won 2-0 to take the top spot in Group B of the tournament, which is being held exclusively in the United States, the 55-year-old said, “I wouldn’t imagine a NBA court full of holes.

“On the day we win, the state of the field of play is what I really care about,” I declare.

At the end of May, PSG claimed the title of champions league champions thanks to a stunning victory over Inter Milan in Munich.

Due to the nature of the pitch conditions, Luis Enrique said his team has had to adjust since moving to the US.

“Lumen Field is an example, it used to be artificial turf, but it has been replaced with natural grass,” he continued. They had to manually water it at halftime, but the field was dry once more in ten minutes.

This is a problem for our game, they say. It is significantly different from European pitches. We did well to adapt, and we’re very happy because the grass is different and therefore it’s not as simple to play our style.

Less than a year until the Fifa World Cup is held in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

Jude Bellingham, who lost 3-1 to Pachuca, also criticized the pitches at the Club World Cup.

The pitches are not at all excellent. The England midfielder said, “It holds up the ball, the ball barely bounces.”

It’s also “tough on the knees,” they say. Hopefully, that will be addressed prior to the World Cup the following year.

World Cup games will also be played at five of the venue’s starting locations: Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Hard Rock Stadium, MetLife Stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, and Lumen Field.

NFL teams typically use artificial turf, but they will install real grass just in time for the World Cup to meet Fifa requirements.

The pitch quality in the US has previously caused issues with the inaugural Club World Cup.

At last year’s Copa America, players expressed concern for the conditions, with Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez calling the field “a disaster” following its win over Canada.

Conmebol, the tournament’s organizer, defended the pitches, while Fredirico Nantes, the director of competitions, said, “The Atlanta grass posed absolutely no threat.”

The stadium will host one of the semi-finals of the World Cup’s eight matches in the summer.

The most recent issue raised during the Club World Cup is the state of the pitches.

Throughout the entire competition, there have been concerns about the weather, with players experiencing issues from extreme heat.

Borussia Dortmund’s substitutes were unable to watch the first half of their 2-1 win over Mamelodi Sundowns because of the temperature, according to Niko Kovac, manager, who described the situation as “like a sauna”.

Enzo Maresca, Chelsea’s manager, claimed that as the weather reached 37C, his team had had a difficult training schedule in Philadelphia.

The Champions League first qualifying match between Linfield, the reigning champion of Ireland, and Shelbourne, the reigning champion of Ireland Premier Division, will be broadcast live on BBC Sport NI.

In the most recent European competition drawing, the teams were paired.

On Wednesday, July 9, 2017, the first leg will kick off at 19:45 BST at Tolka Park in Dublin.

On July 16, Belfast’s Windsor Park will host the second leg, which starts at 19:45.

Both games can be viewed on the BBC Sport website and app.

In the second qualifying round, the tiebreaker will face Azerbaijan club Qarabag, who will face the defeated side against Lithuanian FK Zalgiris and Malta’s Hamrun Spartans.

Shelbourne won the League of Ireland title for the first time in 18 years in 2024 under title-winning manager Damien Duff’s resignation on Sunday.

In a remarkable campaign for the Blues, David Healy’s Linfield won the Irish Premiership 22 points.

In the 2006 Setanta Cup group stages, Linfield defeated Shels 2-0 at Windsor Park before drawing goalless in the follow-up game.

New vice-chairman Paraag Marathe claims Rangers’ involvement with the San Francisco 49ers and Leeds United is already beneficial in the transfer market.

The American, who serves as the club’s chairman and is a senior executive with the 49ers, insists that his group’s acquisition of Leeds will not violate European football’s dual ownership laws.

On Monday, Rangers’ shareholders approved of their new American owners’ $ 20 million investment in the Glasgow club.

The fact that the 49ers are recruiting players is important to them because, wait a minute, they are. This must imply that there is an extra clout that aids in the hiring of players.

Marathe believed that the Scottish Premiership runners-up would also benefit financially from “being in the same sentence “to” one of the biggest sports brands in the world and “unquestionably one of the most recognisable” in the same way.

He argued that it works in both ways, with the NFL giants contributing to the conversation as a “jewel and” crown jewel of European football as well.

He said, “We are one of the biggest clubs in the world, with millions of fans and 600 fan organizations around the world, whatever it is.”

Football is the world’s greatest game, in my opinion, and it sort of has no borders. One of the reasons we were interested in getting involved is because of it. And so, the more consumers we can have, the better for us, the more people we can consume the brand, the sport, the matches, etc.

Due to Trivela Group, a US-based company that also controls Danish side Silkeborg, who owns the League of Ireland, Drogheda United was expelled from the Conference League.

Meanwhile, American businessman John Textor, who owns French club Lyon, sold his stake in Crystal Palace this week to make way for the London side to begin playing in Europe this year.

We have checked the box with those necessary to make sure that we would resolve the conflict if and when it even existed, “Marathe said about Rangers’ relationship with Leeds.

Marathe predicted that the English club and Rangers would also learn from one another’s experiences and knowledge, both commercially and competitively, and that Leeds already had a commercial advantage over their relationship with the 49ers.

He argued, however, that comparing one club to another would be a disservice to Rangers and Leeds.

We’ll design and assign resources in accordance with what they both perceive as closed-loop universes that merit proper care, attention, and care.

Marathe echoed Cavenagh’s desire to challenge Scottish football rival Celtic’s claim that “we have what we need to win” with the new investment.

When asked if they would need to sell significant assets, such as Belgium’s Nicolas Raskin, he responded, “The resources are available for us to make the best decisions for the club without being forced to do so due to club economics or finances.”

We don’t want to discuss any particular players, so we can do what it takes to succeed this year.

Marathe emphasized that “making” gut decisions is not just about throwing money at it; it is also about creating a foundation based on discipline, thought, analysis, and data-based decision-making.