Category Sports News

Liverpool defender Conor Bradley will return for Northern Ireland’s friendlies against Denmark and Iceland next month.

Michael O’Neill’s side will travel to Copenhagen on 7 June before hosting Iceland in Belfast three days later in what are the last games before the 2026 World Cup qualifiers begin in September.

Bradley missed the friendlies in March against Switzerland and Sweden with a hamstring injury, but returned for Liverpool in the closing stages of their title-winning Premier League campaign before penning a new long-term deal at Anfield.

Sunderland duo Dan Ballard and Trai Hume, who will be involved in the Championship play-off final this weekend, are also back in the squad after injuries in March, the latter playing against Switzerland but not Sweden.

Preston North End midfielder Ali McCann and Huddersfield Town striker Dion Charles return to the panel.

However, Jordan Thompson, Eoin Toal and Josh Magennis miss out on the 26-man squad through injuries.

Motherwell defender Kofi Balmer and Rangers winger Ross McCausland are also absent.

In March, Northern Ireland drew 1-1 with Switzerland before falling to a 5-1 loss to Sweden.

O’Neill’s side begin their bid to qualify for next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico with an away game against Luxembourg on 4 September before travelling to four-time world champions Germany three days later.

Goalkeepers: Pierce Charles (Sheffield Wednesday), Conor Hazard (Plymouth Argyle), Luke Southwood (Bolton Wanderers).

Defenders: Trai Hume and Daniel Ballard (both Sunderland), Brodie Spencer (Huddersfield Town), Conor Bradley (Liverpool), Ruairi McConville (Norwich City), Paddy McNair (San Diego FC), Terry Devlin (Portsmouth), Aaron Donnelly (Dundee).

Midfielders: George Saville (Millwall), Shea Charles (Southampton), Alistair McCann (Preston North End), Isaac Price (West Bromwich Albion), Paul Smyth (Queens Park Rangers), Ethan Galbraith (Leyton Orient), Brad Lyons (Kilmarnock), Justin Devenny (Crystal Palace), Caolan Boyd-Munce (St Mirren), Callum Marshall (West Ham United), Jamie Donley (Leyton Orient, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur).

Vaibhav Suryavanshi, a 14-year-old batter, has been chosen for India’s Under-19s squad for this summer’s England-centric multi-format tour.

The teenager took 101 runs from 38 balls to defeat Gujarat Titans by eight wickets in the men’s T20 match that made him the youngest player to do so in April.

His knock, which included seven fours and eleven sixes, came from 35 balls, making it the second-fastest total in the Indian Premier League.

Five youth ODIs and two multi-day matches will start the series in Hove on June 27th, according to the schedule, which includes two in Beckenham and Chelmsford, respectively.

Due to the lack of weight, Tysie Gallagher’s Commonwealth and British title fight against Ebonie Jones on Friday was postponed.

Three months after her mother-in-law died, Gallagher, 26, was scheduled to make her return to action, and as a result, Jones’ initial fight with Jones was postponed.

The amateur fight was scheduled for Terri Harper’s world title defense at Doncaster’s Eco-Power Stadium on Friday because Jones and Gallagher faced off twice in the amateurs.

According to Gallagher on Instagram, “We received a call late last night that the fight is off because Ebonie doesn’t make weight.”

We have a responsibility to put on weight as professional athletes. Unfortunately, Ebonie was unable to follow through on her end of the bargain.

“Absolutely gutted,” I believe it is dishonest for a fighter to be unable to make weight, even if it’s not a title fight or any fight.

She continued, “I am just devastated.” I invested everything in this camp.

At this late stage, neither a new opponent nor a rescheduled catchweight fight are anticipated for Gallagher.

Gallagher and Jones got into a fight at her home on February 7 when her mother-in-law was killed as a result of what the police called an “altercation” there.

Since then, a 25-year-old man has been charged with murder and grievous bodily harm.

Gallagher and Jones have engaged in two amateur fights twice in the past.

Northampton Saints vs. Bordeaux-Begles in the Investec Champions Cup final

Cardiff Principality Stadium Date: Saturday, May 24 Kick-off 14:45 BST

Joel recalls the conversation. And his own disbelief.

“Your son is running really quickly,” the physical trainer at Grenoble rang me and told me.

I inquired, “How fast?” and he said, “faster than anyone else in the club.” including professionals.

“I just said, “Really?”

Grenoble had just been removed from the French top flight at the time. And Louis, Joel’s son, was only 17, according to the age.

Even a father’s eye could not tell how quickly that was moving.

Louis had played fly-half prior to that season. Good, but not one that will inspire greatness.

He wasn’t on anyone’s radar up until he was 16 years old, Joel claims. He played for Grenoble, but he was not a member of their academy or the youth division.

He was not at all quick, one of the team’s skinniest, and physically impossible to dominate.

He suddenly grew up, though, at age 17.

He already had the skills, vision, kick-kicking, and step, but his speed and power were late.

When Louis combined those two ingredients, he was off, he claimed.

In 27 games this year, he has scored 31 tries.

The 21-year-old’s strike-rate has increased even higher with 19 in 14 games since the start of the year, thanks to a record-breaking eight tries in a single Six Nations campaign.

In all but one game since then, he has scored.

His top sprint speed, which is faster than any player, has been determined in five years of Premier League data collection, has been 37.8 kmh (23. 5 mph).

Northampton is his Bordeaux-Begles team’s next Northampton is their next Northampton is next on his supersonic wish list as his Bordeaux-Begles team prepares for Saturday’s Champions Cup final, and he wants to watch them play there in his supersonic final.

Bielle-Biarrey has been dreaming about this afternoon since he was five years old.

After his wife Sandrine became indignant with the boys’ back garden games, Joel took Louis and his brother Samuel to their neighborhood club, Seyssins in Grenoble.

Joel recalls that “they both loved it from the beginning.”

Louis would snuggle up next to a rugby ball during the day. His parents gave him a gift, starting with the red scrum cap that has become a trademark.

According to Joel, “Louis always said he wanted to be a professional rugby player when his primary school teacher asked what they wanted to be when some of the students said he wanted to be a fire fighter, while others said he wanted to be a doctor.”

I told him that he wouldn’t, that he would work as an engineer like his father!

However, those chances dramatically decreased after Bielle-Biarrey recorded those first eye-popping speeds in a Grenoble fitness test.

The fitness instructor made her next trip to Paris after hanging up on Joel.

Bielle-Biarrey’s stats broke the French union bar by being so impressive. Anyone who posed these numbers was required to call directly to Marcoussis, the union’s main office.

Bielle-Biarrey quickly blazed through a string of trials while still 17 years old and made the France Under-20 squad. To be involved, Joel had to abide by a waiver.

He made his 2021 Under-20 Six Nations debut against Italy just six days before the campaign’s closing try against Ireland.

Top 14 clubs snagged talent.

The early and enthusiastic pitch made by Bordeaux president Laurent Marti was ignored. In 2021, Bielle-Biarrey made the club’s intentions to train with the first team before playing for the under-21 side.

He made his senior France debut twenty months later. In a thrilling Rugby World Cup quarter-final against South Africa two months later, he was the starting wing.

He might just be the world’s best rugby player right now.

The rise has been quick, much like Bielle-Biarry himself.

He is trying his hardest to deal with it, Joel says, noting that he was the one who asked for autographs five years ago.

“It’s frustrating for him sometimes that not everyone can please him,” he said. When he leaves the dressing room, 300 people line up in anticipation.

He may still need to grab something to eat in his free time, which is 10, 20, 30 minutes before he boards the bus.

“This is what he dislikes,” he said.

One of the reasons he chose Bordeaux, a port city in south-west France, was because of it. He went to Racing 92, but he found Paris to be too crowded and bustling.

Bordeaux’s attack coach Noel McNamara claims Bielle-Biarrey has adopted his own style of small-town hustle, based on what he learned as a young teenage fly-half.

“Everyone starts out with the pace,” he said in Rugby Union Weekly, “but I believe that really undersells Louis’ worth.”

“Evidencing that he is quick, but I have worked with a lot of very quick people doesn’t always make them exceptional rugby players,” he said.

Louis’s pace, anticipation, timing, and preparation throughout the week are what define his approach.

His workrate, attitude, and mindset are all top-notch, and he has had a positive impact on those around him.

When he has the ball, they anticipate things to happen. Because Louis makes things happen, it gives them the confidence to work a little harder to be in support.

Joel is unsure of the source of the magic.

His own rugby career was brief, with him playing in the back row at university before enjoying a successful first half-season at East Kilbride while working as an intern in Glasgow at the beginning of the 1990s.

Although Sandrine isn’t particularly athletic, Joel points out that her heritage may have “spiced up the DNA” because she is from Reunion, a French overseas territory between Madagascar and Mauritius.

Neil Robinson, the Welsh Paralympic champion, will retire after a successful career that included 11 Paralympics victories as an athlete and four as a coach.

At the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, Bridgend-born Robinson, 66, won gold with the men’s C3 team and silver with the women’s singles competition.

Before retiring after the Beijing games and beginning his coaching career in London 2012, he also won medals in Atlanta, Sydney, and and Athens.

Given my long-term involvement with British Para Table tennis [BPTT], Robinson said, “I think it’s time to retire and have the flexibility to spend more time with my family, especially now that my wife Karen and I are grandparents,” Robinson said.

When Robinson was a passenger in a car accident at the age of 18, Robinson was unable to use a wheelchair while he was training to become an electrician for the Merchant Navy.

He became one of Britain’s most successful Paralympians after starting table tennis in rehab and claiming seven medals in seven games.

Robinson won the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List award in 2012 for his contributions to the sport, and he was also a champion of Europe and world number one.

With a number of Welsh players in the British squad and having switched to coaching, Robinson established a facility at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff to provide top-notch coaching full-time.

Gorazd Vecko, the director of BPTT performance, said, “This was really important.

The Welsh players initially traveled to Sheffield for a training camp before the new structure, but there was no top level coaching in Wales.

“When I look back, I believe Neil was a significant contributor to every medal that a wheelchair athlete from Wales has won over the past 15 years,” Neil said.

Paul Davies won the bronze medal in London under the guidance of Robinson, and Tom Matthews won the bronze medal in Tokyo 2021.

One of his highlights is still Rob Davies’ gold medal victory, despite the fact that he wasn’t in the corner when another of his players competed in Rio.

“I’m very proud to have had a positive impact on the lives of the athletes I’ve worked with and helped to some of their most significant moments,” Robinson said.

The Paralympics Games have had a number of memorable moments, with the most notable ones coming from Barcelona in 1992, where I won gold and silver medals, and Atlanta in 1996, where I won silver and bronze medals.

As a coach, Paul Davies has “a few amazing memories,” including helping him win an unexpected singles bronze medal at the “home games” in London 2012 and years of preparation for Rob Davies’s pursuit of his singles gold in Rio 2016.

I was extremely fortunate to have been able to coach Paul Karabardak, Tom Matthews, and Megan Shackleton to their first Paralympic medals, given the circumstances surrounding Tokyo 2021.