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The Guardian
33 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ice towels and thermal stress techniques: how players deal with heat at Wimbledon
'It was a bit of a shock to the system,' according to Cameron Norrie. For the German player Eva Lys, the conditions were 'really, really tough'. Jessica Pegula, meanwhile, said the weather was 'just like Florida'. The hottest-ever start to a Wimbledon fortnight has left a mark on players and spectators alike, and raised questions about how the tournament adjusts to a rapidly warming future. The numerous measures put in place to deal with the heat of the past week were not hard to spot at SW19. The most obvious was the mass deployment of ice towels, rolled out to every court and wrapped around the shoulders of players at changeovers to aid the process of cooling. Described by Wimbledon's official channels as a 'critical welfare operation', what had previously been an item available only on request was scaled up so that, on day one alone, 145 towels were stuffed with ice cubes, stored in plastic bags for hygiene and distributed around the courts. For spectators, the All England Club also expanded the number of water points in the grounds, increased the amount of available shade and used the public address system to relay frequent messages over the importance of hydration and sunscreen. For staff, shift patterns were changed to limit exposure to heat. For ballboys and girls there was the adoption of a 'beau geste' approach, adapting the uniform to include new headwear that covers the neck as well as the head, with 'cooling scarves' underneath. On top of all this came perhaps the most significant sporting innovation, the introduction of a 'heat rule' that would mandate the checking of on-court conditions before a match and allow players to request a 10-minute break in the middle should the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, a measure which incorporates heat, humidity and surface temperature, exceed 30.1C. The heat rule was not activated on Monday or Tuesday but its existence carries a symbolic message: that in 2025 even the verdant surrounds of Wimbledon, a place often associated in the public imagination with drizzle, can't avoid the risks of extreme heat. 'The players are used to competing in these sorts of temperatures', said the chief executive of the All England Club, Sally Bolton. 'There is a heat rule available for them, which we'll implement if necessary. For fans attending, those Brits who are a bit less used to these sorts of temperatures, we're offering the same advice as the medical professionals – cover up, wear a hat, light clothing, wear sunscreen, make sure you're hydrated. We know it's your opportunity to watch some amazing tennis, but taking time off the court and out of the sun is really advisable.' Dr Lee Taylor is a reader in exercise and environmental physiology at Loughborough University and an expert on the effects of heat in elite sport. He says the risks to players are increasingly well-understood and being responded to, but that a focus on short-term cooling measures does not provide the greatest protection to their health and performance. 'Short-term measures are about looking to alleviate some of the thermal stress,' he says. 'You're guzzling something cold, you're putting ice on you briefly during a match, but these measures have very limited power to change the body temperature for a high-performance athlete during intense competition. Instead we're stimulating what we call psychophysiological responses, we're actually tricking the brain into thinking that we're cooler.' For the body to more fully adapt to unusual heat, Taylor says a fuller process of acclimatisation [natural heat exposure] or acclimation artificial heat exposure] is required. 'When we can't access a naturally hot environment to perform acclimatisation, we rely upon acclimation', he says. 'Acclimation is an artificial process, where you simulate a hot environment – you'll have seen athletes training in a hot box for example. The gold standard here is to expose athletes to these conditions 10 to 15 times to give them the best protection prior to a competition. The challenge with elite athletes is we just don't have the luxury of those 15 consecutive exposures because they're so busy competing, training, travelling, doing press, suffering from illness, injury, all of these types of things.' Taylor says that adding acclimation to a regular training regime would not be harmful and could in fact offer improvements in performance. 'We're getting some pretty good evidence now that being heat acclimated or acclimatised can increase haemoglobin mass, which is one of the many determinants of endurance performance,' he says. But tennis stars at this time of year are often already engaged in another kind of acclimatisation, to the unique grass court surfaces of Wimbledon. They also travel the world between varying climates and, clearly, elite athletes are highly motivated and push themselves very hard, often ignoring heat-related symptoms. There are clear challenges for making elite sport less exposed to the risks of extreme heat, but the sense is growing that they cannot be avoided for ever. 'The number of heatwaves, including their severity, intensity and duration are increasing', says Taylor. 'Players across all sports, including tennis, will be playing more competitions in extremes of heat. It's inevitable. '
BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
New date confirmed for south-coast derby
A new date has been confirmed for the first south-coast derby of next season between Southampton and Portsmouth. St Mary's will host the first meeting between the two teams, on Sunday 14 September - the match was initially scheduled for the Saturday. The second league game, which will be held at Pompey's Fratton Park, is currently set for the end of January. Saints were relegated from the Premier League last season, while Pompey finished 16th in the Championship. This will be the first meeting between the sides since 2019, when Southampton won at Fratton Park in the League Cup, and the first league match since 2012.
The Independent
35 minutes ago
- The Independent
On a budget? Here's how to get Wimbledon Centre Court tickets for just £15
Wimbledon spectators have the opportunity to secure prime seats on Centre Court for a mere £15, a significant reduction from the standard ticket prices. This bargain contrasts sharply with the cost for top-tier seats at the grass-court Grand Slam, which reach £160 on Friday and escalate to £270 by the close of Week 2, before going up again for the singles finals. The key to unlocking these savings lies in the official resale service. Available exclusively to those already on-site with a valid ticket, the system operates through a daily lottery via the Wimbledon app. Successful participants can gain access to Centre Court for £15, or secure a spot on No. 1 Court or No. 2 Court for just £10 each. These coveted spots become available when other spectators depart the grounds before the day's play concludes. The All England Club will not say how many tickets get resold. 'We're selling the same ticket twice,' said the club's operations manager, Michelle Dite. 'The primary reason is to make tennis as accessible to as many people as possible.' Money from resales goes to charities, via the Wimbledon Foundation. Nearly $80,000 was raised through the first three days of this year's tournament, and the 2024 total was about $300,000. Wimbledon has done resales since 1954, but until 2024, folks hoping to take advantage of the deal needed to stand in a line once they were on-site, hope they were there soon enough — and hope enough tickets were returned. Now, though, that 'line' is virtual. After opting in on the app, spectators get their phone scanned by 2.30pm at kiosks on-site or near the Wimbledon Queue, where thousands of people camp out at a local park for up to 24 hours in hopes of getting full-price tickets for main courts or grounds passes for smaller ones. Fans then wait for a text message giving the good news that they were one of the lucky ones chosen for the resale, which runs from 3pm-9pm. They have 10 minutes to confirm they still want a used ticket for the rest of the day, and another 20 minutes to get themselves to the green-and-brown ticket resale booth behind No. 1 Court to show the QR code that lets them pay for the cheap tickets. 'You're not stuck in one place forever," said Henry Thompson, 38, a high school math teacher from Missouri in the United States. 'This is much more efficient. Took 30 seconds. Much better.' Mr Thompson, who was wearing a blue hat with the Wimbledon logo, really wanted to see 10th-seeded American Ben Shelton, so he entered the resale lottery and was able to get a seat for No. 2 Court for £10 instead of £85. 'It's beneficial to the sport to give people access to those courts for a reasonable price,' said Marcos Giron, a 45th-ranked American who won first-round matches in singles and doubles this week. 'It's a wonderful thing.' Chen Pinjung, who just finished medical school in Taiwan, waited in the queue for six hours, paid £30 there for a grounds pass, then also got herself into No. 1 Court via a resale for an additional £10 – instead of the £110 it could have cost to see 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina win there on Thursday. 'If everybody knew how that works, I'm sure everybody would apply,' said Rafael Garcia, who was with his girlfriend, Diana Meneses, and her brother, Gustavo Meneses. 'We saw that (resale) office last year, but we didn't know how to do it. Now we will.'
