Here's your first look at the V8 Defender Octa that'll take on the Dakar
Land Rover is chucking a Defender Octa into the 'stock' category of the World Rally Raid Championship next January, and the first images of the prototype - christened the 'Dakar D7X-R' - have just dropped.
Sporting a fresh camo livery teeming with white stickers, the backdrop for these initial tests is the Moroccan section of the Sahara Desert - chosen to 'mirror' the sort of extreme heat and dusty conditions the D7X-R will face in less than eight months. And an excuse for some of the engineers to kick up a plume or two, probably.
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BBC News
6 minutes ago
- BBC News
Gossip: Spurs willing to pay Zabarnyi asking price
Tottenham are willing to pay the asking price for Ukraine and Bournemouth defender Illia Zabarnyi, 22. (Caught Offside, external)Want more transfer stories? Read Monday's full gossip columnFollow the gossip column on BBC Sport
The Guardian
17 minutes ago
- The Guardian
This Open belonged to Rory McIlroy, even if he wasn't the winner this time
The loyalist bands were out in force in Portrush on Saturday evening, for a two-hour parade that shut down all the traffic in and out of town. The R&A did its best to funnel the paying spectators in the other direction as they walked off the course, but there were still plenty of bewildered golf fans who got caught up in it all. I was one of them myself. While I wouldn't want to contradict the organisers' description of it as a 'cultural extravaganza', if I had one note to pass on it may be that these sorts of local folk traditions go over better with the tourists when they don't have sectarian overtones and a heavy police presence. On the links, there was a different side of Ireland on show. Northern Irish or from the Republic, Nationalist or Unionist, Catholic or Protestant, whatever else divides the 300,000-odd people who attended in the past week, they were all united in collective yearning to see Rory McIlroy make that next birdie. They were packed four, five, six deep when McIlroy walked out for his final round at two in the afternoon, the crowd stretched all down the fairway and around the green. There must have been 10,000 people at that one hole, every one of them joined in a silent communion as he lined up his opening drive. You've heard how much people here love McIlroy, you've read how much people here love McIlroy, and you've seen how much people here love McIlroy, but in all honesty you can't really understand the strength of their feeling until you've walked the course with him. Just ask his playing partner, Matt Fitzpatrick. 'I've heard enough 'Rorys' to last me a lifetime.' And the rest. 'I love you, Rory,' screamed a girl on the 2nd. 'I named my eldest child after you, Rory,' shouted a man on the 5th. There were a hundred or so people up top on the great big dune that backs on to the beach by the 7th tee, waiting all day to get a free peek at him as he came past. This has been McIlroy's Open and he didn't even win the thing. The two were tied inextricably in the minds of everyone in the country who was following the tournament, so the first thing anyone wants to know whenever you mention you're at the Open is whether or not you saw Rory, and the next thing anyone says whenever the competition comes up in conversation is whether he's in contention. He was playing in the penultimate group, but you would never have guessed it from the way the crowd swelled around him. They surged from one hole to the next to keep up with him, so that behind him Scottie Scheffler often arrived at the green in time to find everyone turning away. All those hours in the gym mean McIlroy's got broad shoulders, but it's a hell of a weight he's carrying. It was too much for him the first time he played in an Open at Portrush, in 2019, but it has been a joy to see him revel in it in the past week. He seems to have enjoyed every minute of playing here. 'I think I feel a lot of gratitude and a lot of pride,' he said. 'A lot of pride that I am from these shores, and with the way I've played and advocated for this little country.' It was clear as early as the 1st green that it wasn't going to be his day. You could even say it was obvious as early as Friday evening, when Scheffler shot to the top of the leaderboard. The man has a way of making the game inevitable once he's in that position. Death, taxes and Scheffler making the most of a winning position. It would have taken something magical to catch the world No 1 and, well as he was playing, McIlroy just didn't have his conjuring touch. It was a round of nearlys and not quites, from the 40ft birdie putt that just stayed up on the 1st, to the 34ft birdie putt that passed only a millimetre wide on the 7th. He was honest enough to admit that he was never going to get to the 17 under he would have needed to catch Scheffler. He wound up in seventh, 10 under and seven shots back: '8, 9, and 10 were the ones that killed me. I could have maybe finished second, which would have been better, but only making par off those tee shots on 8 and 9 and then the double bogey at 10 did me in.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion He had a rueful grin on his face as he made the last long walk up to the 18th green. 'It's been an amazing week, I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd,' he said. 'I've gotten everything I wanted out of this week. Apart from a Claret Jug.' By his own reckoning, he has got two shots left at it. 'Hopefully I'll have one or two Opens left here, if the R&A decide to keep coming back, probably one while I'm still competitive, and another one while I'm more grey than I already am.'
BBC News
34 minutes ago
- BBC News
The Open 2025 golf: The Rory McIlroy effect and a boost for Northern Ireland's reputation
Organisers of The Open golf championship at Portrush delivered a highly successful event in a land scorched by recent sporting collapse of plans to host matches in football's Euro 2028 tournament in Belfast damaged Northern Ireland's reputation in the world of spectacular pictures and smooth running of The Open at Royal Portrush have helped to regain some of the reputational ground which was was a roaring success rather than a Rory success.A home-grown winner would have been an added bonus but there was no McIlroy miracle on the final could catch the runaway leader, Scottie Scheffler. The American golfer is number one in the world and he proved Scheffler was not the only winner. It was a triumph too for Royal Portrush golf course and the championship organisers, the R&A (Royal & Ancient). Almost 50,000 spectators a day watched the four days of competition. The temperature was warm and so was the atmosphere. There were some sudden bursts of heavy rain but few were perturbed, apart from the Australian golfer Jason Day who branded it the "craziest" weather he had ever even had a pop at weather presenters claiming they get it wrong "all the time".Perhaps downbeat Day should have concentrated on his own job. He had to leave the tournament on Friday after failing to make the of the 70 golfers who made it through to the weekend was the young Swedish player Ludvig every shot was watched by three superfans who wore Sweden football shirts and flat green hats with a miniature golf ball and flag on Leif and Martin enjoyed Northern Ireland and said they would love to come back for more sport. It is global events that really boost the economy and prestige of a country or part of the Tour de France cycling race has been explored but the brakes were subsequently island of Ireland has tried to host the Rugby World Cup but that bid was kicked into touch. One of the main reasons Northern Ireland struggles to attract major sporting events is that it does not currently have a stadium with more than 20,000 is a long and complicated history to this, which involves sport, politics and does not need a stadium to host a global event. It needs a world class course and Royal Portrush ticks that box. 'Like a big music festival' The Swedish visitors were very Ahlgren Kvist, 38, an engineer from Malmö said: "It's my first Open ever and it's been fantastic. We've been staying in Belfast and going to Portrush by train."It's like a big party. I explained it to some of my friends back home who are not into golf, it's like a big music festival but instead of listening to music, you go and watch golf basically. You have a few beers and have fun." With 278,000 spectators in total over the eight days of practice and competition, there were some Portrush restaurant was accused of price hiking. There was also a large band parade in Portrush on the penultimate evening, at almost the same time as golf fans were were teething problems with one of the park-and-ride sites on the third day of threat of industrial action affecting bus and rail travel on two days of the championship may have reduced the number of fans booking public by whatever means they could use, the fans all got to the course and the majority of them followed one player – Rory McIlroy. When the Holywood golfer eagled the 12th hole on Saturday, the Rory roar could be heard from beyond the the end, there was no fairytale finish for the local hero, in spite of raucous support, including from actor Jamie Dornan. He spoke for millions of fans when he told the BBC: "It's the Rory show and we're all just desperately wanting him to play well."He did play well, despite huge expectation weighing on his 36-year-old shoulders, but just not well him, it is hard to imagine Portrush would have hosted two Open championships in the past six years. When is The Open next in Portrush? So will The Open return to the north coast? Nothing has been confirmed but the early 2030s looks is estimated that the Northern Ireland economy will receive an economic windfall of more than £200m thanks to the 2025 championship at Royal is another dividend. The sporting world has been reminded that Northern Ireland is a great place to host sporting is priceless.
