Latest news with #world record
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
England and Sweden get into spot of bother with an unmissable shootout
The strongest contender that Football Daily could find for the worst penalty shootout of all time was predictably held between two English teams. In January 1998, under-10 pair Mickleover Lightning Blue Sox and Chellaston Boys faced off in the Derby Community Cup. After the regular game finished 1-1, a total of 56 penalties failed to break the deadlock, with referee Peter Shieff even moving the spot two yards closer and offering a coin toss to decide the result (which the sides declined). Despite saving 31 consecutive spot-kicks in the sudden-death decider, Chellaston Boys' goalkeeper Ben Hodder ended up on the losing side as Blue Sox romped home 2-1, after a grand total of 66 kicks had been taken, a world record verified by David Barber, the FA's official statistician. A thought, then, for the parents that day 27 years ago, stood on the sidelines, outwardly encouraging their youngsters while internally being tortured and scorched with the fires of a thousand flamethrowers. A similar feeling engulfed England and Sweden on Thursday night: after an abysmal first half left them 2-0 down, the Lionesses mounted a late comeback for the ages to force extra-time and penalties. Twice in the subsequent shootout Sweden had kicks to win the game but twice they came up short, with England somehow prevailing 3-2. Before we properly get into the drama – and oh, we will – it should be said that the actual game was as dramatic as it was full of quality. Sweden's front two of Kosovare Asllani and Stina Blackstenius were outstanding and took their goals expertly. England's Lauren James was moving like Zizou in the No 10 role – Football Daily hasn't seen a roulette that devastating since our last trip to Las Vegas. Chloe Kelly's wingplay was game-changing, providing both assists as England clawed their way back into the game. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the shootout, as nerves, fatigue and excellent goalkeeping from both England's Hannah Hampton and Sweden's Jennifer Falk ensured that just five of the 14 penalties found the net. Ultimately, it was the brilliant and bloodied Hampton, along with Lucy Bronze – who scored England's first goal, soldiered on with knack through extra time and smashed home the decisive penalty – who were England's heroes. 'Lucy Bronze is just one of a kind, I have never, ever seen this before in my life,' roared England manager Sarina Wiegman afterwards. 'What defines her is that resilience, that fight. I think the only way to get her off the pitch is in a wheelchair.' Fair play to England then, who – against all odds – found a way to win, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. As for those penalties, plenty of elite performers have failed to convert at major tournaments, from Roberto Baggio to Bukayo Saka to Diana Ross, and there is plenty of time now to practise before Tuesday's semi-final against Italy. Leah Williamson succinctly summed up how most were feeling as the dust settled on England's win, in a quote that could easily have also come from a Derbyshire-based parent in 1998: 'That was awful to watch at the end. [Penalties] are the easiest and the hardest thing in the world.' Amen to that. Join Sarah Rendell from 8pm BST for MBM coverage of Spain 0-0 Switzerland (aet; 4-2 on pens) in the Euro 2025 quarter-finals. There is such a feeling of sadness and disbelief around this awful tragedy that we wanted to make this tribute of our own as soon as we could. Like everyone else, we've been stunned by events, and we remember what a wonderful player Diogo was for Wolves during that unforgettable promotion season under Nuno and our early years back in the Premier League. His record of 44 goals at Wolves, and then 65 at Liverpool as a Premier League title winner, speaks volumes. So many fans across the game – especially in Portugal after he helped them win the Nations League this summer – are feeling his loss deeply. We saw no reason to delay this decision' – Wolves induct Diogo Jota into their hall of fame. The north (in the west) starts at the Cheshire/Staffordshire border. This puts Stoke in the midlands (yesterday's Football Daily letters) and Crewe in the north. This isn't just my opinion (I went to grammar school in Crewe) but also the opinion of a person originally from Merseyside who wrote a book about the north that started by him defining where the north started and the first chapter was him visiting Crewe' – Mike Walsh. Looking at the James, Parker, Chapman, Jack golfing quartet (yesterday's Memory Lane, full email edition), I couldn't help but wonder which one of them would have the flag showing 'Fashion, Golf, Arsenal. In that order'' – Ken Muir. Further to Yannick Woudstra (yesterday's letters) wondering if a move to Old Trafford could materialise for Jordan Henderson. I seem to recall that Alex Ferguson once put the kibosh on a move for Henderson in the early-2000s over concerns about his running style. Well the good news for Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe's brains trust is that, at the age of 35, running won't be something Henderson will be doing a lot of. Sign him up!' – Joel Flood. If you have any, please send letters to Today's winner of our prizeless letter o' the day is … Ken Muir. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here. Faye Carruthers is joined by Tom Garry, Marva Kreel and Jonathan Liew to relive England's dramatic win on penalties and Italy's late heroics in the latest Women's Football Weekly podcast. A 10ft-high artwork of former England manager Sam Allardyce eating a large bag of chips has appeared on a wall near a fast food shop in his home town, sparking speculation about its creator. The mural is believed to have been pasted on to a wall in Union Street in the centre of Dudley, West Midlands, and shows the former West Brom boss lifting a partially battered orange chip – a local speciality – to his mouth, while wearing his trademark touchline suit and tie. So what did Allardyce make of it? 'Absolutely privileged to be honest with you,' he cheered. 'I thought it was a very good likeness. Chips look a bit hot, but I really enjoyed seeing it. Whoever did it, thank you very much!' After professing his love for pretty much every club that has ever existed in his time on this planet, Snoop Dogg appears to have finally landed on one he is happy to invest in. It's not Football Daily's five-a-side team, alas. Nope, the LA rapper has donned the white shirt of Swansea City and joined Luka Modric in ploughing money into the Championship club. 'My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City,' he shizzled. 'The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working-class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me. I'm proud to be part of Swansea City. I am going to do all I can to help the club.' So there we have it. That's another LA native getting involved in Welsh football. But what we really want to know is: will he open up a burger van outside the Liberty Stadium? The former England footballer Paul Ince has been banned from driving and ordered to pay £7,085 for drink-driving. Switzerland, getting up for their Euros quarter-final, are taking inspiration from when their men's team beat Spain at the 2010 World Cup. 'We watched that game together because we wanted to share that piece of history with them,' declared head coach coach, Pia Sundhage. 'Johan [Djourou] spoke very emotionally about what it was like. Sharing stories brings us together and gives us strength.' Those purse strings at Old Trafford have been loosened enough to agree a deal for Brentford's Bryan Mbeumo. Alexander Isak is 'the best striker in the world', acording to Anthony Elanga, but the new Newcastle winger sidestepped questions over his teammate's future as a queue of potential suitors snaked around St James's Park. Udinese and Italy striker Lorenzo Lucca has joined Serie champions Napoli on loan for the season. And St Joseph's scored in extra-time of their Tin Pot qualifying second leg at Cliftonville to pip the NIFL Premiership side 5-4 and prove that there was drama away from Zurich in European football on Thursday. The Gibraltan powerhouses face Shamrock Rovers in the next round. Rock on! Jonathan Liew captures England's swing from shambles to euphoria on a night of pure chaos. Tom Garry dishes out the grades, with Hannah Hampton predictably top of the class. Barbra Banda is thriving for Zambia at Wafcon after a sex eligibility row. Are we on for a #content collaboration between Jack Grealish and Danny Dyer? Michael Butler explains all in the Rumour Mill. And Big Website now has a sport Bluesky account. Get following. 3 August 2015: The late John Motson is joined by a crowd of young lookalikes at the launch of a 'Motty Commentary Masterclass' at White Hart Lane. Not the best time of year to be wearing sheepskin.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
England go from shambles to euphoria as self-belief somehow sees off Sweden
The Letzigrund looks gorgeous under a pale pastel evening sun. The noise washes over the athletic track where Carl Lewis and Asafa Powell once broke the world record, and where Sweden are now flying out of the blocks and leaving England trailing in their dust. We do not yet know that in many ways this is simply the prologue, that this devastating early two-goal flurry is actually relatively benign in comparison with the carnage that will follow. We do not yet know that Lauren James will end up playing almost an hour in a double pivot. We do not yet know that Lucy Bronze will end up wearing the captain's armband on her wrist and kicking a giant credit card advert. Hannah Hampton, nose still unbloodied, has not the faintest inkling that this will end up being the greatest night of her career. But they all know something. Even if they're not entirely conscious of it. Even as an utterly shambolic England trail Sweden 2-0 and the obituaries for their Euro 2025 campaign are being scribbled, there is a little knot of refusal there, a team with an entirely unwarranted calmness at its core, a team that against all the available visual evidence still trusts that everything is going to work out eventually. Which, after half an hour of Swedish dominance, takes a pretty significant leap of faith. Alessia Russo has barely been able to get into the game. Georgia Stanway is manically scurrying around like a dog at a family barbecue. Jess Carter, based on her chasing and pointing and deathly reluctance to touch the ball, is clearly training for a future career as a referee. OK, so you may not have underestimated Sweden. But you may just have overestimated yourselves. And perhaps this was the inevitable outcome of a build-up focused almost entirely on Sweden's directness and physicality, on the need for England to show 'proper English' qualities. There was no clear plan on the ball, and precious little quality in it in any case: an entire team so absorbed by the grapple that they had forgotten to trust in their technical ability. Sweden, meanwhile, have come with an entirely transparent strategy: funnel the ball right, target England's left-back weakness with long balls over the top and in behind, and simply wait to collect your jackpot. England have no runners from deep, no flying full-backs, no real intention to create overloads, and just the same hopeless balls punted up the channels. Even so, they know something. They know the depth they possess on their bench. They know that they have the back three to fall back on, different combinations and angles of attack. They know they have the legs to last 90 minutes and 120 if necessary. And most of all they know they are up against a team already instinctively beginning to entrench themselves, whose tournament history suggests a certain hard-wired frailty that they can prod and exploit, if only they can take this game deep enough. And so the lateness of Sarina Wiegman's substitutions almost a kind of wilful stubbornness, a blind faith that things would eventually come good, in the absence of any corroborating evidence. The vivid patterns of Chloe Kelly transform England's right flank and the fresh legs of Michelle Agyemang offer a new threat alongside Russo. Bronze, by now suffused with main character energy, pops up at the back post to convert Kelly's cross. Less than two minutes later, Agyemang pounces on Kelly's header to level the game. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Even as Sweden survive to extra time, even as they continue to create chances on the counter, there is an almost irresistible momentum building behind England as penalties approach. Even amid the farce and fragility of that penalty shoot-out, it is Sweden who crumble under the pressure while Bronze, Kelly and Hampton hold their nerve. In a way, you could scarcely hope to see a better example of the power of self-branding in tournament football. England have so often turned up with no more elaborate strategy than simply *being England*, making a virtue of doing just enough, simply hanging in there and trusting in their intrinsic pedigree to see them through. It was a strategy that powered a flawed team all the way through the last World Cup final, and may just be good enough to do so again here. It is slightly trite to conclude that great teams win when playing badly. Perhaps the hallmark of certain great teams is in sensing almost subconsciously when they are allowed to play badly and when they are not, when the level needs to be raised, when the stakes are at their sharpest. It will probably be good enough against Italy; it will probably not be good enough against Spain or France. But for now this curate's egg of a team rolls judderingly, thrillingly, onto its next grand climax.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Fastest women's marathon runner provisionally SUSPENDED after testing positive for banned substance - having beat previous world record time by TWO MINUTES
The fastest female marathon runner in the world has been provisionally suspended for the 'presence and use' of a banned substance. Kenya's Ruth Chepng'etich, who smashed the world record time by two minutes last October, is under scrutiny or a sample collected on March 14 this year. The test found hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a diuretic which helps to reduce the amount of water in the body by increasing the flow of urine. Chepng'etich opted for a voluntary provisional suspension in April while an investigation was ongoing, but now the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has formally imposed a provisional ban. It has left the long-distance running world in shock after her time of 2:09:56 at the Chicago Marathon last year breezily surpassed any that had ever before been set. 'Chepng'etich was not provisionally suspended by the AIU at the time of notification, however, on 19 April, she opted for a voluntary provisional suspension while the AIU's investigation was ongoing,' said AIU head Brett Clothier. 'In the intervening months, the AIU continued its investigation and today issued a Notice of Charge and imposed its own provisional suspension.' For a test to come back as positive for HCTZ, the concentration needs to be at least 20 nanograms per milliliter. Chepng'etich's sample returned an estimated concentration of 3,800 nanograms per millileter. The AIU said that HCTZ is 'used clinically to treat fluid retention and hypertension.' It is a class S5 Prohibited Substance, banned at all times, and a Specified Substance. The standard sanction for Specified Substances is two years' ineligibility. Chepng'etich has the right for her case to be heard before a Disciplinary Tribunal. In April, she withdrew from the London Marathon, claiming that she was 'not in the right place mentally or physically' to put in her best performance. For winning the Chicago Marathon last year, she earned around £74,500 and a further £37,300 for breaking the record. She averaged an astonishing 4:57.4 per mile.
Malay Mail
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Malay Mail
‘World's oldest marathon runner', the ‘Turbaned Tornado', dies aged 114 in road accident
NEW DELHI, July 15 — India's Fauja Singh, believed to be the world's oldest distance runner, has died in a road accident aged 114, his biographer said Tuesday. Singh, an Indian-born British national, nicknamed the 'Turbaned Tornado', died after being hit by a vehicle in Punjab state's Jalandhar district on Monday. 'My Turbaned Tornado is no more,' Fauja's biographer Khushwant Singh wrote on X. 'He was struck by an unidentified vehicle... in his village, Bias, while crossing the road. Rest in peace, my dear Fauja.' Singh did not have a birth certificate but his family said he was born on April 1, 1911. He ran full marathons (42 kilometre) till the age of 100. His last race was a 10-kilometre event at the 2013 Hong Kong Marathon when 101, where he finished in one hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds. He became an international sensation after taking up distance running at the ripe old age of 89, after the death of his wife and one of his sons, inspired by seeing marathons on television. Although widely regarded as the world's oldest marathon runner, he was not certified by Guinness World Records as he could not prove his age, saying that birth certificates did not exist when he was born under British colonial rule in 2011. Singh was a torchbearer for the Olympics at Athens 2004 and London 2012, and appeared in advertisements with sports stars such as David Beckham and Muhammad Ali. His strength and vitality were credited to a routine of farm walks and a diet including Indian sweet laddu packed with dry fruits and home-churned curd. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute on social media. 'Fauja Singh was extraordinary because of his unique persona and the manner in which he inspired the youth of India on a very important topic of fitness,' said Modi on X 'He was an exceptional athlete with incredible determination. Pained by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family and countless admirers around the world.' — AFP
