Near perfect Froome claims fourth Tour title
Chris Froome put on a near-perfect performance to claim his fourth Tour de France and move within one title of cycling’s greatest on Sunday as Team Sky tightened their grip on the classic race.
The Briton suffered a few hiccups but was always in control over the three-week race thanks to his excellent team mates who sheltered him when it mattered, leaving the lanky rider to make the difference in the time trials.
Sky, who have the biggest budget of the peloton, have now snatched five of the last six titles and came within a whisker of placing two riders on the podium as Spain’s Mikel Landa missed out on the top three by one second, according to provisional timings.
Froome is now one title behind Belgian Eddy Merckx, Spain’s Miguel Indurain and French duo Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault. He is the first to win three consecutive titles since Indurain, who prevailed from 1991-95.
Spaniard David Ferrer claimed his first ATP Tour title in almost two years by seeing off Alexandr Dolgopolov to win the clay-court tournament in Bastad for the third time on Sunday.
Ferrer came through 6-4, 6-4 to seal the 27th title of his career, but first since October 2015 when he won in Vienna. The former French Open finalist, now ranked 46th in the world, was cruising to victory with a 5-1 lead in the second set, but needed seven match points to eventually get over the line.
The sports ministry has revoked the suspension of Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) and granted it annual recognition for 2017.
VFI secretary-general Ramavtar Singh Jakhar said through its July 20 order, the ministry has recognised the results of the federation elections held on April 11, 2016. The VFI was provisionally suspended in December 2016 following infighting between president Avadesh Kumar and Jakhar.
A women’s 50km race walk will feature at the London 2017 world athletics championships for the first time in order to ensure gender equality, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Sunday.
Previously, women only competed in a 20km race walk in the competition and the Olympic Games, while men competed over the same distance and in a 50km event. The women’s 50km race walk was only recognised by the IAAF as an official event from January of this year.