Sports round-up
■ This weekend’s quarter-final ties in the Rugby Union World Cup are England against Australia and Ireland versus New Zealand on Saturday followed by Wales against France and host nation Japan versus South Africa on Sunday - this in the wake of after Typhoon Hagibis.
■ Last Saturday over 64,000 fans at Old Trafford saw St Helens beat Salford Red Devils 23-6 in Rugby League’s Grand Final.
■ Belgium, Italy, Poland and Russia have qualified for the 2020 European Championships while Croatia, France, Ukraine, Spain and Turkey will probably join them, along with England, whose players closed their ears to outrageous racial abuse when hammering Bulgaria 6-0 in Sofia on Monday. Earlier, Gareth Southgate’s team had suffered their first defeat in any Euro qualifying group game since 2009, losing 2-1 to the Czech Republic.
■ Elsewhere, the Republic of Ireland drew nil-nil with Georgia, Wales held Croatia 1-1 and Scotland splashed their way to a 6-0 win over San Marino... meaning all three countries are still in the competition, just!
■ Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) is now Spain’s most-capped player with 168th international appearances to his name. And he’s also Europe’s most decorated player in the game today.
■ Last week, for the first time in 40 years women, were allowed to attend a football match in Iran and they certainly enjoyed their day out as Iran walloped Cambodia 14-0 in a World Cup qualifier.
■ Sad news… the former Bristol Rovers defender and club’s record appearance maker, Stuart Taylor, has died at the age of 72. He played in 546 League games for Rovers between 1966 and 1980.
■ The former Premier League winning manager Claudio Ranierri is the new head coach of Italian club Sampdoria and Cyrille Regis, MBE who died in January 2018, has been inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame.
■ Last Sunday’s Japanese F1 Grand Prix was won by Valtierri Bottas with Sebastian Vettel second and Lewis Hamilton third. Hamilton is now in sight of his third drivers’ title in a row and his sixth overall while Mercedes have already clinched a record sixth consecutive constructor’s and driver’s double. There are just four races left in this year’s programme, with the next in Mexico City in two weeks time.
■ Last Saturday, Kenya’s Olympic champion Eluid Kipchoge, aided by pace-setters, became the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours, doing so in Vienna with over 20,000 spectators lining the route. His time was one hour, 59 minutes and 40.2 seconds. In fact, it’s taken 65 years for a runner to make sporting history – Roger Bannister was the last in 1954 when he became the first man to break four minutes for the mile.
■ Just 24 hours after Kipchoge’s effort, another Kenyan, Brigid Kosge broke Paula Radcliffe’s women’s world record marathon time by a massive 81 seconds.
■ The American Simone Biles has become the most decorated gymnast in World Championship history after gaining her 24th medal (18 of them gold) in Stuttgart.
■ Dutchman Michael van Gerwen has won his 5th Premier League Darts title.
■ American tennis star Coco Gauff (aged 15) has become the youngest player to win a WTA title since 2004 with victory over Jelena Ostapenko in the Linz Open in Austria. And Dan Evans, last week, replaced Kyle Edmund as Britain’s number one.
■ Ex-Arsenal and Chelsea goalkeeper Peta Cech saved two penalties on his ice hockey debut for Guildford Phoenix in a shoot-out victory over Swindon Wildcats.
■ Virat Kholi scored 254 not out in India’s total of 601-5 as they beat South Africa by an innings and 137 runs in the second Test in Pune. The win was India’s 11th in succession at home – a record.
■ And finally, at the recent World Athletics Championships in Qatar, US sprinter Alyson Felix won her 13th gold medal – replacing Usain Bolt (who won 11) as the most decorated world athlete of all-time.