McIlroy, Spieth in No 1 tussle
ILLINOIS: The back-and-forth between Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth at the top of the world rankings shows no sign of slowing down, with a further change possible after this week’s BMW Championship in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Northern Irishman McIlroy returned to the summit when the latest rankings were issued on Monday, the fourth successive week that he and American Spieth have traded places.
The margin between the two is a wafer-thin 0.023 average points, the narrowest gap between the world’s top two players since the official rankings were launched in 1986.
McIlroy and Spieth are both in the field for the BMW Championship, the penultimate FedEx Cup play-off event of the season, and either of them – along with thirdranked Australian Jason Day – could be world No 1 next week.
“It’ll be like that until one of us separates ourselves a little bit,” McIlroy said before tomorrow’s opening round at Conway Farms Golf Club.
“At the end of the day, it’s just about playing, and playing well. I don’t know any other way we could determine the best player in the world.
“You could do it on a oneyear point system instead of two. I think two years is a good reflection of how you played.”
Emphasis
The ranking system is structured on a two-year “rolling” period, with points awarded for each event and then maintained for a 13-week spell to give additional emphasis on recent performances.
Ranking points are then reduced in equal decrements for the remaining 91 weeks of the two-year time frame. Each player is ranked according to his average points per tournament.
“We’re all focused on our own goals,” said Masters and US Open champion Spieth, who became world No 1 for the first time after finishing runner-up to Day in the PGA Championship last month.
“As one, two and three in the world, we’re the three who have to beat each other at the top right now in order to try to get to the top, or to remain at the top (of the rankings).
“I’m not focused on what either one’s doing on the leader board unless they’re in the lead, and then if they’re in the lead, how do I get up there and surpass them?”
The only previous time there were changes at the top of the rankings for four successive weeks was in June 1997 when Greg Norman, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and then Norman again traded places.
The odds are good that McIlroy and Spieth will keep their “merry-go-round” at the top going into a fifth consecutive week and perhaps beyond, with Day in close pursuit.
Golf fans can savour the tantalising prospect of that trio challenging for supremacy in the blue riband events for at least the next five years with McIlroy aged 26, Spieth 22 and Day 27.
Between them, they have won five of the last six Major championships. – Reuters
Kamlesh Gosai
MARITZBURG United are on the hunt for a new coach following the expected dismissal of Mandla Ncikazi yesterday.
One point and one goal from four league matches left Maritzburg second-bottom in the standings, and was the primary reason for the club and coach parting ways.
“Despite good performances that the team displayed in some games, points were not forthcoming, and as a result the club and the coach have decided to amicably go their separate ways,” Maritzburg said.
Assistant coach Fadlu Davids will be in charge of the team until the club finds a replacement. The chances are that Davids will lead the side when they host Free State Stars next Tuesday at Harry Gwala Stadium.
Ncikazi took charge of the side at the start of the campaign for his first head coach role after serving as deputy to Steve Komphela, who departed for Kaizer Chiefs. Ncikazi had a bright start when Martizburg led 2-0 against Chiefs in the MTN8 Cup opening game, but their 5-3 capitulation signalled Maritzburg’s defensive frailties.
The Team of Choice subsequently drew goalless at home against promoted Jomo Cosmos, and lost their next three outings. The weekend home defeat to Bloemfontein Celtic was the final blow, and led to Maritzburg chairman Farook Kadodia requesting that the coach “do the honourable thing and resign”.
In Ncikazi’s defence, he started the campaign without last season’s regular defenders. Ghanaian international Mohammed Awal was sold to a Saudi Arabian club, former Ghana captain John Paintsil was sidelined because of work permit delays, and Kwanda Mngonyama returned to Mamelodi Sundowns following the conclusion of his loan deal.
Paintsil, Mngonyama and new recruit, Kenyan international Brian Onyango, were available for their first outing against Celtic.
However, the Celtic loss left them well off their target of collecting at least nine points from every five games. Had Ncikazi won that game he might have won himself more time to fix the mistakes at both ends of the park. BRAZZAVILLE: Track athletes Antonio Alkana and Caster Semenya both secured gold medals to push Team South Africa’s medal tally over the hundred mark at the African Games in Brazzaville, Congo on Monday.
Alkana sprinted and leapt his way to victory in the 110m hurdles, while Semenya blew the 800m field away in the twolap final.
The track and field section added another three bronze medals to the team tally while there was also a judo bronze from Zack Piontek. The six medals mean Team South Africa’s total medal count has risen to 102.
Alkana was fastest qualifier into the final, with a winning time of 13.32 seconds – a huge personal best for the Blue Downs, Western Cape athlete.
His previous best was the 13.47 he ran in Turku, Finland to qualify for this year’s World Championships.
“I knew I could run exactly this time. I’ve done it time and time again in training.”
Confident
Lyes Mokdell (Algeria) and Tyrone Adkins (Nigeria) had to settle for silver (13.49) and bronze (13.54) respectively.
Just 15 minutes after Alkana’s annexing of gold, - Semenya had the Team South Africa fans in the Stade D’Unite out of their seats as she swept to a 2 minute 01.00 second win.
It was a confident Semenya who started off quicker than has been the case in her recent races.
She lay second after 200m and stayed up front as the bell for the final lap sounded at exactly 60 seconds,
She was passed by three athletes with 200m to go but came around the outside gaining momentum and hitting the front as they entered the finishing straight. She held her position to the line.
“I was happy to wait for that last 200m because I wasn’t really worried about anyone in particular in this field.
“I’ve felt good at these Games and not concerned about fast times, it was the medal that counted.
“When I came around the outside of that last bend it was like a sling-shot throwing me to the front,” she grinned.
“My two main goals this year were world champs and these Games – to make it to the final at worlds and to get this medal here. It’s also nice to get a bit of consistency going, with times around the two minute mark.
“Now it’s back to the books and my sports science studies in Potchefstroom.”
The other medals that came South Africa’s way were Jaco Engelbrecht’s bronze in the shot put as his best heave of 19.55m saw him lying second at one stage to eventual winner, Congo’s Elemba Waka (20.25) but he was overtaken in the final stages.
Then there was another bronze for Fredriech Pretorius in the decathlon.
The final bronze of the night went to Julia du Plessis in the high jump as she cleared 1.80m as Seychellois athlete Lissa Labiche won with 1.91m.
Geraldine King was eighth with 1.70m. – ANA