Sport in brief
David McNamee plans to get his triathlon season off to the flyer in France tomorrow before targeting the Ironman world title later this year,
The Scot, who has joined the Swiss-based Cereneo team, heads into the Aix-en-Provence 70.3 race with high hopes after shining in his debut campaign last year.
It was a steep learning curve for the 27-yearold who opted to move up in distance to avoid the logjam building up to qualify for this summer’s Olympics.
But he insists the switch will properly pay dividends in his second term on the circuit.
“It’s been looking really good,” McNamee said. “I’ve had an injury-free winter and that’s allowed me to get more comfortable on the time trial bike. Plus it’s been good having the help of the team behind me.”
Fellow Scot Fraser Cartmell, who was 13th in Aix last year, will make his debut for new team Pewa in today’s Volcano Triathlon in Lanzarote. Serena Williams has pulled out of next week’s Madrid Open because of illness.
The world No.1 said in a statement on the tournament’s website: “Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from Madrid because I’ve been battling the flu and I’m not at 100 per cent. I look forward to returning soon.”
Williams has played only three tournaments this season and is yet to win a title, losing in the final of the Australian Open and at Indian Wells before a fourth-round exit in Miami a month ago.
Should the 34-year-old also miss the tournament in Rome in a fortnight, she would go into the French Open without having played on clay since last summer.
After coming so close to winning the calendar Grand Slam last season, Williams’ dominance appears to be on the wane, although she still has a healthy lead in the rankings.
Agnieszka Radwanska will take over as top seed for the tournament ahead of Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber.
The news comes the day after Roger Federer confirmed he would play in Madrid having previously kept his options open.
Meanwhile, Heather Watson and Naomi Broady both won their opening matches in qualifying for next week’s Madrid Open.
British No.2 Watson won two tight sets against Lucie Hradecka to triumph 7-6 (11/9) 7-6 (7/4) while Broady was an impressive 6-2 6-4 winner over France’s Oceane Dodin. Lewis Hamilton is keeping hopes of ending a six-race winless streak in check despite setting the fastest time in Russian Grand Prix practice.
Hamilton has been cast 36 points adrift of Nico Rosberg after the opening three rounds of a campaign which has been blighted by factors largely out of the world champion’s control.
But Hamilton returned to the top of the order in Sochi on a day where Red Bull unveiled the canopy, a cockpit protection device which could become mandatory in Formula One next season, and Ferrari encountered yet more woes in their troubled start to 2016.
For Hamilton, a winner in each of the previous two races staged here, he posted a best lap of one minute and 37.583 seconds to finish nearly three quarters-of-a-second faster than Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel with Rosberg, quickest on Friday morning, almost one second adrift of his Mercedes team-mate.
“The last session was better, but Nico didn’t get a good lap in so you don’t know where he is,” said Hamilton. “I am definitely not getting ahead of myself right now, and I am going to keep working and chipping away at it.”