Sport news in brief
Leeds confirmed as Championship winners
Leeds United have their first silverware for 28 years without kicking a ball after being crowned Sky Bet Championship winners. Marcelo Bielsa’s men saw their 16-year Premier League exile end on Friday as West Brom lost at Huddersfield and were then upgraded to champions as Brentford were beaten at Stoke. The West Brom result sparked a night of celebration at Elland Road and Leeds will take the party to Derby today for their penultimate game of the season. Lifting the second-tier crown will see Leeds open the trophy cabinet for the first time since 1992 when they won the old First Division and Charity Shield titles.
“A word about Norman Hunter and Jack Charlton, two club legends we lost recently and who would have certainly celebrated this achievement with us,” owner Andrea Radrizzani said. “They are part of a great legacy that we will work hard to honour, as we continue to take strides forward in a new cycle for this fantastic club.”
Mourinho tells players to play like ‘bastards’ in leaked clip
Leaked footage of a new fly-on-the-wall documentary about Tottenham Hotspur appears to show Jose Mourinho demanding his team play like “bastards” and “intelligent c***s”. Speaking in a team meeting, Mourinho can be seen praising his players for being “a very nice group of guys”, before adding: “But for 90 minutes, you cannot be nice.” He goes on: “For 90 minutes you have to be a bunch of c***s. Intelligent c***s. Not stupid c***s. Bastards in the sense that you are there to win matches.” The clip, which surfaced on social media, appears to be from the new Amazon Prime Video documentary All Or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, which chronicles Spurs’ 2019-20 season.
Olympic figure skater Alexandrovskaya dies, aged 20
The Australian Olympic Committee has confirmed the death of former world junior pairs figure skating champion Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya in Moscow. The cause of the 20-year-old’s death on Friday has not yet been disclosed. She was born in Russia but in 2016 obtained Australian citizenship and competed for her adopted country at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with skating partner Harley Windsor. The pair won the 2017 world junior title. Alexandrovskaya retired from the sport in February after sustaining several injuries.
Windsor, Australia’s first Indigenous athlete to compete at a Winter Olympics, said he was “devastated” by the news of Alexandrovskaya’s death. “The amount we had achieved during our partnership is something I can never forget and will always hold close to my heart,” he said in an Instagram post.