Another New Zealand athlete has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
Photo: Photosport
Hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe broke the Oceania record with a throw of 73.55 metres to win the national title on day one of the New Zealand Track and Field Championships in Hastings on Friday.
Ratcliffe's sixth national title came ahead of Lauren Bruce, who has also qualified for the Games and was less than a metre back with a best throw of 72.76m.
On Saturday, middle distance runner Camille Buscomb added a third medal to her collection.
After winning 5000m gold yesterday and bronze in today's 800m, Buscomb produced a storming finish to take the 1500m title.
Meanwhile Tom Walsh promised he was in his best shape this year and the three-time world champion duly delivered to take out his 12th national title with a season's-best and championship-best performance of 21.79m.
The 29-year-old Cantabrian has slowly cranked through the gears after a slow start to the season and was pleased with his efforts, producing 21.77m in round three bettered in the final stanza with his best of the day.
Following her resurgence at the Sir Graeme Douglas International in Auckland, when she produced her longest throw for five years, Dame Valerie Adams was a little disappointed with her best throw of 18.43m en-route to a record equalling 17th national shot title.
VAR under EPL spotlight
Referee chiefs are reportedly working on an action plan to improve the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) in the English Premier League and any changes to the system will be passed on to match officials ahead of the new season.
The introduction of the Video Assistant Referee has not been completely smooth in football. Photo: Photosport
VAR was brought into the league last season, but it is unpopular with many English top-flight managers following a number of contentious calls, with growing concern about the time to make decisions and the precision with which offsides are judged.
Fans also feel it goes far beyond its original remit to review the most glaring mistakes.
The VAR action plan, which follows a survey of managers, captains and sporting directors, will focus on two issues - improving consistency of decision-making on subjective calls and interpretation of marginal offsides, the Times said.
"The purpose is to identify improvements to the VAR system and form a common understanding of where a VAR interpretation is expected and how changes can be made to increase consistency," clubs were told at a Premier League shareholders meeting.
- Reuters
Henry hits out at racism
Former France international Thierry Henry says he will be disabling his social media accounts to protest against the platforms for not taking action over anonymous account holders who are guilty of racism and bullying online.
Former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Henry, who has 15 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, said the platforms needed to tackle these issues with the same effort they put into taking down material that infringes copyright.
Thierry Henry Photo: Reuters
"From tomorrow morning I will be removing myself from social media until the people in power are able to regulate their platforms with the same vigour and ferocity that they currently do when you infringe copyright," Henry said in a statement.
"The sheer volume of racism, bullying and resulting mental torture to individuals is too toxic to ignore. There HAS to be some accountability.
"It is far too easy to create an account, use it to bully and harass without consequence and still remain anonymous. Until this changes, I will be disabling my accounts across all social platforms. I'm hoping this happens soon."
Last month English soccer's governing bodies said that Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were "havens for abuse" and urged the social media companies to tackle the problem in the wake of racist messages aimed at players.
- Reuters
Brumbies go top in Super Rugby AU
The ACT Brumbies moved to the top of the Super Rugby AU standings on Friday with a comprehensive 42-14 win over the Western Force at Canberra Stadium.
Issak Fines-Leleiwasa scores a try for the ACT Brumbies. Photo: Photosport
A four-try first half blitz earned Dan McKellar's side the win and a bonus point to move ahead of the Queensland Reds ahead of the Reds' match-up with the NSW Waratahs on Saturday.
The Brumbies dominated throughout and, after the Force held firm despite the early pressure, it was the sin binning of Tevita Kuridrani that turned the game in the home side's favour.
The Wallabies centre was shown the yellow card for a deliberate knock on in the 19th minute and it took less than a minute for his old team to capitalise, powering out to a 28-0 halftime lead.
The Force did manage two tries in the second half, but the Brumbies matched that to comfortably secure a six tries to two victory.
- Reuters
Verstappen shows early velocity
Max Verstappen set the pace in the first practice session of the Formula One season in Bahrain as his Red Bull team immediately lived up to expectations that have soared since testing.
Max Verstappen. Photo: Photosport
The Dutch youngster, who was fastest overall in pre-season testing at the same Sakhir circuit with a car that looked stable and quick, set a best time of one minute 31.394 seconds on Saturday (NZ time).
Valtteri Bottas, who has won the opening race of the championship for the past two years, was second fastest and 0.298 slower for champions Mercedes.
McLaren's Lando Norris was third fastest, with a car now powered by a Mercedes engine after the switch from Renault, with seven times world champion and fellow Briton Lewis Hamilton fourth for Mercedes, 0.527 off Verstappen.
Norris had gone top with 27 minutes to go before Bottas went faster and then Verstappen, who reeled off a string of fastest sectors in the closing minutes.
- Reuters
