Latest - The New Zealand National team led by pro tour rider George Bennett appears to be the team to beat heading into the New Zealand Cycle Classic in Wairarapa.
George Bennett Photo: Photosport
The five day tour starts with a teams time trial around Masterton this evening.
Bennett, who now rides for UAE Team Emirates, is the current national champion.
He's joined in his team by Bora Hansgrohe rider Shane Archbold, former New Zealand Ironman champion Mike Phillips, development rider in WorldTour team Groupama FDJ Laurence Pithie and exciting young prospect Xander White.
There are 14 teams taking part in the UCI sanctioned event.
The tour finishes with a Wellington CBD criterium on Sunday.
Auckland Aces coach appointed to Ireland
The Auckland Aces cricket coach Heinrich Malan has been appointed head coach of Ireland.
Auckland Aces coach Heinrich Malan Photo: PHOTOSPORT
South African-born Malan succeeds Graham Ford, who stepped down in November after four years in charge.
Malan, 40, will take over in March on a three-year contract.
Malan, who lost the New Zealand head coach's job to Gary Stead in 2018, called his appointment "a huge honour".
"We have an exciting squad that has demonstrated that they have the ability to compete with the best players around the world," he said. "It is an exciting challenge and something that we, as a family, are really looking forward to."
Malan joined Auckland Cricket in April 2019; under the 40-year old's leadership, the Aces won the Ford Trophy in 2019/20 to go with five titles won during his time with the Central Stags (2013-19).
Malan has also assisted the Black Caps.
Ireland became a test-playing nation in 2017.
-Reuters
India and South Africa even in second test
Indian seamer Shardul Thakur pursued a simple formula for success as he took seven wickets on the second day of the second test against South Africa at the Wanderers.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
India's fourth choice bowler destroyed the home team's top order as he took five wickets before tea and then finished with figures of 7-61 in 17.5 overs for the best bowling performance by an Indian in a test in South Africa.
India bowled out South Africa for 229, allowing the home side a slender 27-run lead after the first innings.
The tourists were 85-2 at close, 58 runs ahead with three days left to play.
"There was some help in the pitch, so all you had to do was keep coming hard at the batsman, bowl in the right spots," said Thakur.
"The ball was kicking in and it was staying low a bit, so all I did was to try to hit my lengths."
India won the first test.
-Reuters
Liverpool make Arsenal postponement request due to COVID-19 cases
Liverpool have asked the English Football League to reschedule Friday's first leg of their League Cup semi-final against Arsenal due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases at the Premier League club.
Liverpool cancelled today's first-team training session.
"Among the considerations which led to today's application to the EFL is the need for travelling supporters to be given as much notice as possible of any potential postponement."
Manager Juergen Klopp, along with goalkeeper Alisson Becker, forward Roberto Firmino and defender Joel Matip were ruled out of the 2-2 draw with Chelsea at the weekend after returning positive tests.
Virgil van Dijk, Thiago Alcantara, Fabinho and Curtis Jones were also forced into isolation last month.
-Reuters
Osaka shows some rust in first match back
Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka was rusty on her return to action for the first time in four months yesterday but still advanced to the second round of the Melbourne Summer Set tournament with a 6-4 3-6 6-3 win over Alize Cornet.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Osaka, who last played competitively when she lost to Leylah Fernandez in the third round of the U.S. Open in September, displayed plenty of her trademark power but often lacked accuracy at the Australian Open warm-up event.
The Japanese player struggled with her first serve while committing 57 unforced errors, including eight double faults, as she eventually saw off the former world number 11.
"I feel like I probably made a lot of unforced errors today but I kind of expected that because it is the first match," said Osaka. "I was really nervous so I'm just glad that I was able to hold my serve on the last game."
The match was the first since Osaka announced she was taking an indefinite break from tennis following her loss to Fernandez at Flushing Meadows.
That decision brought an end to a season that had also seen her withdraw from the French Open citing mental health issues and miss Wimbledon during a mid-season hiatus.
-Reuters
Sainz wins third stage
Spaniard Carlos Sainz won the third stage of the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia with his Audi team celebrating a first for an electric hybrid car.
Carlos Sainz snr Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Spaniard, a triple Dakar champion, took his 40th career stage win when he finished 38 seconds ahead of Toyota's South African Henk Lategan over the 255km timed stage around Al Qaisumah.
The Audi RS Q e-tron prototype has three electric motors and a petrol engine to charge the batteries during the longer stages of the two-week endurance event.
Qatar's Nasser Al Attiyah strengthened his grip on the overall lead after closest challenger Sebastien Loeb suffered two punctures and a transmission problem that left him on two-wheel drive.
The Frenchman, a nine-times world rally champion racing for the Bahrain Raid Xtreme team, dropped 37 minutes behind his Toyota rival, who was eighth in the stage.
Argentina's Lucio Alvarez was third overall with South African Giniel De Villiers fourth despite a five-minute penalty for failing to stop after contact with Chilean motorcycle rider Cesar Zumaran on Monday.
In the motorcycle category, Britain's Sam Sunderland finished 17th but retained the overall lead even if it was cut to four seconds by French rider Adrien Van Beveren.
The stage was won by Portuguese rider Joaquim Rodrigues, whose brother-in-law Paulo Goncalves died in the 2020 Dakar, for the Indian Hero team. It was his first stage victory in the endurance event.
-Reuters
Washington set to release new name.
The National Football League's Washington Football Team said they will reveal their new name on Feb. 2 after a lengthy review on how to replace an original name that was widely seen as a racial slur against Native Americans.
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The club, which had long said they would never change the Redskins name, softened their stance in mid-2020 after a naming rights sponsor to their suburban stadium in Landover, Maryland urged the NFL team to rebrand.
The team said they would be known as Washington Football Team while they worked to finalize a replacement name and logo.
Wolves and RedWolves had been popular suggestions among fans during the rebranding process.
The team that became the Washington Redskins was founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves. Its name was changed to the Redskins the following year and it moved to Washington in 1937.
Many American professional and collegiate sports teams have nicknames on Native American themes.
The team have won three Super Bowls and are one of the NFL's marquee franchises, ranked by Forbes last August as the league's fifth most valuable franchise at $6.2 billion.
-Reuters
Serbian takeover of Saints
The investment firm Sport Republic, backed by Serbian billionaire Dragan Solak, has completed a takeover of Southampton by picking up an 80% stake in the English Premier League club.
Solak, who owns the United Group, a telecom company, acquired the club in a deal reportedly worth almost $200 million from Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng, who bought his 80% stake in August 2017.
Katharina Liebherr, who inherited Saints from her late father Markus in 2010 when they were in the third-tier League One, will continue to retain the other 20%.
Sport Republic is a London-based firm in the sports and entertainment industry with Solak as its lead investor. The company's portfolio includes Tonsser, a football app designed for young players to enhance their performance.
The deal is the third significant investment in a Premier League club in a space of months after Czech billionaire investor Daniel Kretinsky acquired a 27% stake in West Ham United in November and a Saudi Arabia-backed consortium bought Newcastle United in October.
Southampton are 14th in the league with 21 points from 19 games.
-Reuters
