'It means the world': Maro Itoje on British & Irish Lions series win
Maro Itoje, the Lions captain, hailed a 'massive squad effort' after the game. 'I'm delighted, it's what dreams are made of.' The Lions head coach, Andy Farrell, said: 'If you're a child watching that back home, do you want to be a British and Irish Lion? One hundred percent.'
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The Sun
2 minutes ago
- The Sun
It's been ugly at times but the beauty about our Lionesses is this isn't the end — they are never done
SCREAMS fill the air, tears flow and beer rains down to ecstatic chants of 'It's coming home' — and I couldn't be more proud. Our wonder women have done it again. 3 3 Euros champions for the second time in a row after defeating Spain and putting to bed our World Cup heartache from 2023. Football is called 'the beautiful game' — but this tournament has, at times, been anything but that for our brave Lionesses. Even the most die-hard fans will, at some point, have thought: 'We're surely done now . . .' But we have kept bouncing back. Whether it was a last-minute equaliser, an extra-time winner or heart-stopping penalty shootout. It's been a campaign of resilience, ugly at times, and we've had to fight. The Lionesses were the tournament's most passionate team and were rightly rewarded. Now they enter the history books as England's most successful football team and the nation will never forget the euphoria they have gifted us. There are moments I'll never forget — such as the Sweden shootout when Lucy Bronze fired a simply sublime penalty into the roof of the net in the 13th of 14 kicks. It made me think: 'They will always find a way.' Now they have brought football home yet again and the beauty is, this isn't the end. Now we want to complete the set with the 2027 World Cup. That's the wonderful thing about our Lionesses, they are never done.
The Guardian
2 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Double golden joy as Australia's swimmers triumph at world championships
Australia ended the opening night of the swimming world championships with a dose of double golden joy after the country's men and women prevailed in the 4x100m freestyle relay events. There was heartbreak to begin the night after Australian Sam Short was pipped by 0.02 of a second by German world record holder Lukas Maertens in a thrilling 400m men's freestyle showdown in Singapore. But the relay events proved to be Australia's saviour, propelling them to the top of the standings. First, Olivia Wunsch pulled off a huge late comeback to fire Australia to an upset victory over the US in the women's 4x100m freestyle relay. Then Kyle Chalmers achieved the same result for Australia's men, reeling in a sizeable lead from the US to snare gold. The Australian coaching staff celebrated wildly upon each victory. Australia entered Sunday night's 4x100m women's relay with a new-look team featuring Mollie O'Callaghan, Meg Harris, Milla Jansen and Wunsch. The US were hot favourites to win, but Australia threw a spanner into the works by clawing their way into the lead by the time Wunsch dived into the water for the final leg. American Torri Huske quickly re-took the lead and held a half-length margin with 50m remaining before Woods came storming home to snatch victory. 'I definitely can't believe it,' Jansen told Channel 9. 'This is something that I wanted growing up. I was feeling very nervous coming into this, but it's just a dream come true.' Australia finished in a time of 3:30.60, with the US (3:31.04) in second. The Australian men followed suit, with the quartet of Chalmers, Flynn Southam, Kai Taylor and Maximillian Giuliani posting a world championship-record time of 3:08.97 to defeat Italy (3:09.58) and the fading US (3:09.64). 'I've kind of lost my voice already from cheering so hard,' Southam said. 'I'm just so happy to be here, and we all swam out of our skin, and we did it for the country, and we're so proud of ourselves.' Earlier, in the first medal event of the championships, Short overcame an early deficit to hit the lead with less than half the race remaining. The 21-year-old still led by a fingernail with 50m to go, and was neck-and-neck with Maertens right until the end. Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion Short, the 2023 world champion who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics, couldn't hide his disappointment upon touching the wall and seeing he had lost by two hundredths of a second. Maertens, the Olympic champion, posted 3:42.35 to narrowly beat Short (3:42.37). South Korea's Kim Woomin finished third in 3:42.60. 'I won two years ago by 0.02 and today I just lost by 0.02,' Short said. 'I'm happy to be back on the podium after a hard last year. So, you know, I can't complain. 'I just want to dedicate that performance there to my auntie who passed away a couple weeks ago. As bad I was hurting there, it's nowhere near as bad as her battling cancer for 10 years. So I had to toughen up and get it done.' In a stacked women's 400m freestyle field, Australian Lani Pallister (3:58.87) produced a personal-best effort but it was only enough to finish fourth. Canadian world record holder Summer McIntosh (3:56.26) blitzed the field to win gold, China's Li Bingjie surged late to finish second, while the legendary Katie Ledecky had to be content with bronze. Australia's 400m Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus didn't feature after deciding to skip the world championships to give herself a mental and physical breather.
The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Luke Littler beats James Wade to claim World Matchplay crown for first time
Luke Littler won his first World Matchplay crown as James Wade's remarkable run in Blackpool fell at the final hurdle. Littler claimed a hard-fought 18-13 victory at the Winter Gardens to become the fifth player to win the PDC triple crown - Phil Taylor, Michael van Gerwen, Gary Anderson and Luke Humphries having also won World Championship, Matchplay and Premier League titles. Wade was in his seventh Matchplay final 18 years on from his solitary success in 2007, which came six months after Littler was born. Littler's scoring power in a high-quality contest proved decisive - he hit 17 180s to Wade's six in averaging 107 - and set a new tournament record of 64 maximums, beating Adrian Lewis' previous best of 56. 'It means absolutely everything,' Littler told Sky Sports after winning the last four legs to hold the Phil Taylor Trophy aloft. 'I idolise Phil, he's come here 16 times and won it. Now my name is on this trophy - and I can say I've completed the Triple Crown. 'Since I started on the tour and got my tour card I've always said to myself, 'as long as I win one of every major I'll be happy'. I've only got a few left to tick off and I'll definitely chase the majors I haven't won yet.' Littler had to mount another comeback 24 hours after losing the first five legs of his semi-final to Northern Ireland's Josh Rock. Wade stormed into a 5-0 lead but did not have a single dart at a double in the second mini-session as Littler levelled in style. The 42-year-old left-hander produced an 11-darter in the next, but Littler responded by winning successive legs to lead for the first time at 7-6. Wade managed to keep in touch, helped by a bull finish in the 19th leg, and fought back from a double break down to cut the gap to just one at 14-13. But Littler pulled away and crossed the line in style with a 115 out shot (20-57-38), the biggest finish of the match. 'A little bit,' Littler said when asked if he had felt in control. 'Five-nil down once again, I said, 'I've been here before, what are you doing?' But I managed to pull it out of the bag and win the next five. I've shown I can come back from 5-0 or 7-3 down. I'm happy I can pull myself out of these scorelines, but I don't want to be 5-0 down again. James started to drop off a bit and I started to find my best darts.' Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion By winning the title 18-year-old Littler became the youngest ever champion in Matchplay history, six years younger than Wade when he lifted the title.
