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Prep talk: City Section track and field preliminaries set for Thursday

Prep talk: City Section track and field preliminaries set for Thursday

No more taking it easy in City Section track and field. It's time to start reaching peak form when the preliminaries will take place on Thursday at Birmingham High in preparation for next Thursday's finals at the same venue.
Field events begin at noon and running events start at 1 p.m. Birmingham has a new Mondo track surface that should produce faster times.
Carson has won nine consecutive City titles in girls' track and field.
Junior Christina Gray will be back in the sprints. She won the Marine League 100 and 200 events last week.
In the boys' competition, there's some terrific matchups, particularly in the 400, where Granada Hills' Justin Hart will be preparing to face Venice's Nathan Santa Cruz. In the sprints, Birmingham's Antrell Harris won the West Valley League 100 meters in 10.85 seconds.
General admission tickets are $12 and $8 for students. The finals next week begin at 4 p.m. with running events. …
The Southern Section track and field championships will take place Saturday at Moorpark High School. Field events begin at 10:30 a.m. and running events at 1 p.m. Admission tickets are $14 for adults and $7 for students and can be purchased in advance at gofan.co. …
The Southern Section baseball playoffs open Thursday in Divisions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Here's the link to the schedule.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

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Michail Antonio could make his comeback next week – but has he played his last game for West Ham?
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Michail Antonio could make his comeback next week – but has he played his last game for West Ham?

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Advertisement Lijnders' partnership with Klopp followed the break-up of his long-term alliance with Zeljko Buvac. The Dutchman's ideas nevertheless took Liverpool to greater heights; arguably they played less heavy-metal football but they won the 2019 Champions League and the 2020 Premier League and pursued the quadruple in 2022. Lijnders during his time at FC Salzburg (Getty Images) His brief spell at Salzburg, like a similarly short stint at Nijmegen in 2018, could suggest that Lijnders is no manager. While he could coin Klopp-style soundbites – 'our identity is intensity' was one – perhaps they didn't sound right without Klopp and he lacked his mentor's degree in people. Lijnders is thought to be aware of his shortcomings. As a coach, though, his reputation is safe. Klopp initially inherited him, asked by Fenway Sports Group's Mike Gordon to give him a go. He agreed, ringing the FSG president a few weeks into his reign to tell him that he didn't like Lijnders... he loved him. He brought him back to Anfield after Buvac left. Pep Guardiola with his Manchester City assistant Juanma Lillo at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in February (Getty) He played him at the racket sport padel, often losing to a man 16 years his junior; that was a sign of Lijnders' competitiveness. Unlike Peter Krawietz, Klopp's other assistant and a far quieter figure, Lijnders had a profile in his own right. He did the pre-match media duties before Carabao Cup games, to prepare him for the return to management, which then backfired. Advertisement Instead, he has now joined a select group who have crossed the great divide and played a part for arguably the two most influential managers of their generation. For Ilkay Gundogan, Robert Lewandowski and Thiago Alcantara it was as players. For Lijnders, in the opposing dugout for titanic duels as Klopp enjoyed a rare winning record against Guardiola, it is as a coach. Liverpool could win the games but, over 38 matches, it was City who won the titles in Lijnders' last four seasons at Anfield. He couldn't beat Guardiola, so he has now joined him. You can sign up to DAZN to watch every Club World Cup game for free

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