Latest news with #BBCSportNI
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Three live Northern Ireland internationals in seven days on BBC Sport NI
The Northern Ireland women and men's teams are in action with three games in seven days and BBC Sport NI will have live coverage of all three. Following a setback against Poland last Friday, Tanya Oxtoby's side face a crucial final Nations League group game away to Bosnia-Herzegovina tomorrow evening (Tuesday 03 June). Avoiding defeat in the showdown in Zenica would mean Northern Ireland finish second in the group and secure a promotion play-off place. The game will be live on BBC iPlayer with kick-off at 6pm. The Northern Ireland men's team play two friendly internationals in preparation for their World Cup qualifiers in the autumn. They travel away to face Denmark on Saturday 7 June (kick-off 6pm) before hosting Iceland at home on Tuesday 10 June (kick-off 7.45pm) at the National Stadium at Windsor Park. Both games are live on BBC Two Northern Ireland, BBC iPlayer with live audio commentary on BBC Radio Ulster. KM2 Follow for more
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cheptegei to run in Antrim Coast Half Marathon
Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei is to compete in the Antrim Coast Half Marathon on Sunday 24 August. The 28-year-old Ugandan won gold in the 10,000m at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, setting a new Olympic record in the process, and holds the world record at 5,000m and 10,000m. He is the reigning three-time world champion in the 10,000m and also won gold in the 5,000m in the 2020 Olympics. Cheptegei says he is "very excited" to make his debut in the event. "I've watched the race on television and the course looks beautiful and very fast," he said. "My teammates both hold the course record and now it's my turn to run here." Race director James McIlroy said Cheptegei's involvement is the "culmination of a few years' hard work behind the scenes". "To have the reigning double Olympic champion and double world record holder headline a very fast race, we believe it to be the fastest in the world, it's going to be fantastic," McIlroy told BBC Sport NI. McIlroy explained that previous attempts had been made to bring Cheptegei to the event. "This isn't the first conversation we've had on it. He was going to come for a couple of years but the diary had to suit timing wise. "Obviously the Olympic Games last year in which he was retaining his title didn't help us for 2024. "Once he confirmed the Amsterdam marathon, we were confirmed as well, which was fantastic news for us." McIlroy is expecting other big names to sign up for this year's event but acknowledges Cheptegei will be the main attraction. "Effectively what you have got is the most high-profile runner in the world currently running on one of the most beautiful roads in the world. "We know he's bringing two pacemakers. He has said he's going to run a very fast time by his own admission. "He has run two half marathons in the last two years, one in New York City and one in New Delhi. They are both massive races so to be featured in the same breath as those races is fantastic."
United News of India
21-05-2025
- Sport
- United News of India
West Indies will hold nothing back : Paul Stirling
Clontarf, May 21 (UNI) Ireland captain Paul Stirling said there will be "nothing held back" in his side's one-day international series against West Indies in Dublin this week. The Irish will host West Indies here on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday before three T20 contests against the same opponents in Bready next month. The two white-ball series will be West Indies' first games in Ireland since 2019, and Stirling expects a full-throttle challenge from the tourists, who face England in between their two trips to Ireland. "I think when they bookend a tour against us and England, they always bring their strongest side and that's very pleasing," the 34-year-old opener told BBC Sport NI. "It's not just a series against us, where teams can play a few new faces or slightly less strong. They're playing England in five ODIs next week, so they've brought their full squad and that's the big challenge. "We've got the West Indies squad that will face England so there will be nothing held back." Ireland secured a 2-1 ODI series win over West Indies in June 2022 before an eye-catching T20 World Cup victory over the same opponents in Hobart later that year, which was their most recent meeting. Stirling is hoping his side can get off to a good start on Wednesday as they chase another big win. "They always bring a flavour to the games and usually some big-hitting, so hopefully we can negate that and start well," he said. "That's the case for us when you get a touring side coming over into these conditions, which they're not necessarily used to from the Caribbean, to start well and put them under pressure early and see if we can maintain that throughout the day." UNI BM
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'No regrets' - Keane, Saipan and the story of a lifetime
With just two words and three syllables, Stephen Watson knew he had the scoop of his career. In Saipan airport on the eve of the 2002 Fifa World Cup, the BBC Sport NI presenter had not found Roy Keane in a particularly talkative mood but, such was the furore unfolding around the Republic of Ireland captain, any word from the mouth of the Manchester United midfielder would be the stuff of global headlines. The Cork native's forthright views on his side's preparations for the tournament in Japan and South Korea had sparked a week-long saga and provided the biggest story in the build-up to world's largest sporting event. One minute he was headed home, the next he was staying, but with just one utterance into Watson's microphone as Keane waited for his unexpectedly early return flight it became clear that the chances of a thawing of the frosty relationship with manager Mick McCarthy were remote. How did Keane feel about the sequence of events that had led to him being sent home from what should have been the biggest tournament of his life? "No regrets," he told Watson. "The biggest story of my career," recalls the presenter in the first episode of Hold the Front Page, which airs on BBC One NI at 22.40 BST on Monday. Watch: Stephen Watson interviews Roy Keane in Saipan What triggered the Roy Keane row in Saipan? As the programme - which delves into how journalists broke their most memorable stories - shows, the troubled relationship between Keane and his international boss dated back to when they were international team-mates. When the side arrived in Saipan for their tournament preparations without sufficient kits or footballs, Watson remembers wondering whether Keane's complaints were going to become "something that actually sticks and becomes a major problem or just a storm in a teacup". It soon became clear it would be the former with the fallout becoming one of the most infamous episodes in Irish sporting history, one that more than two decades later will be the subject of an upcoming film starring two-time Oscar nominee Steve Coogan. First Keane was to leave of his own accord, then he was to stay but retire from international football after the tournament. Finally, when word broke of how he had criticised his manager and the Football Association of Ireland in media interviews, he was on his way home eight days before his side's tournament opener. Watson says he was "still finding his feet" in his new job after joining BBC NI but soon found himself thrust into a huge sporting story, one which the time difference ensured would play out across a virtual 24-hour news cycle. "I didn't know as many of the Republic of Ireland players as I did the Northern Ireland players, so it was more a chance for me to try and get to know them," he recalls of the initial assignment. "Relationships in my job are the most important thing. Building relationships with sporting stars is absolutely key, but as it turned out, having those relationships didn't actually matter when the Roy Keane story broke." Watson admits he "took a gamble" to trust his instincts to stay behind when the Republic of Ireland team, and as a result the majority of the press pack, departed for Japan. "My feeling was if Roy Keane's staying here, I'm staying here. "There was the slightest opportunity that we could get some pictures of him, if we could get an interview with him even better. "It was a long shot." When Keane slipped out the back of what had been the team hotel to head for the airport and start his journey home, Watson and a few remaining photographers thought they had missed their chance but followed in a waiting van. "There was a heightened tension within that van because we thought we'd missed him. Suddenly, very close to the airport, we saw [Keane] in a white van and we were euphoric," Watson remembers. "Roy knew that he'd been rumbled and he jumped out of the van and then all hell broke loose I suppose. The flashbulbs went off left, right and centre. "I said to the cameraman we need to go and ask some questions and I fired off four, five, six questions and [Keane] never changed his gaze, he never even looked at me." As Keane waited in line for security, Watson tried again with the player's brief answers that followed the "gold dust" he had chased. "It was a short interview but anything said by Roy Keane was going to be powerful," he adds. Indeed it was with the quotes soon travelling far and wide. The Keane saga cast a shadow of Republic of Ireland's tournament. Reportedly written on the wall of the team's dressing room as they reached the last 16 of the tournament...'no regrets'. Watch 'Hold the Front Page: Roy Keane in Saipan' on Monday, 19 May at 22.40 BST on BBC One NI and BBC iPlayer.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lowry 'disappointed' with first round in US PGA
Shane Lowry admitted he struggled to get to grips with the course at the Quail Hollow after a disappointing first round at the US PGA Championship. The Irishman shot a first round of 73 to finish on two over par, ending with a costly bogey on the ninth after a run of four pars before that. The 2019 Open winner was frustrated with his troubles at a course he conceded he finds difficult. "I always struggle around here, and it was another one of those days. I'm disappointed but I'm more disappointed with my finish than my start," he told BBC Sport NI. "I had two great chances on seven and eight and then bogey nine is really annoying, but it is what it is." The 38-year-old knows improvement is necessary in the second round as he attempts to make the cut. Lowry is seven shots off leader Ryan Gerard, although he is one shot ahead of close friend Rory McIlroy, who also endured a tough opening round. "I just have to shoot a low one tomorrow, but I don't see the ball going close out there and I don't see birdies, so it is tough when it's like that," he added. "I'll give it my best tomorrow and see what happens."
