Sport

Rory McIlroy: Breaking club in PGA Championship at Wentworth was ‘weird feeling’

Published

11 hours ago

September 19, 2024

Rory McIlroy: Breaking club in PGA Championship at Wentworth was 'weird feeling'

His approach shot at the 12th still finished six feet from the hole, enabling the four-time major champion to secure a birdie.

“Thankfully the ball went where I wanted it to – it could have been a lot worse,” McIlroy said.

An eventful first round also saw him putt left-handed at one point, while his tee shot on the 17th bounced out of the trees, and he also hit his approach to the 18th out of bounds.

Last week’s Irish Open runner-up is aiming to repeat his only previous success in the PGA Championship back in 2014 and also make a further move towards clinching a sixth DP World Tour Race to Dubai crown.

“Five under, I would have taken that at the start of the day, especially because the wind is getting up and the closing stretch is playing pretty tough,” McIlroy said.

“I played well and it was a bit of a continuation of what I was feeling last week.”

McIlroy lost out by one shot to Dane Rasmus Hojgaard at Royal County Down last weekend, having enjoyed a four-shot lead at one point during the final round.

“Getting on to a course – playing RCD for four days and coming here feels like getting a bit of breather and a bit more room to play,” McIlroy added.

“It’s nice to feel a bit more freedom off the tee. It was a solid start.”

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MMA

The best 20 UFC knockouts

Published

1 min ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

Mixed Martial Arts is not for the faint-hearted, irrespective of whether you are fighting or watching.

Any UFC fighter worth their salt has been on the receiving end of a hefty blow or two – even Conor McGregor.

But what are the best-known knockouts? And who delivered them?

Here’s the top 20 in UFC history – decided by UFC itself.

Warning: the following video contains scenes viewers may find disturbing:

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Sport

Commonwealth Games 2026: Will Glasgow be the final host?

Published

20 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

Commonwealth Games 2026: Will Glasgow be the final host?

So, why does Glasgow think it is an event still worth having?

Firstly, they believe the numbers add up. Glasgow’s calculations are that a combination of CGF funds, a financial sweetener from Victoria and private investment will avoid the use of any UK public money.

The 2026 Games programme will also be slimmed down to lighten the load on the bottom line.

The plan is to stage as few as 10 sports, compared to the 18-strong schedule in 2014, and to use existing venues rather than build from scratch.

The way Birmingham projected a feel-good face onto England’s second city shows the success the Games can be.

However, the city’s subsequent financial struggles, with its council effectively declaring bankruptcy in September 2023, also underlines the stakes involved.

Clare Hartley is the co-founder of Arc Event Consultancy and has worked with multi-sport event organisers, including Manchester 2006 and Birmingham 2022, for nearly 25 years,

“It is just very hard to put these multi-sport events on,” she says.

“They are very expensive, they require a lot of different venues and logistically they are very challenging.

“Multi-sport events are huge projects that take up so much money and time and more countries and cities are weighing up more carefully whether it is worth hosting them.”

The sporting calendar is far busier than it was in 1930, when the first Commonwealth Games took place, offering star athletes lucrative alternatives but also giving potential hosts the chance to put on events that better suit local tastes and budgets.

The Commonwealth Games – which has necessary infrastructure and a variety of venues comparable to an Olympics, without the bumper broadcasting receipts or global sponsorship deals to offset them – will always be a tricky proposition.

“You look at Singapore,” says Hartley.

“It is a sporting nation, part of the Commonwealth, a prosperous nation, and they are hosting the World Aquatics Championships next year, rather than bidding for the Commonwealths.

“There are so many sporting opportunities out there, nations can pick and choose a little bit and the Commonwealth Games has not been of as much interest.”

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MMA

What is UFC, what is MMA and what are the rules?

Published

22 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

What is UFC, what is MMA and what are the rules?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, also known as UFC, has become one of the fastest-growing sports in the US and in the last few years increasingly caught the attention of fight fans in the UK, too.

But what is it, how was it formed and what are the rules?

Here’s our guide on what you need to know.

What is UFC?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is a mixed-martial arts promotion in which a series of fights take place around the world, also known as fight nights. It calls itself the “premier organisation in MMA”.

Mixed martial arts, of course, is nothing new dating back more than 5,000 years.

But UFC brings together some of the world’s best mixed martial artists, fighting each other at different weights with a main event taking place once a month. There are more than 40 events each year.

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Football

'Schillaci was a man who lived for goals'

Published

23 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

'Schillaci was a man who lived for goals'

Italian football expert Mina Rzouki remembers Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci, who has died aged 59.

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Sport

The Champions League's new table explained

Published

41 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

The Champions League's new table explained

The Champions League will follow a new format from 2024-25 – BBC Sport explains what will change and what will stay the same.

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MMA

Conor McGregor ‘to address US Congress in rights campaign for MMA fighters’

Published

43 mins ago

September 20, 2024

NewsAdmin

Conor McGregor 'to address US Congress in rights campaign for MMA fighters'

There have also been complaints about lower-ranked UFC fighters being awarded title bouts simply based on their ability to sell television pay-per-view subscriptions, which is a core element of the UFC’s income in the United States.

Despite losing in the 10th round against Mayweather, McGregor has indicated that he may box again, and a handful of other UFC fighters have expressed an interest in lucrative one-off boxing bouts.

Legal experts have been discussing in the media whether McGregor is now a boxer in the eyes of the law, and thus entitled to the protection of the Act, or if he will lose that protection when he returns to the UFC.