Esteban Ocon has publicly rejected claims that a confrontation with Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu turned physical, after the team abruptly removed him from the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend. The statement, issued on Saturday, is the only account of events so far from anyone involved, and it leaves several questions open.

What led to the Haas dropping?

The trouble appears to have started in second practice on Friday. Race engineer Laura Mueller told the Frenchman that the plan to run soft tyres had changed and he would use the mediums instead. Ocon’s response was caught on team radio: “No, no. I want to do soft… don’t do that to me, come on.”

On Saturday morning Haas announced that Ryo Hirakawa would take his car for the rest of the weekend. No reason was given. The team confirmed only that Ocon was not ill. Team principal Komatsu told Sky Sports F1 he could not say much, adding that the team was focused on getting Hirakawa in the best shape for qualifying.

The report Ocon is pushing back against

The physical-confrontation claim traces back to France’s L’Equipe. According to the BBC’s summary of its report, a meeting between Komatsu and Ocon “ended abruptly, perhaps even physically”. The wording is tentative, and none of the sources reviewed offers evidence of what happened in that meeting.

Ocon’s statement acknowledges that “a difference in viewpoints led to a discussion with the parties involved.” He then drew a firm line: he “categorically” rejected “any reports or allegations suggesting that any form of physical violence was used to resolve any differences of any nature.” He added that he “strongly condemn[s] violence in all its forms” and asked for speculation to be avoided “while the matter is being addressed”, with further updates promised “in due course”.

So there is a gap between what is confirmed and what is rumoured. Both sides agree a discussion took place. A physical element has been reported but denied, and Haas has not publicly addressed it.

A season already winding down for Esteban Ocon

The incident lands on a relationship that was already ending. Haas announced last month that Ocon would leave at the end of the season, with Rafael Camara, the Formula 2 championship leader and a Ferrari driver academy member, taking the seat. Ocon has been at the team since the start of 2025.

His results this year have been modest. Sky Sports notes he has scored seven points, 16 fewer than team-mate Oliver Bearman. The 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix winner, who took that victory with Alpine, currently has no seat for next season.

Whether he will race for Haas again this year is unclear. The team has not commented on its line-up for next weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix, and sources close to Ocon’s management have not said either.

Reaction and the Hirakawa factor

Former world champion Jenson Button, speaking as a Sky Sports F1 pundit, was blunt about the sporting cost. He argued that a driver without a future seat should be driving as hard as possible to prove his worth, and that Ocon “has possibly thrown away the rest of his career in F1” over a tyre disagreement in practice. That is one pundit’s opinion, and it is based on the tyre dispute alone, since the full circumstances are not public.

Hirakawa, meanwhile, got his opportunity at 32. He qualified 19th, which made him the oldest F1 debutant since André Lotterer at Caterham in 2014, according to Sky.

For now, the facts are thin. A radio row over tyres, a post-session discussion that Ocon confirms, a team that will not explain its decision, and a denial of violence that the team has neither backed nor contradicted. Until Haas or Ocon provides the promised update, the reason behind the removal remains unexplained.

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File photo: Esteban Ocon 2017 Malaysia 1.jpg by Morio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Header image: AI-generated illustration by WordUp News.

The Atlanta Dream led at halftime and were one win from their first championship, but WNBA Finals Game 7 ended in a 68-63 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday night at Chase Center. The Valkyries took the title in only their second season as a franchise, winning the series 4-3.

Williams Turns a Quiet Half Into a Finals MVP Night

Gabby Williams had just two points at halftime, with Atlanta up six. She finished with 30, 28 of them in the second half, and was named Finals MVP. Her third quarter alone produced 15 points and a 45-44 Valkyries lead going into the fourth. Sky Sports noted she scored her team’s final 11 points of the period. She also blocked four shots, and teammate Veronica Burton said Williams told them at the break that she “just got to get going.”

The decisive blow came late. Atlanta had pulled level at 57-57 with less than three minutes left, helped by baskets from Allisha Gray and Jordin Canada. With 2:18 remaining, Williams hit a 31-foot three-pointer to make it 60-57, and Golden State never trailed again. Williams joined Penny Taylor, who did it in 2007 for Phoenix, as the only players in WNBA history to score 30 or more in a winner-take-all Finals game.

The win also ends a run of near misses for the 30-year-old. She lost the 2024 Olympic gold-medal game to the United States by a point while playing for France, and fell to the U.S. again at the FIBA World Cup in September. “I just walked into a group full of love,” she said afterward. Coach Natalie Nakase called her “our closer.”

Atlanta Let a First-Half Edge Slip Away

For two quarters, the Dream looked like the team that would win. They held Golden State scoreless for more than five minutes in the second quarter, and Canada scored 13 of her 18 points in that period alone. Gray added 16. But Atlanta could not contain Williams on the perimeter once she found her rhythm, and the Dream spent most of the second half chasing the game.

Reese’s Struggles Shadow the Dream’s Season-Ending Loss

Angel Reese finished with eight points on 3-for-7 shooting, 12 rebounds and four turnovers. OutKick reported that she did not attempt a field goal in the fourth quarter. Her only point of the period was a free throw with 18.6 seconds left. The numbers over the last four games of the series were rough: 12-for-45 from the field (26.7%) and 19 turnovers. Game 7 was her fourth straight game with more turnovers than made baskets.

Reese’s postgame message, per an OutKick headline, was “We’ll be back.” Atlanta’s roster showed enough to back that up, but the series suggested the Dream still need more late-game answers, especially when the offense stalls. In the first half of Game 7 it went nearly six minutes without scoring before Reese ended the drought with a layup.

Off-Court Questions Linger in Atlanta

The Dream’s season came with logistical problems that predate the Finals. Most home games were played at Gateway Center Arena in College Park, which seats about 3,500 and is reportedly the league’s smallest venue. Before the series, ownership published an open letter saying its concerns “did not receive the attention, nor the urgency that they deserved,” a line that pointed toward Commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s league office. Whether that framing holds up is debatable, since Golden State also dealt with venue issues last year yet sold out games.

Another storyline ran through the series. OutKick reported that both teams left the floor during the national anthem before all seven games, a pattern that continued before the finale.

On the floor, the night belonged to Golden State. The sell-out crowd at Chase Center erupted as confetti fell and players rushed the court. For the Valkyries, that was a title won in just their second year. For the Dream, it was another Finals defeat, this one after leading at the half.

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After years of near-misses and a long spell outside the world’s top 100, Britain’s Harriet Dart has finally landed the Harriet Dart WTA title she dreamed about as a child. The 30-year-old came through qualifying in Guangzhou and beat Austrian teenager Lilli Tagger 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the final of the WTA 250 event.

A final that swung on one missed forehand

It was Dart’s first tour-level final, and it did not go smoothly. She dropped serve in the opening game and lost the first set to fourth seed Tagger, the 18-year-old who won the 2025 junior French Open. Dart levelled the match by taking the first break point she saw in the second set, for 5-3.

The decider was a scrappy, nerve-jangling affair, with five consecutive breaks of serve. Dart twice saw a lead wiped out before she broke again to go 4-3 up, then saved two break points to hold for 5-3. She earned two championship points on Tagger’s serve in the next game. Tagger saved the first with a big serve, and Dart put a mid-court forehand into the net on the second.

She did not let it linger. Dart served out the match, sealing it with an unreturned serve, and fell onto her back on the court before celebrating with her team. “It’s crazy to be sitting here as champion after coming through qualifying,” she told BBC Sport.

Built on resilience

The run was defined by comebacks. Dart saved three match points in her semi-final against China’s Sun Xinran, and her win over Tagger was the fourth time in seven matches that she came back after losing the opening set. “This week shows that even when I’m down – and people think I’m down and out – I’m still able to overcome it,” she said.

That fighting quality has been central to a strong second half of the season. Dart has won 19 of her 24 tour-level hard-court matches since Wimbledon. Her record for the year is now 23 wins from 34 matches, the highest winning percentage of her career. Reports credit her work with former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli as a significant factor in the turnaround.

What the Harriet Dart WTA title changes

The result matters beyond the trophy. Dart, the British number five, was ranked 115th before the final. She reached a career high of 70th in 2024, when she made the Wimbledon third round and the US Open second round, but has spent most of the past two seasons outside the top 100. When the new rankings are released on Monday, she will be back inside it.

That also secures her direct entry into the main draw of the Australian Open in January, so she will not have to play qualifying at the first Grand Slam of the season.

Tagger, who beat seven-time major champion Venus Williams on her way to the final and is ranked 53rd, was gracious in defeat. “It wasn’t fun to be on the other side of the court today – you’ve had an amazing year,” she told Dart. Dart returned the compliment, saying she had “no doubt Lilli will go on and win multiple titles”.

For Dart, the week was about more than ranking points. “Since I was a little girl, lifting a trophy on the WTA Tour has been something I’ve dreamt of,” she said. “To be able to finally do it is amazing.” She added that she hopes to return to Guangzhou next year.

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File photo: Dart RGQ23.jpg by si.robi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ciara Mageean, the Irish middle-distance runner who won European 1500m gold in Rome in 2024 and competed at two Olympic Games, has died at the age of 34. Her family announced that she died at 6.30am on Sunday, surrounded by her loved ones, after a battle with cancer.

The news came just days after a celebration of her marriage to long-term partner Thomas Moran. According to the sources, the couple had a small civil ceremony in Belfast in October. They then celebrated with family and friends at Darver Castle in County Louth on 25 October, a week before her death.

A champion from Portaferry

Born in Portaferry, County Down, Mageean played camogie for her local club before an ambition to reach the Olympics steered her towards athletics. Her junior record showed the promise early. She won 1500m silver at the 2010 World Junior Championships and again at the 2011 European Junior Championships, and she reached the Commonwealth Games 1500m final at 18.

The senior years were harder. A serious ankle injury ended her hopes of competing at London 2012, and she needed surgery in 2013. She came back to win the Irish 1500m title in 2014, and in 2016 she took European bronze in Amsterdam. Her Olympic debut in Rio ended at the semi-final stage. At Tokyo, a calf injury disrupted her preparation and she went out in the heats.

Her best years came later. In 2022 she won 1500m silver at both the European Championships and the Commonwealth Games, behind Laura Muir each time. Two weeks after the Euros she beat Muir in a strong field at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels. In 2023 she finished fourth in the World Championships final in Budapest and took the Irish mile record from Sonia O’Sullivan. She also held national records over 800m and 1000m.

The Rome victory that defined Ciara Mageean’s career

After a run of near-misses at major championships, Mageean finally won a global-level title in Rome in 2024. Boxed in behind the Great Britain pair of Georgia Bell and Jemma Reekie in the final, she found a gap and drove down the home straight to win in 4:04.66. The victory made her the first individual Irish European champion since O’Sullivan, and it completed a set of European outdoor medals after her bronze in 2016 and silver in 2022. She had long been admired for honest, emotional post-race interviews, and she said afterwards that “words can’t even come close” to describing the moment.

The Paris Olympics brought more heartbreak. An Achilles injury forced her to withdraw on the eve of her heat.

Facing illness in public

Mageean was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2025. The sources differ slightly on the timing: the BBC puts the diagnosis in May 2025, while Yahoo Sports says she announced it that July. She kept many details private for a long time. In June this year, while promoting her memoir, My Greatest Race, she revealed that her oncologist had given her two to three years to live.

She did not withdraw from public life. She filmed an adventure series in Costa Rica and explained why in plain terms: “If I’m going to die, I’m going to fit as much living into the years that I have left.” In another interview she said she was not scared to die but did not want it to happen soon. She also told the BBC she was grateful for a career “that many others didn’t get to have”.

Tributes across the island of Ireland

Political and sporting figures from both sides of the border paid tribute. Taoiseach Micheál Martin spoke of his deep sadness. Tánaiste Simon Harris called the news heartbreaking and praised the honesty with which she spoke about her illness. Irish President Catherine Connolly pointed to her “strength and perseverance” and her clear speaking. She also noted her advocacy for people suffering in Gaza and other conflicts.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill said that beyond the medals and records, Mageean would be remembered for her “warmth, courage and tremendous strength of character”. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly described her as an outstanding ambassador for her sport. Athletics Ireland, which named her its Athlete of the Year in 2022, said it was heartbroken. Broadcaster Patrick Kielty called her “a champion of others who showed us all how to live”.

Down GAA stressed that she never lost her sense of place. It said she cheered on club and county when she could and sent messages of support, and that she “showed us courage, positivity and the value of life”.

Her family’s statement ended with a traditional Irish blessing. For a runner whose career was shaped by injuries and near-misses before it peaked in Rome, the response suggests she mattered to people well beyond the sport. Ciara Mageean leaves a husband, parents, family and friends, and an Irish athletics record book she rewrote.

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File photo: Irish middle distance runner Ciara Mageean in 2020.jpg by Bob Ramsak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The headline news at Villa Park on Saturday night was that Goretzka starts for Aston Villa against Fulham, and the early evidence suggests the hosts have made the most of a tricky fixture. A live scoreboard snapshot from Sky Sports showed Villa 1-0 up, with N Jackson credited with the goal in the 39th minute.

What the sources tell us about Goretzka starts

The detail behind the headline is thin. The live blog page was unavailable when the source was captured, so there is no confirmed team sheet, formation or description of the role Leon Goretzka was given. The fact that Goretzka starts comes from that live coverage’s title alone. Nothing in the material examined explains how he has performed or why the manager chose him, so any claim about his influence on the game would be speculation.

Why the match was moved to Saturday night

The Premier League game was played at 8pm on Saturday 31 October. It was brought forward from Sunday because Villa travel to Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, according to the Mirror. That context helps explain why a rotation-minded manager might freshen the side, though the sources do not say that is what happened here. In the UK the game is on Sky Sports, with coverage from 7.45pm. In the United States it is on Peacock from 4pm ET.

Form guide: ninth against 15th

The table gave Villa a mild edge before kick-off. They sat ninth after eight league games, with three wins, two draws and three defeats. Fulham were 15th with two wins, two draws and four losses. A home win would extend that gap, while a Fulham fightback would add to the uncertainty around Villa’s start to the season.

Off the pitch, the Mirror noted that manager Unai Emery has been linked with Manchester United, a story that drew a sharp public response from pundit Jamie Carragher. The sources do not suggest it affected Saturday’s preparations.

A busy Premier League Saturday

Villa’s game was one of several on a crowded day. Earlier, Chelsea hosted Manchester United at 12.30pm BST, a match billed as pivotal for both clubs. United were winless in eight games in all competitions, and Michael Carrick was still in charge despite expectations that a 3-0 loss to Bournemouth would end his tenure. Villa’s own result matters in that wider table picture, though the sources do not say how much.

The 1-0 scoreline is only a snapshot from before half-time, and the final outcome is not confirmed by any of the material reviewed. What can be said is that Goretzka starts, Jackson has put Villa ahead, and Fulham have work to do in the second half.

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File photo: Leon Goretzka Ecuador v Germany 25 June 2026-159.jpg by Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Talk of a Makhachev retirement has moved from rumor to something close to a stated plan. UFC welterweight champion Islam Makhachev said on X that his next fight will be “one of the last in my career,” a remark that has put a rough timeline on the end of one of the most dominant runs in the sport’s history.

What Makhachev actually said

The 35-year-old Russian stopped short of announcing an exact exit date. He framed the next bout as a final statement. “They say Prates is too dangerous for me and Morales is too good for me,” he wrote. “So I want to face the best of them and prove to the world once again who is the best in the world.” That means he is targeting the winner of the interim welterweight title fight between Brazil’s Carlos Prates and Ecuador’s Michael Morales.

The wording matters. “One of the last” leaves room for more than one fight, so this is not a formal retirement announcement. Still, it is his clearest signal yet that the end of his career is near.

A record streak and a near-perfect résumé

Makhachev arrives at this point with a strong case for being one of the greatest fighters the UFC has produced. He beat Ireland’s Ian Machado Garry by unanimous decision at UFC 330 in Philadelphia in August to defend his welterweight belt. It was his 17th straight UFC win, which took him past Anderson Silva’s long-standing record for the longest streak in the promotion’s history. The former lightweight champion is 29-1 overall and is ranked the UFC’s pound-for-pound number one.

UFC chief Dana White has said Makhachev is “on the right path” to being regarded as the promotion’s greatest ever. A Makhachev retirement while still champion, and still unbeaten in the UFC for years, would give that argument a tidy ending.

The scheduling dispute behind the interim title

The announcement comes amid a public disagreement over timing. White said Makhachev was originally due to defend against Prates in January but chose to wait until after Ramadan. Al Jazeera reports that Makhachev will observe the holy month in February and early March 2027 and return in the second quarter.

White was blunt about it. “On average, Islam fights like once a year,” he said, adding that “you can’t hold up divisions like this.” He created the interim title bout to keep the division moving, saying the fight “makes sense.” The champion has since described it as the way to find “the true worthy contender.”

The fighters who will decide his next opponent

Prates and Morales meet on 30 January 2027 at UFC 336 in Toronto, where Al Jazeera says the fight is the co-main event. Prates, 33, has knocked out his last three opponents. Morales, 27, is 19-0 as a professional. One is a proven finisher and the other is unbeaten, which gives Makhachev the style contrast he seems to want for a closing chapter.

The remaining questions are practical. It is unclear how many fights Makhachev has in mind, and the dates for his return depend on the interim result and his Ramadan break. For now, the Makhachev retirement story rests on a single sentence from the champion, but it gives fans a likely end point for a record-setting career.

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File photo: Islam Makhachev 2022 UFC belt.png by Новости ННТ, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A thousandth of a second separated Lando Norris from Kimi Antonelli at the top of the timesheets in Mexico GP final practice, and it left the weekend’s pole-position fight wide open. The reigning world champion edged the man poised to succeed him, with the result landing just hours before qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

A margin too small to read anything into

Antonelli had set the benchmark with a 1m17.601s, shortly after voicing his irritation over Max Verstappen getting in his way at Turn 1. He looked set to improve, going purple in the first sector of his next push, but never completed the lap. That gave Norris the opening, and the McLaren driver took it by the narrowest possible margin to post the fastest time of the weekend so far.

Charles Leclerc was 0.117s back in third after a late improvement, with Norris’s team-mate Oscar Piastri fourth. Verstappen, struggling with his brakes, was fifth and 0.351s off the pace. Sky Sports described a “genuine three-team fight” for pole, while Autosport pointed to the closeness of the four leading teams.

Ferrari’s potential versus its practice pace

Leclerc had led both Friday sessions, so third place felt like a step back for Ferrari. Lewis Hamilton had lost track time in FP2 with engine trouble but briefly topped the medium-tyre runs on Saturday morning with a 1m18.162s. An untidy final sector on his soft-tyre lap left him sixth, more than four tenths adrift. Mercedes’ George Russell was seventh, having complained of a lack of grip at Turn 12, the right-hander leading into the Foro Sol stadium.

Sky Sports’ analysts argued Ferrari still hold more potential than they showed. Leclerc was visibly sliding the car on most of his flying laps, and Jamie Chadwick said the team struggled to deliver on the first soft-tyre laps, “when it counts”. There is a recent precedent too: Ferrari topped every practice session in Austin last week, then faded in qualifying as Antonelli took pole.

Title within reach for Antonelli

The stakes are high for the 20-year-old Mercedes driver. He needs only a top-nine finish on Sunday to become Formula 1’s youngest world champion, and has reportedly promised to win the title in style. Norris’s narrow victory in Mexico GP final practice means he heads into qualifying with a point to prove as the man being succeeded.

Penalties, engine trouble and a Haas shake-up

Verstappen cannot take pole whatever he does in qualifying. He and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson each carry a one-place grid penalty for their FP2 collision, which the stewards called “unacceptable”. Both drivers admitted the clash was “unnecessary and clumsy”. Lawson finished ninth in the session, narrowly ahead of rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad in tenth. Verstappen said the incident was “not smart” for someone in Lawson’s position, with the New Zealander not yet confirmed at Racing Bulls for next season.

Verstappen’s team-mate Isack Hadjar was eighth, and called his Red Bull “the worst car I’ve driven this weekend”. Away from the track, the FIA gave the 22-year-old a formal warning after footage showed him pushing aside a fan who was trying to take a selfie. The stewards said he was reacting to “an uninvited and rather aggressive act” by someone who was “invading his personal space without consent”.

Reliability problems hit the midfield. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto set no time after a power unit problem on his out-lap, with smoke seen from the engine. Home favourite Sergio Perez also failed to set a lap, and Cadillac said it would make a “precautionary engine change” before qualifying.

The biggest surprise came from Haas, which replaced Esteban Ocon with Ryo Hirakawa for the rest of the weekend. The team offered no explanation, though Sky Sports reported it confirmed Ocon was not ill. Ocon had a heated radio exchange with his race engineer in FP2, and he is already due to leave Haas at the end of the season. Hirakawa, a Le Mans 24 Hours winner making his race-weekend debut at 32, finished 19th, about six tenths behind team-mate Oliver Bearman. Haas has not said who will drive in Brazil next weekend.

With tyre runs yet to deliver anyone’s best lap, qualifying looks set to be decided by who strings a clean first soft-tyre lap together under pressure.

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File photo: 2025 Japan GP – McLaren – Lando Norris – FP1.jpg by Liauzh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

One leg of darts, 15 throws and a £501,000 cheque: that was the outcome of Netflix’s Beat Luke Littler in Manchester on Friday night, when Fallon Sherrock became the only contestant to topple the reigning world champion.

Sherrock, 32, won the bull to throw first, hit a 180 (only the third maximum of the night) and finished on double 20. Littler, 19, had beaten 14 challengers before her. He called it “world class” and noted that winning the bull and going out in 15 darts was exactly what a challenger needed to do. Sherrock’s win ended the event immediately, so the five amateurs still waiting never got their turn.

A prize second only to Littler’s own

According to Sky Sports and the Independent, the payout is the second-biggest in darts history. Only Littler has taken home more from one prize pot, the £1m he earned for his second world title in January. For comparison, Sherrock won £25,000 for reaching the third round of the 2019 PDC World Championship, the run that made her the first woman to win a match at the event and earned her the nickname “The Queen of the Palace”. She was awarded an MBE in 2023.

Sherrock said her son Rory was in the crowd. “It’s his first time at anything and he has seen me win,” she said. Sixteen-time world champion Phil Taylor called the win “life-changing” and said it could clear a mortgage.

The criticism over who counts as an amateur

The victory came with an argument attached. Netflix billed the show as giving “amateurs a chance at life-changing money”, and Sherrock’s name on the list drew criticism on social media because of her profile. She qualified under the rules because she has never held a PDC Tour Card.

She admitted the backlash was “tough”. “I wouldn’t class myself as a pro really, because all I do is just play darts for the enjoyment of it,” she said. She added that people forget she was still playing World Darts Federation events when she made her Worlds breakthrough. Her reaction after winning was: “I’m just so happy to overcome all the hate and win.”

PDC president Barry Hearn, who sat on the audition panel, defended her place. “She’s entitled to enter. Why should she be denied?” he asked. He argued that a field of 20 people who could barely throw a dart would make poor television, and said the aim was “excellence competing against excellence”. Other contestants ranged from the world’s top-ranked WDF player to a bin man, an Australian jockey and a Nando’s manager.

How the field was built

The scale of the project was considerable. Some 25,000 people applied. Hopefuls first had to get down from 501 in 24 darts or fewer, then face an interview panel that included Taylor, Hearn and pundit Laura Turner. Sixteen players were picked outright, while the most experienced were paired off and put to a Netflix viewer vote. Sherrock took 75% against Germany’s Jarod Becker to earn her place.

Not everyone’s night ended well. Ireland’s Pearse Mackle, a 21-year-old student from County Cavan, was close to winning but missed the bullseye he needed.

The format fits a growing trend of amateurs-versus-stars spectacles. The Australian Open’s one-point tennis slam produced a A$1m winner who beat Jannik Sinner, and 100 amateur drivers recently raced Max Verstappen at Silverstone. Hearn linked the Netflix event to Littler’s arrival. “Luke Littler gave me the one thing I was missing, he gave me that young audience,” he said, adding that Beat Luke Littler was “a statement on where darts has become”.

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File photo: Fallon Sherrock – 2022 (cropped).jpg by Sven Mandel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Aston Villa legal action against Jamie Carragher was announced on Friday, and by Saturday the pundit had apologised, calling his own language “clumsy and wrong”. The row began with a podcast discussion about Unai Emery and Manchester United, and it escalated quickly into one of the more unusual clashes between a Premier League club and a television pundit in recent memory.

The club’s statement was posted on social media and signed by chairman Nassef Sawiris. “Aston Villa will initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his unacceptable insults about the club and its fans,” it read. It ended with a line that gave the dispute a wider meaning: “Aston Villa will not allow anyone to stop our ascension in English and European football.”

What Carragher said on the podcast

The remarks came on the Stick to Football podcast. Carragher was discussing the future of Michael Carrick, whose position at Old Trafford is reported to be in the balance after a dismal start to the season, and whether Emery might replace him. “Surely he would want that opportunity to manage a giant again,” Carragher said of the Villa manager.

He then set out what he called a “chain” in football. Real Madrid, he argued, can take Manchester United’s best player, as they did with Cristiano Ronaldo, while clubs below Villa can be raided by Villa for their managers and players. He told Villa supporters to “shut the f*** up” and added: “Aston Villa will never be Man United.”

Carragher’s defence, then his apology

Carragher first tried to calm things down by saying the comment was a joke. He said it was a response to “the stick Villa fans have given me” for suggesting Emery might fancy the United job. He also said he had praised Emery and Villa for years. On the Overlap Daily he went further, calling Emery the best manager in the league. He said any club in United’s position would ask “what’s the best we can get?”, and that a manager’s ego might push back on being told “that’s your level”. “It’s grown arms and legs,” he said.

That explanation did not end the matter. On Saturday he wrote on X: “I’d like to apologise to Aston Villa, the owners and their fans. My language this week was clumsy and wrong.” He insisted it had been tongue-in-cheek but accepted it “has not come across that way”, and signed off by wishing Villa luck in their home game against Fulham.

What we still don’t know

Several questions remain open. Reuters, cited by Al Jazeera, reported that the club did not say what legal basis it would rely on. Nor is it clear whether the apology will lead Villa to drop the Aston Villa legal action or press on with it. At the time of the Guardian’s report, the club had not responded publicly to the apology.

The sources also do not say what form any claim would take, or whether the club has formally contacted Carragher. Reuters said it asked for comment from both sides at the time of its initial report and did not immediately receive replies.

Why the reaction was so sharp

Villa’s reaction makes more sense given how the club has changed under Emery. Since he arrived four years ago, Villa have reached the Champions League twice and ended a 30-year wait for a trophy by winning the Europa League last season. This season, though, Emery has had to rebuild after six players from the Europa League final side left, some for higher wages and others for a more regular chance at silverware.

Against that background, a line that Villa will “never” match United is likely to land badly with a club and fanbase who see their rise as still in progress. Sawiris’s reference to Villa’s “ascension” suggests the club saw the comments as more than banter.

For Carragher, who works for Sky Sports and CBS, the episode is a reminder that the blunt style of modern football punditry can create real problems when it is aimed at a specific club’s supporters. The apology may help to defuse things, but the future of the Aston Villa legal action rests with the club.

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File photo: Football against poverty 2014 – Jamie Carragher (cropped).jpg by Ludovic Péron, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Durban Olympic bid is now South Africa’s official route to hosting the first Summer Games on African soil. On Thursday, the country’s Olympic committee named the east-coast city as its preferred candidate for either the 2036 or the 2040 Olympics and Paralympics. Officials could not yet say what it would cost.

The announcement came from Lwandile Simelane, acting president of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee. She said Durban would be the main candidate city but that the proposal would probably be a “multi-city bid”, with some events held elsewhere in the country. Johannesburg and Cape Town were also considered before Durban was chosen.

What the Durban Olympic bid is built on

The centrepiece would be the 56,000-seat Moses Mabhida Stadium, which was built for the 2010 football World Cup, the first held in Africa. Durban is South Africa’s third-largest city, home to around 4 million people on the subtropical Indian Ocean coast. Building a bid around an existing venue is a familiar way for candidates to signal restraint, and it sits awkwardly well with the city’s history of financial doubts.

A history of near-misses and cost worries

Durban was floated as an Olympic host more than a decade ago, after the World Cup, but no official bid materialised, largely because of concerns over cost. The city was also stripped of the 2022 Commonwealth Games because it could not provide the financial and other guarantees required. South Africa as a whole has tried before: Cape Town bid unsuccessfully for the 2004 Games.

Against that backdrop, the absence of a price tag stands out. Officials said they were not yet able to offer any estimate of what staging the Games might cost if the bid succeeds. Any credible Durban Olympic bid will eventually have to answer that question, particularly given the earlier Commonwealth Games withdrawal.

A crowded field and a long timetable

South Africa is one of seven countries bidding for the 2036 Games, alongside India, Qatar, South Korea, Germany, Hungary and Turkey. The International Olympic Committee set 31 October as the deadline for national committees to formally declare interest in 2036. Candidates can make virtual presentations to the IOC next month to begin the official process, and the IOC board is due to approve a shortlist in March. The host for 2036 is expected to be chosen in mid-2029.

Notably, South Africa is pitching for either 2036 or 2040, which suggests it may be prepared to wait if a rival is favoured for the earlier date. The sources do not say how the 2040 process would work.

Why it matters for Africa

If successful, South Africa would become the first African host of the Summer Games since the modern Olympics began in 1896. Momentum of a sort is building on the continent: the Youth Olympics open this weekend in Dakar, Senegal, which marks the first Olympic sports event ever held in Africa.

For now, the Durban Olympic bid is an announcement of intent rather than a funded plan. The coming months, from the IOC presentations to the March shortlist, will show whether South Africa can pair its historic pitch with the financial assurances that have eluded Durban before.

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File photo: Addington Beach, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (19892672743).jpg by South African Tourism from South Africa, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.