SPØTTRUP, Denmark (AP) — With swords, axes and shields, competitors from 30 countries are going head-to-head in the grounds of a Danish fortress in a modern version of old-fashioned battle.

The International Medieval Combat Federation’s annual world championship roared into gear in northern Denmark this week. First staged in Spain in 2014, it features armor-clad competitors fighting with 14th-century medieval weapons. But it’s also a modern combat sport with safety rules and sporting conventions.

A mixture of historical and modern techniques

“It’s historically inspired,” combat federation spokesperson Kamila Studencka said. “It’s a mix of modern techniques with historical ones. We have something between full combat sports and fencing.”

And while the swords and axes are blunted, the battles are anything but harmless reenactments. Studencka said some competitors are attracted by “the violence,” while others prefer the technical aspects of face-to-face duels.

Earlier this week two firefighters died tackling a fire close to the airport

Bordeaux Airport has issued an update for passengers as wildfires blaze in south-west France and Spain, resulting in the evacuation of around 200,000 people.

In the early hours of Saturday evacuation orders were issued by the prefect of the Gironde region, covering parts of three of Bordeaux’s western suburbs, including its airport. The statement said: “As the fire continues to spread, and despite the significant resources deployed by firefighters, the situation requires the evacuation of residents from the affected areas to ensure their safety.”

Bordeaux Airport has issued an update to passengers. It states: “Airport operations are still ongoing. Bus and tram service has been suspended. No trams or buses between Mérignac Soleil and the airport.”

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easyJet flies from Manchester Airport to Bordeaux four times a week in summer, on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The next flight is expected to depart Manchester tomorrow evening at 6.05pm.

Earlier this week it was announced that two firefighters died while battling a huge blaze near the airport. On Tuesday, July 21, around 100 firefighters reportedly battled a blaze near one of airport’s car parks, which spread to a building after originating from a brush fire, BBC News reports.

Officials announced that two of the fire fighters had died. On July 22, Bordeaux Airport issued the following statement on social media: “Yesterday, in the face of the fire that occurred near the airport, Bordeaux Airport would like to acknowledge the commitment and courage of the firefighters from the SSLIA of the platform, the SDIS and all the services mobilized to protect people, infrastructure and the environment. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to them.

“Today, the entire airport community extends its sincerest condolences to the families, loved ones and colleagues of the two SDIS firefighters from Gironde who died in the line of duty and wants to pay tribute to their dedication and daily commitment to serving everyone.”

According to FlightRadar24, only two flights have been cancelled from Bordeaux Airport today. These were the 7.15am easyJet flight U21863 to Hurghada, and the 9.20am Air France flight AF7653 to Nice.

On Friday, July 24, the UK Foreign Office issued an update for Brits in, or travelling to the region, It stated: “Wildfires are affecting parts of Gironde, including areas around Saumos, Le Porge and Lège-Cap-Ferret, where French authorities have evacuated campsites, tourist accommodation and some residential areas. A separate wildfire is also affecting parts of Landes, including Biscarrosse and surrounding areas.

“Access to affected areas may be restricted and roads may close at short notice. If you are in the area or planning to travel there, follow the advice of local authorities, monitor local media, and check with your accommodation or travel provider before travelling. “

It added: “If you are affected by a wildfire or other emergency, call 18 (fire service) or 112 (emergency services).”

For more of today’s top stories, click here.

All traffic is being held on the M60 this morning (July 25) as Greater Manchester Police respond to an incident.

Traffic service Inrix first noted the incident at 10:50am today as an ‘obstruction’ on the clockwise carriageway between junction 22 (Failsworth) and junction 23 (Ashton-under-Lyne).

In an update at 11:20am National Highways confirmed that the carriageway was shut due to a ‘police-led incident’ with Greater Manchester Police ‘leading’ at the scene.

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There are delays of around 45 minutes and three miles of congestion on approach, the service said.

This is a live incident – updates to follow.

Iran‘s new Supreme Leader is far more willing to pursue a nuclear bomb than his late father, US intelligence agencies believe. 

It is a dramatic shift that sharpens the stakes as President Trump weighs fresh and bigger military action.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei took power after his father, longtime leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed earlier in the conflict in an Israeli strike reportedly backed by US intelligence.

For years American officials judged Ali Khamenei’s religious ban on nuclear arms to be genuine, even as Tehran quietly expanded its nuclear infrastructure and preserved the option to build a weapon if it chose.

His son, officials now believe, is taking a harder line. Mojtaba has never publicly called for a bomb, but intelligence assessments reportedly show he has fewer ideological qualms about weaponization and may back a more advanced arsenal, according to The New York Times.

The shift could bolster the case for further strikes. Officials say the new intelligence would strengthen Trump’s hand if Washington concludes Tehran is edging toward a political decision to build a weapon.

For now, Iran has not restarted enrichment or resumed weapons work since last year’s US airstrikes, which inflicted major damage. Instead, Tehran appears focused on salvaging what remains, above all the heavily fortified underground complex known as Pickaxe Mountain.

Although the late Ali Khamenei issued a religious fatwa banning the use of nuclear weapons, the decree did not prevent Iran from developing much of the technology needed to produce one

Trump  had declared the 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities had obliterated its nuclear program. However, early intelligence assessments reportedly found the damage, while significant, had likely delayed the program by only several months rather than destroying it completely

US officials say Iran has already moved at least some centrifuges into the facility, which burrows deep beneath a mountain in central Iran and is thought to lie beyond the reach of America’s most powerful conventional bunker-busters. 

Israeli intelligence reportedly tracked the equipment, though Washington believes the goal is to shield critical assets, not restart enrichment. Tehran has poured extra ground forces around the site, amid fears the US could attempt a commando raid rather than rely on airstrikes alone.

That fear is grounded in what happened in June 2025, when Trump ordered strikes on Iran’s three most important nuclear sites. B-2 stealth bombers dropped massive bunker-busters on Fordo and Natanz, while Tomahawk missiles hit Isfahan. Trump declared Iran’s program obliterated. 

His own spy agencies reportedly disagreed, finding the damage had set the program back only months, not destroyed it.

The delay stretched longer only because Iran chose not to rebuild or restart enrichment elsewhere. Crucially, its stockpile of highly enriched uranium survived intact, leaving much of the raw material for a bomb within reach should Tehran decide to move.

Intelligence on Mojtaba Khamenei’s intentions comes with heavy caveats. Much of it predates the current fighting. 

The new Supreme Leader was reportedly wounded early in the war and has all but vanished from public view, nursing his injuries and wary of becoming the next airstrike target. 

Officials also doubt he yet commands the authority his father wielded over three decades.

What they do believe is that his nuclear appetite runs further than his father’s. Where earlier intelligence suggested Iran had explored a crude, World War II-style device, Mojtaba is thought to favour sophisticated warheads small enough to sit atop long-range missiles.

Ali Khamenei’s fatwa banning nuclear weapons never stopped Iran mastering the technology to build one, and hardliners long argued Tehran should be able to assemble a bomb at speed if it had to. 

Officials now warn the war may have handed those hawks their strongest argument yet: that only a credible nuclear deterrent can deter future strikes or another push to topple the regime.

If they are right, a campaign meant to end Iran’s nuclear ambitions may have done the opposite, sharpening its appetite for the very weapon Washington has spent decades trying to deny it.

Speak to your doctor about night knee pain

Why else might I have knee pain at night?

LONDON (AP) — An Irish law student was charged Friday with possessing explosives after being arrested with what police called an “extremely significant” car bomb they intercepted near the Northern Ireland border during an investigation of dissident republicans.

Isobella Perrie Sullivan, 25, was stopped while driving Wednesday on a highway near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, police said. They discovered plastic explosives and a detonator in a bag in the back of the car.

“What we found was an extremely significant seizure,” Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said. “This was an explosive device.”

An Irish military bomb disposal team was called to examine the car, though no details were provided on how they disposed of the ordnance.

Defense lawyer Gavin Booth said Sullivan had been manipulated and was unaware of the contents of a bag she was asked to take to the north. She was freed on 15,000 euro ($17,054) bail after her appearance in Trim District Court.

While it’s unclear where the car was headed, there have been two car bomb incidents this year in Northern Ireland that police have blamed on dissident republicans, including one that exploded outside a police station on the outskirts of Belfast in April. No one was injured and an earlier attempted bombing at a police station was thwarted by officers who detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion.

The incidents are reminders of the decades of violence known as “The Troubles.” The conflict involving Irish Republican and British Loyalist militants and U.K. security forces left almost 3,600 people dead before the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

“We certainly know that there are a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement,” Kelly said. “There’s a small minority of these individuals, I would describe them as radicalized republicans, and this is a threat that we’re going to continue to face for some time.”

Republicans want to reunify Ireland by ending British rule of Northern Ireland.

Police requested as a condition of release that Sullivan not contact anyone with Saoradh, the Irish republican revolutionary party, or the New Irish Republican Army.

The brother of Madeleine McCann is set to swim for Commonwealth gold today, some two decades after his older sister vanished.

Sean McCann, 21, took to the pool in Glasgow for the 400m freestyle heats this morning in his major competition debut.

His parents Kate and Gerry and twin sister Amelie looked on proudly as they arrived early on Saturday morning to cheer on their son – and the rest of the Scotland team. 

Sean hoped to use the home crowd behind him to progress to the final tonight, ahead of his other events later this week, the 800m and 1500m freestyle.

Almost two decades on from the infamous Portugal family holiday which saw Madeleine abducted, the McCann family’s unimaginable tragedy still haunts Sean and his twin sister, Amelie, wherever they go.

But today, the family could finally see themselves talked about for a different reason as their son’s remarkable story takes centre-stage.

Sean’s mother Kate has previously told how he ‘hated’ the water when he was first taken swimming – and yet he soon found his drive, attending up to nine two-hour training sessions every week, many requiring 4am starts.

Inspired by his sporting family – Kate and father Gerry even went on a run on their first date – Sean’s dedication has paid off as he sets his sights on success in his first major international meet.

Sean came fourth in his heat and was cheered on today by both parents, as well as his sister Amelie, who herself competes regularly in triathlons.

The family sat with other Scottish fans as they supported Sean at a home Commonwealth Games

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Scotland’s Sean McCann competes in the Men’s 400m Freestyle heats during the swimming event at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow

Sean McCann of Scotland goes through his final preparations before the race

He is the younger brother of missing Madeleine McCann and was in the room when she was abducted from her family’s holiday villa in Portugal in 2007

The elite distance swimmer is eligible to represent Scotland through his father, who was born in Glasgow.

This week a former member of Sean’s coaching team told the Daily Mail that the combination of a young man who was ‘really driven and never one to take the easiest route’, and parents who willed him on, had made him a powerhouse and his story an inspiration. 

In his teenage years Sean’s parents would ferry him to training sessions at Braunstone Leisure Centre, a 20-minute drive from the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, where he would clock up eight or nine two-hour swim sessions a week, plus two or three punishing gym workouts.

Kate and Gerry ‘encouraged their children, but didn’t push them’ said the insider, who coached Sean as a youngster.

He remembered the young man being focused on the Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad in 2023 and then deciding he wanted to race for Scotland and for GB in open-water events – so for swimming competitively he changed his nationality to Scottish.

‘For the Commonwealth Games, I was lucky enough to be at the trials in London when he was racing. It was great to watch him and talk to him between prep, to be a part of it and see his journey unfold,’ he said.

What a journey, too, for Sean, who is studying chemical engineering at Loughborough University – chosen for its unrivalled sports facilities.

Distance swimming is an unforgiving sport. Yet those who know Sean’s career describe a steady, determined progression, even during the pandemic lockdown when he would train out of the pool, at home with Amelie, who is also a keen swimmer.

Sean McCann, 21, after finishing fourth in his heat of the 400m freestyle – he will go later this week in the 800m and 1500m

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McCann dives from the starting block at the beginning of his heat at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre

Amelie, Kate and Gerry McCann applaud as they watch the programme at Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games on Saturday morning

Amelie, Kate and Gerry McCann in the stands at Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow ahead of Sean’s heat on Saturday morning 

The family were in the stands early on Saturday to support the rest of Britain’s swimmers before their son takes to the pool 

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For almost two decades Kate and Gerry McCann have been known as the parents of missing Madeleine, (bottom right) the toddler who disappeared on a family holiday to Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007 – now the family will be known for something else

In the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games, he reached the finals of the 400m and 1500m freestyle, and has since qualified for the European Open Water Championships representing Great Britain.

Sean himself said this week that he was ‘very excited’ about the challenges ahead. ‘It’s the pinnacle really – of representing Scotland in the Commonwealth Games, and especially at a home games.

‘I’ve got lots of family up in Glasgow so that makes it even more special. I was there in 2014 watching as a kid, so to make it now, 12 years later, is really a full circle moment.

‘It’s my first senior games, so I’m just looking forward to be representing Scotland and doing my absolute best. I always tend to go out quite slow and build my way into a race. That’s just how I like to pace it.’

It’s quite the change from what Sean has been known for by many until now, solely for his close proximity to Madeleine’s disappearance.

He was, after all, in the same room when she was abducted from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007 when he was just two.

Although he might not remember the international fallout, both siblings have grown up in the shadow of the mystery surrounding their older sister, who would now be 23. 

For Sean, and by extension his whole family, this is his opportunity to step into the light of something new. 

The driver of the car was pronounced dead at the scene

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A girl is in a critical condition in hospital and a woman has died after a crash in Co Cavan.

The incident, involving a car and a truck, took place on the R162 at Corclare, Shercock, after 5pm on Friday.

The girl, who was a passenger in the car, was taken to Temple Street Hospital where she remains in a critical condition.

The driver of the car, a woman in her 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

A number of other people in the vehicles received medical treatment at the scene by ambulance staff.

The road was closed overnight for examination by forensic collision investigators and local diversions are in place.

An appeal for witnesses and those with camera footage of the incident has been made.

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It is well past midnight at Jantar Mantar, and the crowd shows no sign of thinning. Music drifts across the humid air, tabla beats mixing with snatches of Bollywood songs, as new arrivals keep streaming in on foot — students, labourers, parents — even at this hour.

Somewhere near the stage, a spokesperson is trying, and failing, to keep the swelling numbers from tipping into a stampede. On walls near the protest site, fresh graffiti is still wet. “Modiji, return us our bad days,” one pleads, a jab at the prime minister’s campaign slogan “Achhe Din”, the promised good days that many say never came.

In the crowd is Mohan Yadav, 43, a man who doesn’t fit the profile that the government’s supporters imagine when they picture these protests. He is not, he insists, an opposition plant, or a professional agitator. He voted for Narendra Modi’s BJP party. He voted for its ally Nitish Kumar in Bihar state. Yet, he’s standing at Jantar Mantar, trying to explain why the government he once trusted has, in his eyes, turned on people like him.

“I have a son and a daughter,” he says. “And I can understand that pain of a parent. Because I know how much sacrifice it takes to raise a child and then to lose them like this.”

He is far from alone.

What started out as a joke by a group of students is now one of the most sustained waves of public dissent against Modi’s government.

On Saturday, India’s education ⁠minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, handing a major victory to the youth protesters.

With millions of followers online and clear displays of support on the ground, the Cockroach Janta Party had said it would not stop protesting until Modi’s education minister – the powerful veteran politician Dharmendra Pradhan – resigned

The protesters said Pradhan must take responsibility for the shambolic handling of a key university entrance exam for would-be medical students, the cancellation of which affected 2.3 million young people. Activists said at least 21 students died by suicide during the debacle.

Nitesh Aryan, 26, from the northern city of Lucknow, has been at the protest site daily since 19 July. He says he is driven by the fact “that exam papers are repeatedly leaked. And when we demand our rights, the government responds by baton-charging the students, cracking our skulls, breaking legs and back.”

Akanksha, 31, who has lived in Delhi her whole life, frames her motivation as a slow, cumulative betrayal rather than a single scandal. “I’m a victim of the education system,” she says. “I know how rigged the system is, how messed up our schools are. Teachers are demotivated. Nobody is studying in a government institution.”

For Muskaan, 40, leaving the protest site with her two children close to midnight, the stakes are more immediate. She’s a labourer and her husband drives an autorickshaw. “There are poor people who with great difficulty manage to educate their children,” she says. “My children will also study with as much hard work. Right now they are young. My son is in 8th standard and daughter is in 11th standard. It is about their future as well.”

When papers leak, she argues, “the future of my children is being ruined. I’m here to protect their future and prevent it from being ruined.”

What turned a grievance into a full-blown anti-government movement was the events of 20 July, the day police moved against the protesters at Jantar Mantar as they prepared to march towards parliament, using batons and teargas against them and leaving scores injured.

Birku Yadav, 26, who joined the movement after learning about it on 18 July, describes what happened to her two days later. “I was charged with baton by a male police officer who did not even have his name tag on,” she says. “I feel like they were not wearing name tags because they were not police officers but supporters of the ruling regime.”

Ashutosh Ranka, 30, a spokesperson for the Cockroach Janta Party, says the scale of the crackdown caught even the organisers off guard. “The kind of brutality meted out against the students, young protesters and our own volunteers who were helping them manage the crowd crossed all levels of brutality,” he said. “Crossed all levels of shamelessness.”

It’s this moment – the baton-charge against unarmed students demanding accountability – that Mohan Yadav can’t reconcile with the government he voted for. “I still don’t know why we were assaulted by the police,” he says. “It was only about the resignation of one person. The government should have just conceded to the demands of the public, ‘my constituents and voters are asking for this, we should give them.’ We would have been so much happier.”

There is a striking gap between the government’s public posture and what protesters describe living through. Modi has floated a proposal for fast-track courts to try paper-leak cases, a move Saurav Das, another Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson, dismisses as cosmetic.

“It’s an eyewash,” he says, noting that a 2024 law against organised exam-paper mafias is already meant to solve this, with little visible effect. “That law wasn’t implemented properly, that’s why you have these kinds of instances again.”

That disconnect between official reassurance and street anger runs through nearly every conversation.

Where the government speaks of isolated lapses and administrative fixes, the protesters describe something closer to institutional collapse, and a chain of accountability that never seems to reach anyone at the top. “Post-2014, the government takes great arrogance in not sacking its minister,” Das says. “It was automatic before 2014.”

For Mohan Yadav, the gap is personal, not political. He frames his disillusionment as stemming not from ideology but a broken bargain.

“If we brought Modiji to power and he is the head of the country, then he should have taken care of our well-being and happiness,” he says. “But instead he went against 65 per cent of the youth of the country. In front of my eyes, so many women and children were beaten up. I felt really sad.”

Nitesh Aryan’s demand is starker still: “My demand is that those responsible for it are duly punished. And all the people who were at their posts at the time this happened, resign.”

Ranka insists the movement will not fold under pressure even as he acknowledges the personal risk protesters are taking on. “We expect police action but we don’t fear it,” he says. “This is a fight much bigger than one person and we are ready to pay the price.” Asked how far organisers are prepared to go if the government refuses to budge, he allowed himself a rare smile. “The government has to concede. They don’t have a choice this time.”

Mohan Yadav says he still does not fully understand how he ended up here, holding a grievance against a government he helped elect. He’s careful to say he isn’t asking for anything extraordinary. “I’m not asking for a plot of land in Delhi,” he says. “I am not asking Modi to transfer 1.5 million rupees to my account. I am asking for accountability.”

Britt Apgar was born with a limb difference. She had a small right forearm, half of a palm and no fingers on her right hand.

On her way to 12 surgeries by the age of 4, she was taught two lessons by her parents that never left her. Two principles that she carried all the way to the Women’s Professional Baseball League.

“My mom said I am never allowed to use my hand as an excuse,” Apgar said. “Like if I wanted to do the monkey bars, we were out there figuring out how to do the monkey bars, and they taught me how to tie my shoes before I even went to preschool. So that way I was never, like I never felt weird or different around the kids. And my dad … if I wanted to do anything, he wanted me to put my heart into it like 100 percent.”

Family is at the center of Apgar’s journey to the WPBL’s inaugural season this summer in Springfield, Illinois, pitching and playing the outfield for the Los Angeles Queens. The family she was born into — her parents, Tommie and Tom, and her older brother, Zach — and the family she picked up along the way.

“I have always and will probably forever describe her like this: She is sunshine,” said Courtney Jamison, one of Apgar’s closest friends.

Baseball, softball and dropping out of college

Apgar bats right-handed, resting the bat on the flat part of the nub on her right arm. She uses her left hand and arm to pull the bat on a swing while the nub guides it through the zone.

When she pitches, Apgar rests her glove on her nub and keeps it down near her waist so she can quickly move it to her left hand after she finishes her motion. When she catches a ball in the outfield, she turns her glove inside before taking it off and grabbing the ball to throw it.

“It sounds like a lot, but it’s really quick, I swear,” Apgar said.

It’s a process she practiced and perfected in the sunshine of North Carolina. Apgar, 22, was born in Farmville near East Carolina University, and she grew up playing in the fields near her home.

Her father and brother would throw in the yard, and she fell in love with the pop of the baseball landing in their gloves.

“I wanted to make that sound, too,” she said.

While Zach was content to just play catch, Britt wanted to do everything. Tom studied former major league pitcher Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand, and taught his daughter how Abbott fielded his position.

When the family moved to Greensboro, Britt continued to play. She made the junior varsity squad as a freshman in high school, but the coach told her he couldn’t keep her on the team.

“He pulled me to the side and said, ‘Hey listen, I think you’re a great player, but you’re just never going to be big and strong enough to play with my guys. And we get changed on the bus, we get changed behind dugouts at the field, and I just can’t have that interfering with the team chemistry and stuff,’” Apgar recalled.

Apgar started crying and walked off the field. She switched to softball, and she played all the way through one full season at Greensboro College.

A couple of weeks into her sophomore year, she quit. She liked playing softball, but she didn’t like the atmosphere around the team, and it wasn’t baseball.

She transferred to North Carolina-Greensboro and got a job at a gym. When Tommie — a factory worker — broke both of her legs in an accident at home, she dropped out of college and started working full-time.

“Put my head down, worked a lot,” she said.

Apgar thought she was done with baseball. But it turned out baseball wasn’t done with her.

Finding a solution to a big problem

When Apgar hits, the nub catches the impact of contact while the left hand finishes the swing. That becomes an issue when she faces velocity in the upper 70s and low 80s, like what she is going to see this summer in Springfield.

Apgar attended a WPBL camp in March at the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox. Facing left-hander Niki Eckert, she hit a grounder to second — and knew almost immediately something was wrong.

“Swung for it, just busted my nub open completely,” Apgar said.

Apgar’s grounder was the third out of the inning, so she was bleeding when she ran out to left field. Wearing a white uniform and concerned about the implications of what happened, she used the back of her glove, her black belt and a sock to hide the blood.

Looking for a solution to her problem against high velocity, Apgar went on Instagram and asked for help. She was flooded with responses, including suggestions for foam and prosthetics.

“Even when people didn’t have helpful hints or like tips or tricks, they would just say, ‘Protect the nub,’” she said.

Using a batting glove, foam and a hollowed-out part of an old prosthetic, Apgar developed a prototype with some help from Jeff Gardner, a WPBL investor. Gardner, a former scientist who works in generic drugs, became friends with Apgar after they met at the March camp in Florida.

Gardner went a step further, reaching out to Chrysta Irolla, the director of prosthetics and orthotics at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

“When you get a personality like Brittany’s, it’s easy to want to help somebody like her,” Gardner said.

Irolla and the hospital are building a prosthetic for Apgar with a gel liner and a hook extension that is designed to fit around the bat and provide a more secure attachment. Doctors used some of the bones in Apgar’s left leg and foot to help strengthen her arm when she was a kid, so the hospital also is creating custom foot orthotics for her with built-in rigid plates.

“She’s very open to trying new things. She just wants to perform at the highest level and everything that she can do to get there,” Irolla said. “It’s really nice to have somebody be that open and creative and motivated.”

Apgar has no feeling in her nub. During one visit with Irolla, she tried on a prosthetic that mimicked the sensation of touch.

“It was the first time that I had held a bat and it felt like I was holding it with two hands. So I started tearing up,” she said. “It was such a mind-blowing feeling.”

The WPBL opportunity, and the training

Baseball moved back into Apgar’s life more than two years ago, when she saw a post on social media about WPBL tryouts. She put her name in and then forgot about it.

In April 2025, she got an email inviting her to try out at Nationals Park that August.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Apgar said. “I was like, there’s no way this is actually happening.”

Then, reality set in. She was about to face the best of the best, and she hadn’t played competitive baseball for years.

Following her father’s advice, she went all out with a challenging daily schedule.

She got up at 6 a.m. so she could run and do footwork drills before going to work at 9 a.m. At 3 p.m., she took her lunch break and joined a friend for another run with a weighted vest. She drove to her parents’ home after work, and Tom threw batting practice to her until the sun went down.

Jamison’s boyfriend, Logan Vacharasin, played baseball at Greensboro, and he got Apgar into the college’s facility for more baseball activities at night. Then Apgar would go back to her gym for grueling sessions with Isaiah Manning, a college wrestler.

“There were nights that he would make me cry in that gym,” Apgar said. “I would be bawling, crying, thinking I couldn’t do it. And he would be like, you’re not leaving until you can do this.”

As Apgar trained almost around the clock, she was backed by constant support from her parents. And Jamison, who brought her food and told her how proud she was of her. And her girlfriend, Natalie Brewer, who encouraged her to keep going when she was ready to give up. And Vacharasin and Manning. The list goes on and on.

There were more than 600 players at tryouts, but Apgar made enough of an impression that she was selected by Los Angeles in the third round of the league’s six-round draft in November. The Queens play their first game of the season on Aug. 1 against New York.

On the day of the draft, Apgar was surrounded by friends and family at Jamison’s apartment.

“They had all invested time and effort and energy into me making it and we had all made it at that very moment,” she said, “and so that whole night was just us on top of the world celebrating together. It was so great.”

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AP Sports: https://apnews.com/sports