Great Britain’s Laura Muir will be presented with her retrospective 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships bronze medal this weekend.

The Scot was 21 when she finished fourth in the 3,000m in Prague, but was upgraded to bronze in January after race winner Yelena Korobkina of Russia was found guilty of doping offences.

Now 31, Muir will receive her medal at the Lindsays Short Course cross-country event at Kirkcaldy on Saturday.

“I cannot emphasise or explain how much it means to the athletes to have the results rectified and the medals awarded to those who compete within the rules of our sport,” said Muir.

“So I am very excited to see that particular European Indoors 2015 medal at Kirkcaldy and it will have a proud place alongside my other sporting accomplishments.”

Sviatlana Kudzelich of Belarus has had her silver medal upgraded to gold and Netherlands’ Maureen Koster takes silver.

Korobkina was banned for four years from September 2023, and had her results between July 2013 and July 2016 expunged after being found guilty of doping last year.

At the UFC Edmonton official weigh-ins, all 28 fighters on Saturday’s fight card step on the scale early Friday morning in Edmonton, Canada. Watch the official weigh-ins above, courtesy of MMA Junkie.

In the main event, two-time UFC featherweight champion Brandon Moreno fights Amir Albazi, a top contender yet to taste defeat inside the octagon. Moreno looks to rebound from back-to-back split decision losses to Alexandre Pantoja and Brandon Royval, while Albazi seeks to declare himself the No. 1 contender at 125 pounds in his first fight since June 2023.

Moreno is No. 4 at flyweight in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, while Albazi sits at the No. 6 spot.

The headliners can weigh no more than 126 pounds, the maximum limit for a non-title lightweight bout.

In the co-main event, former UFC strawweight champion Rose Namajunas (ranked No. 9) looks to win her third straight fight at flyweight when she takes on Erin Blanchfield (ranked No. 4). For Blanchfield, this is her chance to regain her spot in the contender line after suffering her first UFC loss at the hands of Manon Fiorot.

UFC Edmonton official weigh-ins are set to begin at 11 a.m. ET.

Ceremonial weigh-ins take place at 7 p.m. ET.

See official UFC Edmonton weigh-in results below.

Main Card (ESPN+ at 5 p.m. ET)

Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi

Erin Blanchfield vs. Rose Namajunas

Derrick Lewis vs. Jhonata Diniz

Caio Machado vs. Brendson Ribeiro

Marc-Andre Barriault vs. Dustin Stoltzfus

Mike Malott vs. Trevin Giles

Preliminary Card (ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET)

Aiemann Zahabi vs. Pedro Munhoz

Ariane da Silva vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius

Charles Jourdain vs. Victor Henry

Jack Shore vs. Youssef Zalal

Alexandr Romanov vs. Rodrigo Nascimento

Serhiy Sidey vs. Garrett Armfield

Chad Anheliger vs. Cody Gibson

Jamey-Lyn Horth vs. Ivana Petrovic

MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin put a positive spin on today’s crash in Practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix, saying it will help him to know where the limit is at the Sepang circuit.

Martin lost the front end of his Pramac Ducati at the tight first corner moments after seeing that his title rival Francesco Bagnaia had posted a faster time late in the session. 

The accident brought practice to an early end for Martin, but the Spaniard’s best time still put him second-fastest and directly into Q2 on Saturday.

While falling on a day when factory Ducati rider and two-time champion Bagnaia was fastest in both sessions could be seen as a psychological blow for Martin, there is no major consequence to the incident given that he comfortably made the top 10.

Nor does Martin subscribe to the idea that the mishap will rob him of any confidence as he defends a 17-point lead at the penultimate round of the championship.

“I think it’s also positive that I crashed today,” said Martin, who is chasing a maiden crown. “Because I can see the limit and understand why I crashed. So it’s good to crash today!

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“I prefer to crash now than in the race. I like this track and the bike is working really well. I was feeling competitive throughout and I feel confident with our work.”

Martin confirmed that he had been trying to respond to Bagnaia’s lap of 1m57.679s.

“I was okay with my time attack, even if I almost crashed on my [previous] lap,” he said. “Then I went down the [start/finish] straight and saw I was second, so I said ‘okay, I will try to improve a bit more’. 

“But even at the first corner it was already too much, and I just crashed. 

“We [Martin and Bagnaia] were pushing – it was a normal day! We were pushing and still able to keep the gap between ourselves and the rest, so it’s impressive.”

Martin also explained that engine braking was a key factor in his crash, as was the case in previous accidents this season.

“I think we are struggling a bit with the engine braking,” the 26-year-old added. “We have quite a lot of grip on the rear tyre, so with the Ducati you need to slide the rear on entry because otherwise the front pushes. That’s why I crashed. 

“So the thing is to be really clever about how you use the engine braking. It’s [more important] than the set-up. It’s much better to stop [working on] the set-up and work on the electronics.

“All the crashes I had this season during races, like Germany, Jerez and Mugello, were the same. The rear was pushing the front. So I’m trying to be really precise on that – today we didn’t make it and I crashed.”

GARY LINEKER was famously never booked during his football career – but that didn’t stop him from engaging in the dark arts.

The England legend has admitted he somehow avoided a yellow at Euro 1992 after “stamping” on an opponent’s toe.

2

2

Advertisement

Lineker played almost 600 professional games in a career spanning 16 years.

The 63-year-old was never cautioned and in 1990 was honoured with the Fifa Fair Play Award.

But in a recent episode of the The Rest Is Football podcast. Lineker admitted how close he came to that famous record disappearing.

Discussing his toughest defensive battles with co-hosts Alan Shearer and Micah Richards, he said: “Mine would probably be a defender from France called Basile Boli.

“I remember playing in the Euros and he was marking me from corners but he wasn’t just marking me. He was giving me a bear hug.

“Not in a romantic way, in the way that I couldn’t breathe and he was squeezing.

“He was just arms around me, and this is obviously before VAR, and he just held me and held me.

“So he did this about two or three corners, whatever we had, and I said to the ref ‘I mean come on’.”

FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS

Lineker revealed he finally snapped and gave Boli a swift response.

He continued: “Eventually I thought ‘sod this’ and I stamped on his toe.

“You could get away with something like that but it was only so I could breathe.

“So I think it was self-defence in some ways.”

Earlier in the conversation, Shearer revealed his own tussle with Arsenal colossus Tony Adams.

The former Newcastle star overlooked Man Utd’s Roy Keane as his toughest opponent, despite their infamous 2001 dust-up at St James Park.

Forgotten England stars could benefit from Tuchel appointment

Advertisement

WITH Thomas Tuchel announced as the next England manager, a few forgotten stars might be hopeful of a return to the international set up.

The former Chelsea and Bayern Munich manager usually uses a 3-4-3 formation.

That could provide an opening for Mason Mount, who’s not been involved in the England set-up since the World Cup in 2022.

The now Manchester United star enjoyed his most successful spell under Tuchel while the pair were at Stamford Bridge.

Tuchel could also offer lifelines to other previously capped players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Eric Dier.

Advertisement

RLC has excelled since his move to AC Milan and with England struggling to find a partner for Rice, he could be the surprise answer.

Meanwhile, Dier played for Tuchel at Bayern Munich as part of a back-three last season.

The defender did enough to convince the club to make his loan move permanent after he had fallen out of favour at Tottenham.

Click here to see the full England XI who could play under Tuchel.

Advertisement

Shearer said: “[My toughest opponent] would be Tony Adams.

“I remember walking off Highbury once and had seven stitches in my lip, right up the middle and a broken nose.

“That was a decent battle, yeah.”

Hednesford Town might also stake a strong claim for being the weekend’s biggest headline.

The Pitmen are officially the lowest-ranked team left in the FA Cup and ply their trade in the eighth tier of English football, where they are 14th in the Northern Premier League Division One West.

Manager Steve King described his side’s progress as “unbelievable” having started the competition on 3 August in the extra preliminary round.

The Staffordshire side have won six ties and played an astonishing nine games in the competition, including three consecutive replays, just to get to the first round.

They are also the FA Cup’s leading scorers so far with 22 goals, 10 ahead of second highest Gainsborough Trinity who they host on Saturday (more on Gainsborough shortly).

There is one familiar face among the Hednesford squad in the shape of ex-Birmingham City, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Luton player Jake Jervis.

It marks the first time the club have reached the first round for 10 years, since losing 2-1 at home to Crawley in 2013-14.

Their best ever FA Cup run was in 1996-97 when they made it to the fourth round before being beaten 3-2 away at Middlesbrough.