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Italy shocks US, wins men’s speed skating team pursuit

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Italy shocks US, wins men's speed skating team pursuitEthan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman of the United States won the silver medal in speed skating team pursuit on Tuesday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

MILAN — An inspired Italy delighted the home crowd with a stunning victory in the Winter Olympics men’s team pursuit final, while Canada’s Ivanie Blondin, Valerie Maltais and Isabelle Weidemann delivered another seamless performance to beat the Netherlands in the women’s event and retain their title on Tuesday.

Italy’s men upset the United States, who arrived at the Games as world champions and strong favorites for gold.

The Italian team of Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini and Michele Malfatti electrified a frenzied arena as they stormed to a time of 3 minutes and 39.20 seconds — a commanding 4.51 seconds clear of the Americans, with China taking bronze.

The roar inside the Milano Speed Skating Stadium as Italy powered home was thunderous as the crowd rose to their feet, cheering the host nation to one of their most special golds of a highly successful Games.

Italy now tops the speed skating medal table at the Milan Cortina Games with three golds and one bronze.

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The American trio of Ethan Cepuran, Casey Dawson and Emery Lehman had hoped to deliver the United States’ first Olympic title in the event.

Dawson even skipped his individual 10,000 meters on Friday to give himself the best chance in the team pursuit, a gamble that ultimately did not yield gold.

The American world record holders opened with a controlled, slightly faster start. But, true to the form they have shown all Games, the hosts responded with composure and belief.

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With four laps to go, Italy looked to be fading. Yet with three laps remaining, they rallied, drawing strength from the roar of the home crowd. Their coach was a blur of fist pumps and shouts, urging them on as they clawed back time with every stride.

By the final lap, the arena was shaking. Italy had pulled it off again — a stirring performance that lifted the roof and sent the stands into delirium.

“Today is fantastic, it’s incredible,” Ghiotto said. “It’s a dream come true after four years of working together every day.

“It wasn’t easy to beat the American guys today, and Netherlands in the first part (semi-final). They’re both very good and strong teams, but we dreamed about this gold medal.

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“This day and this result was impossible without these guys and the other guys from the Italian team. We are very happy. It’s crazy we made the dream come true.”

Canada’s women crossed the line 0.96 seconds ahead of the Netherlands, stopping the clock at 2 minutes and 55.81 seconds, and Japan rounded out the women’s podium by beating the U.S. in the Final B.

Weidemann, a three-time medalist at Beijing in 2022 and the tallest of the Canadian trio, once again excelled in her role setting the pace, guiding the team with a smooth, metronomic rhythm.

It was only the third gold medal of the Games for Canada, following Mikael Kingsbury’s win in men’s dual moguls and Megan Oldham’s victory in women’s freestyle skiing big air.

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–Reuters, special to Field Level Media

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Virgil van Dijk makes revealing admission over Liverpool’s season after FA Cup defeat: ‘It’s mentally very tough’

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Virgil van Dijk has admitted it is “mentally very tough” for Liverpool after they were knocked out of the FA Cup as Manchester City thrashed them 4-0.

Liverpool go to Paris Saint-Germain for the Champions League quarter-final first leg this week with captain Van Dijk saying it will be hard to rouse them after they were left “very disappointed” by their poor display at the Etihad Stadium.

It was Liverpool’s 15th defeat of the campaign in all competitions and a downcast Van Dijk said that three-quarters of their season has been like this.

Asked if it was one of Liverpool’s most disappointing results and performances, he replied: “We’ve had a couple already this season. It’s mentally very tough at the moment, I must say.

“I’ve been there already many times this season when I’ve had hope and then we couldn’t build on performances. Today our second half, the intensity we didn’t match, the challenges we didn’t win, it was tough. To lose then 4-0 is tough.

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“I am trying to think how we can turn it around but we have been going through this for almost 75 percent of the season. It definitely hurts me. So the focus is now on Paris away, but it’s tough. It will be a tough Sunday to digest it.”

Many of the Liverpool supporters left the Etihad Stadium long before the final whistle and Van Dijk did not blame them as he said sorry to them.

He added: “The fans were there to support us and I can only apologise to the fans for what we have shown, especially the second. I can understand the fans’ frustration as well.”

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Is the Championship heading for financial ‘catastrophe’?

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Four of the ever-present Championship sides since 2020-21 are also among the top six current second-tier clubs hardest hit by losses.

Bristol City (£111m), Preston (£84.4m), QPR (£82.9m) and Middlesbrough (£80.4m) have all failed to record a profit for five consecutive seasons – as have Derby, Millwall, Oxford, Portsmouth and Swansea.

Coventry City, who are on course to win promotion to the Premier League this season, have lost £29.5m in the past five years, while Ipswich Town are down £72.4m.

Maguire likened Championship owners striving for the top flight to “buying a EuroMillions ticket” with clubs chasing a TV deal worth £106m plus parachute payments in the Premier League compared to £12m in the second tier.

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“If I’m a Championship owner, I know at the start of the season, in theory, I’ve got a one in eight chance of getting promoted,” he said, which is in turn causing owners to “act like the the bank of mum and dad”.

“They hand over money effectively unquestioningly, which is nominally a loan, but both parties know there is no chance of repayment.

“The owner of Stoke wrote off £90m, the Hemmings family in Preston put in £1m a month.

“And that now becomes the norm.”

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RCB vs CSK LIVE Score, IPL 2026: Virat Kohli Out After Breaking Own Record, RCB One Down vs CSK

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Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma, Jacob Bethell, Rasikh Salam Dar, Kanishk Chouhan, Venkatesh Iyer, Josh Hazlewood, Mangesh Yadav, Vihaan Malhotra, Vicky Ostwal, Jordan Cox, Swapnil Singh, Satvik Deswal

Chennai Super Kings Squad: Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Matt Henry, Khaleel Ahmed, Jamie Overton, Rahul Chahar, Matthew Short, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Gurjapneet Singh, Akeal Hosein, MS Dhoni, Shreyas Gopal, Spencer Johnson, Mukesh Choudhary, Urvil Patel, Aman Khan, Dewald Brevis, Zakary Foulkes.

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How to watch Caroline Dubois vs Terri Harper – TV channel, live stream and ring walk time

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How to watch Caroline Dubois vs Terri Harper – TV channel, live stream and ring walk time – Manchester Evening News