Barcelona secured their 29th Spanish league title after beating Real Madrid 2-0 in El Clasico on Sunday. Marcus Rashford and Ferran Torres struck in the first half to help Hansi Flick’s side clinch La Liga in consecutive years, while consigning Madrid to a trophyless season. Barca moved an unassailable 14 points clear of second-place Los Blancos with three matches remaining. This was only the second time the outcome of La Liga has been decided directly by the result of a Clasico, with record 36-time champions Real Madrid winning their first title in 1932 after a draw with Barca.

Madrid arrived at the match embroiled in chaos, after midfielder Fede Valverde was ruled out with a head injury following a training ground bust-up with team-mate Aurelien Tchouameni, who started.

Barca coach Flick received bad news before the game, with his father passing away, but took his place on the touchline regardless, to oversee his side’s comfortable triumph.

The German opted for the energetic Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, on the right wing in place of injured teenage star Lamine Yamal.

The Catalans, who only needed to avoid defeat, came out with their eyes firmly locked on the prize, racing into a two-goal lead inside 18 minutes.

Rashford opened the scoring with a superb free-kick, whipping the ball into the top left corner from a position 20 yards out, right of centre.

Torres doubled the hosts’ advantage at a jubilant Camp Nou, the 62,000-strong crowd enjoying the first Clasico back there since the stadium was reopened.

Dani Olmo produced a clever backheel to allow Torres to burst into the box and ram past Thibaut Courtois.

Gonzalo Garcia, playing in place of injured Madrid superstar Kylian Mbappe, prodded narrowly wide after racing in behind Barca’s high defensive line.

– Stem the bleeding –

Urged on by coach Alvaro Arbeloa on the touchline, unlikely to be at the helm next season, Madrid battled to stem the bleeding.

Rashford could have added a third before the break but fired wide, with Fermin Lopez unmarked and well placed to finish.

Torres should have struck early in the second half but Courtois saved from the Spain international as he ran through.

Jude Bellingham put the ball in Barcelona’s net but the goal was ruled out for offside, while Joan Garcia thwarted Vinicius Junior as Madrid threatened.

Barca fans batted inflatable beach balls around to taunt the Brazilian over his unfulfilled Ballon d’Or ambitions, and lapped up the party atmosphere.

Courtois saved from substitutes Raphinha, back after injury, and Robert Lewandowski as Madrid saw out the remainder of the match without taking further damage.

Flick’s side remain on course to match the record of 100 points in a league season and can win all their home matches if they defeat Real Betis in the one remaining.

Meanwhile Madrid finish a second consecutive season without a major trophy, staring down the barrel of a summer reshuffle, including former coach Jose Mourinho being linked with a potential return.

What is clear is that for now president Florentino Perez cannot seem to find the solution to end Flick’s Barca’s domestic domination.

rbs/lp

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Coach Ramil de Jesus and the La Salle Lady Spikers celebrate after winning the championship in the UAAP Season 88 women’s volleyball tournament, beating NU Lady Bulldogs. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

It took a rookie setter to stitch together the talent in the La Salle roster and key the Lady Spikers’ return to glory in UAAP women’s volleyball.

“She was really the missing link for the team,” coach Ramil de Jesus said in praise of Eshana Nunag, who literally orchestrated a ‘Sweep 16’ season capped off by a 25-22, 25-16, 25-16 Game 2 ripping of National University on Saturday night before more than 22,500 screaming souls at the Mall of Asia Arena for the Lady Spikers’ 13th UAAP crown.

“She (has) finally arrived,” De Jesus added of Nunag, a brilliant 5-foot-8 facilitator who successfully pulled off what Julia Coronel and Mikole Reyes couldn’t do ever since Mars Alba graduated as the Lady Spikers’ setter after Season 85. “There were just a few things I needed to correct to polish her game.”

And with Nunag being just 18 and if the core of the La Salle arsenal—Angel Canino and Shevana Laput–decides to play another year, then next year’s title defense will stand on solid footing.

“I was tough on her (during the off-season),” De Jesus continued, admitting that he saw a gem in Nunag. “The good thing is, little by little, she kept learning and improved her (game) that even against veterans, she never got overwhelmed.

“I’m really happy because as a rookie, she was able to help lead the team to a championship,” De Jesus said after becoming the winningest UAAP coach across all sports, overtaking the late great Baby Dalupan, who won 12 titles with the University of the East program.

Nunag, who left the National U Nazareth School to go to La Salle in senior high, was just eager to learn from De Jesus and be of help in the Lady Spikers’ redemption tour.

Help from seniors

“I also stayed very focused on coach (De Jesus) because he corrected a lot of things in my game,” said Nunag in Filipino after dishing out 217 excellent sets in the title clincher. “I think a big factor was my willingness to accept all those corrections and the things I still needed to improve so I could help the team better.

“It also helped that I came here in senior high school (because) I was already being (integrated into) the system, so by the time I reached college and my first year, I was already familiar with how things worked,” she added.

Nunag attributed her solid rookie year to Canino, Laput and Amie Provido, who made the job easier for her and helped her thrive under pressure by staying on the same page.

“I also wouldn’t have made it this far without the help of my older teammates. All of us worked hard for this, not just me,” she said. “I saw how much everyone improved compared to past seasons. I’m really thankful for their support and guidance.”

The learning curve is over for Nunag. And that makes her more dangerous moving forward.

“It was my first UAAP season, I learned a lot and I know there’s still so much I can take with me into next year from playing against the other teams,” said Nunag. INQ

The sixth signature event of the 2026 PGA Tour season brought players back to Charlotte for the annual stop at Quail Hollow for the Truist Championship. The field of 72 players battled it out for their share of the $20 million purse with Kristoffer Reitan taking home $3.6 million for his first career PGA Tour victory.

While Scottie Scheffler was not in the field after three consecutive runner-up finishes, most of the rest of the PGA Tour’s best made the trip to North Carolina for the final tune-up before the PGA Championship. The last two signature event winners — Cameron Young at the Cadillac Championship and Matt Fitzpatrick at the RBC Heritage — were looking to double up on such winner’s checks. Rory McIlroy was seeking to prevail at his favorite Tour stop after taking three weeks off following his second Masters victory. 

In the end, though, it was Reitan — not qualified for signature events at the start of the season — who prevailed by draining a pair of clutch birdies on the back nine Sunday to win by two strokes over Rickie Fowler and Nicolai Hojgaard.

Here’s the full breakdown of how much prize money each spot will take home from Charlotte this week.

2026 Truist Championship prize money, payouts

Total purse: $20 million

1st: $3,600,000 — Kristoffer Reitan
2nd: $2,160,000 – Rickie Fowler, Nicolai Hojgaard
3rd: $1,360,000
4th: $960,000 — Alex Fitzpatrick
5th: $800,000 — Tommy Fleetwood, Sungjae Im, J.J. Spaun
6th: $720,000 
7th: $670,000
8th: $620,000 — Ludvig Åberg, Harry Hall
9th: $580,000
10th: $540,000 — Patrick Cantlay, Matt McCarty, Cameron Young
11th: $500,000
12th: $460,000
13th: $420,000 — Justin Thomas
14th: $380,000 — Min Woo Lee, Chris Gotterup, Nick Taylor
15th: $360,000
16th: $340,000
17th: $320,000 — Alex Smalley, Gary Woodland
18th: $300,000 
19th: $280,000 — Austin Smotherman, Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Kurt Kitayama
20th: $260,000
21st: $240,000
22nd: $223,000
23rd: $207,500
24th: $190,000 — Patrick Rodgers, Pierceson Coody, Adam Scott, Andrew Novak, Harris English, J.T. Poston, David Lipsky
25th: $175,000
26th: $159,000
27th: $152,500
28th: $146,000
29th: $140,000 
30th: $134,000
31st: $128,500 — Brian Harman, Viktor Hovland, Alex Noren, Tony Finau, Nico Echavarria, Corey Conners
32nd: $122,500
33rd: $116,500
34th: $111,000
35th: $106,500
36th: $101,500
37th: $96,500 — Sam Burns, Maverick McNealy, Akshay Bhatia, Taylor Pendrith, Matt Wallace, Andrew Putnam, Bud Cauley, Lucas Glover
38th: $92,500
39th: $88,500
40th: $84,000
41st: $80,000
42nd: $76,000
43rd: $72,000
44th: $68,000
45th: $64,000 — Justin Rose, Daniel Berger, Ryo Hisatsune
46th: $60,000
47th: $56,000
48th: $53,000 — Denny McCarthy, Aldrich Potgieter, Webb Simpson, Michael Kim
49th: $50,000
50th: $49,000
51st: $48,000
52nd: $47,000 — Mackenzie Hughes, Max Homa, Brian Campbell, Jhonattan Vegas, Matt Fitzpatrick, Chandler Blanchet, Jordan Spieth, Jacob Bridgeman
53rd: $46,000
54th: $46,000
55th: $45,500 
56th: $45,000
57th: $44,500
58th: $44,000 
59th: $43,500
60th: $43,000 — Xander Schauffele, Robert MacIntyre, Ricky Castillo
61st: $42,500
62nd: $42,000
63rd: $41,500 — Ben Griffin, Sepp Straka
64th: $41,000 
65th: $40,500 — Ryan Gerard, Si Woo Kim
66th: $40,000
67th: $39,500 — Ryan Fox
68th: $39,000 — Jason Day
69th: $38,000 — Sahith Theegala
70th: $37,500 — Sam Stevens
71st: $37,000 — Hideki Matsuyama
72nd: $36,000 — Tom Hoge