Sports
Reducing domestic cricket matches will not help, says Jon Filby
Counties play a minimum of 14 Championship matches, 14 T20 Blast fixtures and eight in the One-Day Cup, equating to at least 78 days of cricket in the season.
This season there are 55 instances of counties playing on back-to-back days in the Blast – a particular pinch point of the schedule in June and July – up from 34 last year.
“We do have to get that schedule right,” Filby said. “It’s crazy that we have just come out of a really dank and nasty spell of weather, and yet we’re a quarter of the way through the County Championship already. We should just be starting the Championship now.
“We have a ground here that is a world-class facility and, in order to maintain it, we need to attract crowds to come to matches as much as we can. That’s what we that’s why we need fixtures.”
The PCA is scheduled to present the players’ views on how the schedule could be cut to the ECB, but any alteration to the structure of domestic competitions must be approved by counties.
Somerset head coach Jason Kerr believes the current schedule is preventing players from performing at their best.
“The demands on players have gone through the roof and what their current schedule doesn’t allow is the opportunities to recover, to reflect and prepare properly,” said Kerr.
“We’re trying to encourage guys to be the best version of themselves and put in performances that lead to international recognition. The way the schedule is at the minute, it doesn’t allow for people being at their best for six months.”
Sports
Challenge Cup: Huddersfield Giants 10-46 Warrington Wolves
Warrington Wolves secure a dominant 46-10 victory over Huddersfield Giants to reach their first Challenge Cup Final since 2019, where they’ll meet Wigan Warriors.
READ MORE: Warrington crush Huddersfield to set up Wigan Wembley date
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Sports
World Para Athletics Championships: Sabrina Fortune sets world record to win shot put gold
Britain’s Sabrina Fortune twice extended the world record on her way to defending her shot put title at the World Para Athletics Championships in Japan.
Fortune, who competes in the F20 category for athletes with intellectual impairments, threw 14.56m in the second round in Kobe, improving the 14.39 mark set by Ecuador’s Poleth Mendes on her way to winning Paralympic gold in Tokyo in 2021.
The 26-year-old Welsh woman had taken the lead in the first round with 14.18 and with the gold medal secured, she improved again to 14.73 with the final throw of the competition.
“I’ve thrown two world records in a day which is incredible,” said Fortune, who also took world gold in Dubai in 2019 and retained her title in Paris last summer.
“I just had to tell myself after the first world record not to celebrate too early because I knew if I overdid it, I wouldn’t throw any further.
“It’s hard to put into words how it felt to throw even further. I just wanted to run round and round in circles.”
Mendes took silver with 13.90 with Neutral Paralympic Athlete Aleksandra Zaitseva in third with 13.01.
It is Britain’s third gold medal of the championships after victories for javelin thrower Hollie Arnold and high jumper Jonathan Broom-Edwards over the opening two days of competition.
Of the other Britons in finals action on Sunday, Mo Jomni was fifth in the men’s T53 400m while fellow wheelchair racer Mel Woods was seventh in the women’s T54 800m and sprinter Ali Smith seventh in the T38 100m.
Sports
Chelsea: Emma Hayes ‘absolutely leaving at the right time’
Emma Hayes said she is “absolutely leaving at the right time” as her 12-year tenure in charge of Chelsea came to an end.
The 47-year-old bowed out with her fifth successive Women’s Super League title and her seventh overall.
An emphatic 6-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford means Hayes departs with 14 major honours, including five FA Cups and two League Cups.
In a thrilling finale to the WSL season, Chelsea pipped Manchester United to the title on goal difference.
“It has taken its toll,” Hayes said. “I categorically cannot carry on. I don’t have another drop to give it.
“There is so much of the job, dealing with people, and when you deal with people I have such high standards for myself that maintaining that has become impossible.
“I can’t keep up with the demands from players on a daily basis, in terms of their emotional needs, in terms of everything, and I’ve found that to be gruelling this year.
“I hope that the club really supports the new manager to get player care and a little bit more performance psychology.
“I really believe in the wellbeing, even though I can’t take care of it in the same way.
“I’ve made my suggestions to the sporting directors and I know they’ll take it on. It was lovely to have them here today.”
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