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Katie Ledecky on verge of history, Adam Peaty strikes double gold

August 6, 2015

Kazan, Aug 6: Katie Ledecky claimed her third world championships gold on Wednesday to leave her poised to make history while Adam Peaty`s breaststroke double capped an outstanding night for Britain in Kazan.

Katie

Ledecky underlined her status as the stand-out performer in the Kazan pool by claiming victory in the 200m freestyle final just 24 hours after breaking the world record for the second time in winning the 1500m freestyle final.

The USA`s triple world record-holder had already won the 400m gold last Sunday and she can become the first women to win four freestyle world titles when the 800m heats start on Friday with the final on Sunday.

"I have trained a lot to be able to do these races and I knew I could trust my training and this confidence has filled my swims this week," said the 18-year-old, who won the 200m freestyle final in 1min 55.16sec.

"I have a couple of races left to give my all in.

"I have been preparing all year for the whole year for these world championships."

Fresh from setting the world 50m breaststroke record of 26.42secs in Tuesday`s semi-final, Britain`s Peaty added to his 100m world title with victory over the sprint distance on Wednesday.

The 20-year-old won the 50m final by clocking 26.51 in the final with South Africa`s Cameron van der Burgh, the 2013 world champion, taking silver, at 0.15sec back.

The Briton has matched David Wilkie`s breaststroke 40-year-old double when the Scot won the 100 and 200m golds at the 1975 world championships.Peaty then backed up his individual win by helping the British team win the 4x100m mixed medley event in a new world record time.

It was the third time the event`s record had fallen on Wednesday alone after Russia, then the USA broke it in the morning`s heats and it means world records have now fallen on ten occasions in Kazan.

With two gold and two world records from his worlds debut here, Peaty can still claim a third individual title when the 200m breaststroke heats begin Thursday.

"It`s my first world championships, so I never thought I`d walk away with three gold medals, but I fought for every centimetre and every inch," said Peaty.

"All my training was for the 50m final tonight and then the 100m in the relay.

"It`s been the stuff dreams are made of, but head down now for the 200m heats in the morning."

Chinese long-distance expert Sun Yang claimed his second gold with victory in the 800m freestyle final, but he was made to work to retain his title after Italy`s Gregorio Paltrinieri pushed him all the way.

Sun clocked seven minutes, 39.96secs, but Paltrinieri swam a new European record at 0.85secs back as Australia`s Mack Horton took bronze at 4.06.

Defending Olympic and world champion Chad le Clos had to settle for silver in the men`s 200m butterfly final as Hungary`s Laszlo Cseh beat him on the wall to capture his first major title for a decade.

Cseh clocked 1min 53.48sec to beat Le Clos by just 0.20sec.

Ryan Lochte of the USA is on course to win his fourth consecutive world 200m individual medley gold as the quickest into Thursday`s final in 1:56.81.

Australia`s Cameron McEvoy is also the name to beat in the men`s 100m freestyle final, also on Thursday, having been the only qualifier from the semi-finals to go under the 48 seconds mark.

"There is a lot of excitement around the 100m freestyle," said McEvoy.

"It`s just a matter of recovering as much as I can before then and I`ll be using the same race plan regardless of who is in the final."

Russia`s Vladimir Morozov, who had posted the world`s joint fastest time this year coming into Kazan, was disqualified in his semi-final after leaving his blocks too early.

Olympic champion Nathan Adrian of the United States was fifth fastest.

Fresh from winning the women`s 100m world title on Tuesday, Australia`s Emily Seebohm was fifth fastest into Thursday`s 50m final as China`s Fe Yuanhai clocked the quickest time of 27.18secs.

Japan`s Natsumi Hoshi was the fastest into the women`s 200m butterfly final on Thursday at 2:06.36 secs, but the big surprise was Hungary`s `Iron Lady`, Katinka Hosszu failing to qualify as 13th fastest in the semi-finals as the 200m IM champion missed out.

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News Network
January 9,2020

Kuala Lampur, Jan 9: Saina Nehwal and reigning world champion P V Sindhu produced dominating performances to progress to the women's singles quarterfinals of the Malaysia Masters Super 500 badminton tournament here on Thursday.

Sixth seed Sindhu notched up a commanding 21-10 21-15 victory over Japan's Aya Ohori in a pre-quarterfinal match lasting just 34 minutes. It was Sindhu's ninth successive win over Ohori.

The 24-year-old Indian, who won the World Championships in Basel last year, will take on world number 1 Tai Tzu Ying in the quarterfinals after the Chinese Taipei shuttler got the better of South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun 21-18 16-21 21-10.

Saina, who had won the Indonesia Masters last year before going through a rough patch, dispatched eight seed An Se Young of South Korea 25-23 21-12 after a thrilling 39-minute contest to make the last eight.

This is Saina's first win over the South Korean, who got the better of the Indian in the quarterfinals of the French Open last year.

The two-time Commonwealth Games champion will next take on Olympic champion Carolina Marin.

Saina had defeated Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-15 21-17 in the opening round on Wednesday.

In the men's singles, India's challenge ended after both Sameer Verma and HS Prannoy crashed out in the second round.

While Verma lost to Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia 19-21 20-22, Prannoy was shown the door by top seed Kento Momota of Japan 14-21 16-21.

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Agencies
May 22,2020

India's cricket board will not push for the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia to be postponed but would consider staging the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the October/November slot if it becomes available, a senior BCCI official has told Reuters.

This year's IPL, which is worth almost $530 million to the BCCI, has been indefinitely postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic while the World Cup, which is scheduled to begin on Oct. 18, is also in jeopardy.

Reports in Australian media have suggested India's influential board may look to push for the World Cup to be postponed to open up a window for the IPL.

World Cup contingency plans are on the agenda at next week's International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting but BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said India would not be recommending it be pushed back.

"Why should the BCCI suggest postponing the Twenty20 World Cup?" Dhumal told Reuters by telephone.

"We'll discuss it in the meeting and whatever is appropriate, (the ICC) will take a call.

"If the Australia government announces that the tournament will happen and Cricket Australia is confident they can handle it, it will be their call. BCCI would not suggest anything."

While Australia has seen new infections of the novel coronavirus slow to a trickle and is gradually easing travel curbs and social distancing restrictions, hosting a 16-team World Cup would be a Herculean task for Cricket Australia.

Dhumal questioned whether the tournament should go ahead if it had to be played without spectators and said the Australian government would play a key role in any decision.

"It all depends on what the Australian government says on this - whether they'd allow so may teams to come and play the tournament," he added.

"Will it make sense to play games without spectators? Will it make sense for CA to stage such a tournament like that? It's their call."

Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts was guarded about the prospects of staging the tournament as scheduled on Friday.

"We don't have clarity on that one, yet. But as the situation continues to improve, you never know what might be possible," he said.

"It's ultimately a decision for the ICC."

The ICC has said it was unlikely to make a final call on the fate of the World Cup until August but some boards are in the process of making contingency plans in the event of a postponement.

While the BCCI recognised an open October-November window would suit the IPL, Dhumal said there was no point in making plans until there was some certainty about the World Cup.

"If we have the window available, and depending on what all can be organised, we'll decide accordingly," he added. "We can't presume that it's not happening and go on planning."

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Agencies
August 3,2020

Silverstone, Aug 2: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on Sunday won his seventh British Grand Prix title after a dramatic last-lap at the Silverstone Circuit.

Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas were at the first and second spot respectively until tyre drama struck.

Second-placed man Bottas was the first to suffer as his tyre deflated on lap 50, resulting in 11th place finish. Hamilton also suffered a similar issue before the final few seconds of the race.

However, with Max Verstappen having opted to pit a few laps from the end to try and claim the fastest lap, Hamilton had enough time in hand to just cross the line first, five seconds ahead of Verstappen and the third-placed Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

McLaren's Carlos Sainz had been set to finish fourth, but his own last lap tyre issue saw him eventually come home P13, allowing Renault's Daniel Ricciardo to claim fourth, following a late pass on the sister McLaren of Lando Norris.

Renault's Esteban Ocon finished sixth, having enjoyed a race-long battle with Lance Stroll's Racing Point, with Pierre Gasly having enjoyed a fine race to finish seventh for AlphaTauri.

Alex Albon finished eighth for Red Bull, having recovered from a lap 1 tussle with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen that saw him fall to last, while Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top 10, Vettel holding off a late charge form the recovering Mercedes of Bottas.

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