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Cycling Monuments postponed due to Covid-19

As part of the fight against the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19), Amaury Sport Organisation, with the agreement of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), has decided to cancel Paris-Roubaix (12th April), the Flèche Wallonne and the Flèche Wallonne Women  (22nd April) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Women (26th April) races on their scheduled dates.

In close collaboration with the UCI and with the assistance of the other parties concerned, the organisers have already begun working to try to organise new dates for these monuments, races to which teams, riders and spectators are deeply attached.

Flanders Classics has also announced the cancellation of the Tour of Flanders, the biggest one day race in the world, which was scheduled for 5th April.

Flanders Classics, together with the UCI and representatives of the teams and riders, is currently studying the possibility of a postponement to a later date this year.

Soccer: The Game without Borders

If music is the universal language, then soccer is the game without borders. Soccer is a game that is loved and appreciated by billions of people in the world. The only other games that have this many fans are online casino games.

With us casino games, we know that people love the aspect of real money rewards however, what is that they love so much about soccer? 

Why soccer?

There are thousands of sports in the world, but why is it that soccer can manage to stand out and claim the title of the world’s favourite sport? Well, here are some reasons why soccer is the world’s favourite sport and the game without borders. 

  1. It Cheap to play
  2. One of the main reasons why soccer is the most loved sport is that it is cheap to play. Growing as children, most people, both boys and girls played a game that was similar to soccer. All that you needed was a ball and enough people for two teams, homemade goal posts and you were good to go.  
  3. And as you grew older, you would love the actual game as it was played live remembering what you used to play when you were child. 
  4. Can be Played Anywhere and anyhow
  5. As we said earlier, soccer is the game that makes up most of our childhood memories, because we could play it anyhow and anywhere to be honest. We did not need the turf of the fancy stadium, all we needed was teams and a plastic ball and we were good to go. 
  6. Easy to play
  7. We have to admit soccer is one of the easiest games to play that is second to real money pokies games of course. Soccer, though it does need skill, too much of the skill can easily cost you the ball. Therefore, all that you need to do is to be simple and you can still win at the end. 

Video – Tom Brady announces he is leaving Patriots for Buccs

Tom Brady has announced that he is leaving the New England Patriots to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady has played for the Patriots for 20 years and won a record six Super Bowl wins.

Brady was drafted by the Patriots in 2000 out of the University of Michigan. He has gone on to be one of the most decorated quarterbacks in NFL history.

In a statement posted on social media, Brady added: “I wanted to say thank you to all of the incredible fans and Patriots supporters.

“MA [Massachusetts] has been my home for 20 years, it has truly been the happiest two decades I could’ve envisioned in my life and I have nothing but love and gratitude for my time in New England.

“The support has been overwhelming, I wish every player could experience it.”

‘The greatest quarterback of all time’

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who has been at the team throughout Brady’s career, said: “Tom was not just a player who bought into our program, he was one of it’s original creators – he lived and perpetuated our culture and on a daily basis he was a tone setter and a bar raiser.

“He didn’t just perform, he didn’t just win, he won championships over and over again.

“Tom and I will always have a great relationship built on love, admiration, respect and appreciation and his success as a player and his character as a person are exceptional. It has been a privilege to coach Tom Brady for 20 years.

“Sometimes in life, it takes some time to pass before truly appreciating something or someone but that has not been the case with Tom. He is a special person and the greatest quarterback of all time.”

Euro 2020 Finals postponed until 2021

UEFA, European football’s governing body, has this afternoon confirmed that this summer’s European Championships will be postponed until 2021 due to the uncertainly over the spread of Covid-19.

The UEFA statement confirming the decision read:

“Uefa has decided that the Euros should be postponed until 2021. It will be played from 11 June to 11 July next year.”

The decision may now have an impact on the Women European Championships, due to be played in the summer of 2021. It remains to be seen whether the Women’s tournament will now be moved to summer 2022, with the men’s World Cup 2022 not due to be played until the winter.

The change now presents a clash with FIFA’s expanded 24-team Club World Cup, due to take place in the summer of 2021 in China.

UEFA’s decision today is expected to be welcomed by the Continent’s domestic leagues as it is now hoped it will allow them the time to conclude their season, Covid-19 permitting.

BHA suspends horseracing until the end of April

The British Horseracing Authority has confirmed that all horseracing in Britain will be suspended with effect from tomorrow, Wednesday 18th March.

Last night, The Jockey Club announced that The Randox Health Grand National has been cancelled due to coronavirus.

Two race meetings are scheduled to take place behind closed doors at Wetherby and Taunton today, but race meetings will cease up to the end of April. The decision will be kept under constant review.

The BHA took the decision to protect essential emergency services and the health and welfare of staff working in the racing industry. Racecourses and racing have obligations to ensure the safety of participants and provide medical cover which clearly cannot be fulfilled in these circumstances. This follows the new advice issued by government yesterday to combat the spread of the virus.

Nick Rust, the Chief Executive of the BHA, said:

“This is a national emergency the like of which most of us have never seen before. We’re a sport that is proud of its connection to rural communities and to the local businesses that support our industry. But our first duty is to the health of the public, our customers and to racing industry participants and staff so we have decided to suspend racing following the government’s latest advice.

“Racing is a family and I know we will pull together over the coming days, weeks and months and support each other. By stopping racing, we can free up medical resources, doctors and ambulances, be they private sector or NHS, to assist in the national effort to fight this virus. And we can support racing industry participants and staff as they face up to the personal challenges ahead and care for their own families.

“There will be difficult months ahead for many of us. We need to focus now on ensuring that we can continue to look after our horses as the virus affects the thousands of participants and staff who dedicate their lives to caring for animals. We need to do what we can to support businesses inside and outside racing and the many people whose livelihoods depend upon this £4 billion industry.

“We are in constant contact with government which understands the very significant consequences of this decision for jobs and businesses. We will work with them to do our best to manage the impact.

“Racing leaders will keep today’s decision under constant review and endeavour to keep all customers, participants, staff and dependent businesses informed as the situation progresses.”

Equestrian Round-Up: Irish successes in Florida & Dortmund in past week

In the past seven days Ireland’s equestrian stars have competed behind closed doors at competitions in Florida and Dortmund, achieving much success on both sides of the Atlantic.

Darragh Kenny scored a victory in the $137,000 Horseware Ireland Grand Prix CSI3* on Saturday at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Wellington, Florida.

Canadian course designer Michel Vaillancourt built a track for 45 starters with 12 advancing to the tie-breaking jump-off. Returning near the end of the jump-off round, Kenny and Scarlett du Sart Z stopped the clock at 33.54 seconds to claim the lead and relegate Israel’s Sydney Shulman down to the runner-up position. Shulman and J-Boston S.E. posted a time of 33.96 seconds.

“I’ve been very lucky – I had a good winter and all the horses went very well,” said Kenny of his season at WEF. “I had a great feeling coming into this winter because I have an incredible group of horses, and I’m very lucky that I have those horses.”

Kenny got the ride on Scarlett du Sart Z, a 10-year-old Zangersheide mare, during the horse’s seven-year-old year. He has high hopes for the mare’s future, saying, “This is a mare that Teddy Vlock and his owner bought for me, and we’ve been slowly producing her. She’s really starting to turn a corner, and I think she’s an incredibly talented horse that will end up jumping at the highest level.”

At the Palm Beach Masters, which are also taking place in Florida, Co Down’s Conor Swail and GK Coco Chanel finished as runners-up in Saturday’s $137,000 CSI5* Palm Beach Masters Classic.

Last to go in a 12-horse jump-off, Swail finished just behind British winner Emily Moffitt with Tipsy du Terral. Billy Twomey (Kimba Flamenco) and Darragh Kenny (Billy Dorito) also made it into the jump-off and finished in ninth and tenth places respectively.

Bertram Allen clinched the $37,000 Douglas Elliman Real Estate 1.45m CSI3* riding Lafayette van Overis on Wednesday at the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) in Wellington, Florida.

Allen continued a streak of 1.45m victories at WEF with another win over tracks set by Michel Vaillancourt. Seventy horses contested the two-phase course, but Allen and his quick gelding could not be caught. They stopped the clock at 32.68 seconds, which proved to be less than a half a second faster than runner-up Natalie Dean (USA) riding Ceitasi (32.68 seconds), with Derry rider Jordan Coyle rounding out the top-three in a time of 32.70 seconds aboard Picador.

“He was very relaxed, and straight away won this easily,” said Allen of his Ballywalter Stables-owned mount. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to go full speed, but because it was a two phase, I could see how he was feeling and he felt very good.

“He is so naturally fast,” continued Allen. “There were people doing more galloping or less strides, but I did not want to do that with him today. I thought I would do as good a round as I could, and see where that left us. Because he’s so fast, he was able to get out on top.”

Meanwhile Offaly’s Darragh Kenny claimed the $6,000 Bainbridge Companies 1.40m riding Cicomein VDL in the International Arena.

Derry’s Jordan Coyle and Eristov raced to victory in the five-star $89,500 Palm Beach Masters qualifier, while Cork’s Billy Twomey finished third with Lady Lou just ahead of Wexford’s Bertram Allen and Gun Powder in fourth.

There was also an Irish win for Stephen Moore and Team de Coquerie in the $36,600 CSI2* Bruins Tour Challenge, the final event of the inaugural Sunset Challenge at the 2020 Palm Beach Masters Series.

Moore and the 13-year-old gelding crossed the timers of Alan Wade’s 1m45 shortened track in 37.24 seconds, beating Eve Jobs (USA) and Valentino Tuiliere on 38.37 seconds and Beat Mändli (SUI) and Dibatsja on 38.96 seconds.

Tipperary’s Denis Lynch and GC Chopin’s Bushi took victory in last Friday’s three-star 1m50 jump-off at Dortmund Show while Co Clare’s Eoin McMahon was also in the prizes, taking third place with Chacon 2.

Irish Dressage rider Heike Holstein and the Irish-bred mare Sambuca took sixth place in the Grand Prix in Dortmund. Holstein scored 70.571% with victory going to Germany’s Ingrid Klimke with Franziskus on a score of 75.217%.

Team Ireland qualifies largest ever cycling squad for Olympic Games

The UCI has confirmed that Team Ireland has qualified a quota in each of the Men’s and Women’s Madison and Men’s and Women’s Omnium events.

This is the first time that Cycling Ireland has qualified such as a large team for the Olympic Games and the first time Ireland will be represented in a team event in track cycling, with the Madison being an event comprised of two riders.

The qualification of Ireland’s track cycling quota was thanks to the consistent performances of Ireland’s track cycling squad over a 2-year qualifying period.

More than 10 riders contributed to the men’s and women’s points tally at World Cup, European Championships and World Championship events. These riders will go through a selection process to identify the riders to be nominated for Team Ireland in the Tokyo Olympics.

In addition, Team Ireland has already qualified 3 slots for the Men’s Road Race and 1 slot for the Men’s Road Time Trial which were formally accepted in December 2019.

This represents Cycling Ireland’s most successful Olympic qualification campaign ever. Riders will compete across six different events – Men’s and Women’s Madison, Men’s and Women’s Omnium, Men’s Road Race and Men’s Road Time Trial.

Team Ireland Quotas

1 x Men’s Madison (2 athletes).

1 x Men’s Omnium (athlete will also compete in the Madison).

1 x Women’s Madison (2 athletes).

1 x Women’s Omnium (athlete will also compete in the Madison).

3 x Men’s Road Race (3 athletes).

1 x Men’s Road Time Trial (athlete will also compete in the Men’s Road Race).

Ireland secures two Para Dressage individual places at 2020 Paralympic Games

Horse Sport Ireland recently confirmed that Ireland has secured two individual places in the Para Dressage competition at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Qualification for the 2020 Paralympics began early last year and ran until January 31st 2020.

The allocation of two Para Dressage places for Ireland is based on the individual ranking list, and in-line with other equestrian disciplines, the final decision on which athletes will be selected to represent Ireland will take place before the August 3rd deadline for entries.

Para Dressage is the only Equestrian discipline that is included in the Paralympic Games, where it has been a regular fixture since 1996. The Para Dressage competition at the 2020 Paralympic Games will be held at Tokyo Equestrian Park from August 27th to 31st.

Individual medals will be decided on the first two days, followed by two days of team competition before the final freestyle titles will be decided on the final day of competition.

A total of 78 athletes and horses will compete at the Paralympic Games with a total of 11 medal events taking place across five grades of competition.

Horse Sport Ireland is also submitting an application for a possible third individual Para Dressage place at the Paralympics through the Bipartite Commission Invitation system, however with just three of these places available across the globe, competition for these places will be extremely competitive.

The Bipartite Commission Invitation qualification slots are granted on a discretionary basis by the International Paralympic Commission and the respective International Federation (in this case the FEI). Bipartite slots are awarded to the individual athlete, not to the National Paralympic Committee.

Snooker’s Coral Tour Championship cancelled & rescheduled for July

WST and ITV Sport have taken the decision to postpone this week’s Coral Tour Championship in Llandudno as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus.

The event was due to run from today until Sunday, with action being televised by ITV4.

Following Monday’s announcement from the UK government that the public is advised to avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social venues, organisers liaised with ITV Sport and came to the decision to postpone the event, with new provisional dates of July 21st to 26th this year at the same venue.

While admitting the decision was taken at very short notice, organisers stated the assessment could only be made at short notice after yesterday’s announcement from the British government which came at 5pm.

Announcements on future events including the World Championship will be made in due course, with all scenarios to be considered depending on further government advice.

European Tour CEO confirms 7 tournaments postponed or cancelled

CEO Keith Pelley has confirmed that so far seven tournaments on the European Tour’s 2020 International Schedule have been postponed or cancelled. Due to the current ongoing uncertainty, the Tour is suspending ticket and hospitality sales for all 2020 European Tour promoted events until further notice.

Though this is a temporary measure Pelley feels it is proportionate in the current circumstances. If there are any changes to the status of any tournaments, the European Tour will communicate this to fans in due course.

Mr Pelley stated: “As important as golf is to all of us, public health and well-being is the absolute priority. That will remain the case as we continue to monitor this rapidly evolving global pandemic over the coming weeks, working with the World Health Organisation and each national Government and their public health agencies to ensure we have the latest advice to inform all our decision making.”

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