This year, one word is echoing through women’s March Madness: joy

Whether in the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, coaches and players at this NCAA tournament have found the fun in basketball againKara Lawson’s Duke team saw their Final Four dreams dashed with a 70-58 loss to UCLA on Sunday. The Blue Devils had pulled an impressive, buzzer-beating upset of No 2 seed LSU in the Sweet 16 days before, but against the No 1 Bruins in the Elite Eight, they didn’t give a repeat performance. They missed a few key moments in transition that could have changed the game and helped them to their first Final Four in 20 years.In the end, though, it was OK.“I told the group after the game, just before we came up here, what a great season it’s been for us

Lauren Price: ‘I want to win as much money as I can, build a legacy for boxing in Wales and get out safe’

The IBF and WBC welterweight champion on returning to the ring, boxing politics and her imminent weddingA year ago, on a historic night for boxing when an all-women card of fights was held at the Royal Albert Hall last March, Lauren Price produced an imperious headline performance which should have led to a series of even more prestigious bouts. Her dominant display in outclassing the venerable Natasha Jonas appeared to be the ideal launching for a new stage of Price’s career as the IBF and WBC world welterweight champion.But when she finally steps back into the ring on Saturday night in Cardiff to defend her titles against Stephanie Piñeiro Aquino, the little-known Puerto Rican challenger, almost 13 months will have passed since that high point. Only frustration and inertia have followed.“Oh, 100%,” Price says when asked if her exasperating absence offers an insight into the enduring mess of boxing politics

Jaden Ivey’s release isn’t a victory for inclusion. It’s a lesson in athlete expendability | RK Russell

When the Chicago Bulls waived Jaden Ivey on Monday, after he made a series of unprompted anti-LGBTQ and religiously charged comments on social media, the move was framed as a response to “conduct detrimental to the team.” On the surface, the situation appears straightforward: a player said something controversial, and the organization acted.But there’s a version of this story where Ivey is still in the league. Where he and his publicist create a swift and thoughtful apology, where his overnight inclusion education uses all the key buzzwords to prove his newfound allyship, maybe he pays a fine or makes a small donation, and he’s able to go back on to the court and live out his dreams in the NBA, a league which has been pro-LGBTQ+ for more than a decade. Ivey’s words exposed his beliefs

‘He’s phenomenal’: American teen fast becoming athletics’ next big thing

Fire on the boards. Slack jaws off it. Last month I was fortunate enough to be yards away from the 17-year-old American high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus when he powered away from a strong 800m field in Torun to become the youngest world champion in track and field history. But no sooner had the applause died down than the search for superlatives began.“He’s like David Rudisha,” said Eliott Crestan, the Belgian who took world indoor championship silver behind Lutkenhaus

Joyce ‘shocked’ to receive Wales call-up for Women’s Six Nations only months after giving birth

Alisha Joyce returned to the rugby pitch in March just 123 days after giving birth and a week later was named in Wales’s squad for the Women’s Six Nations. The 28‑year‑old says she was “shocked” to get the call-up after welcoming her son, Ralphie, in November but adds it’s “cool” to be a role model for the next generation of players.Joyce was the first Wales player to use the governing body’s new performance maternity programme. The back-row, who shares Ralphie with her wife and teammate Jasmine Joyce, has played only 30 minutes of rugby since returning last month in a game for Brython Thunder where she came off the bench.The call from the Wales head coach, Sean Lynn, was not something she was expecting

Justin Timberlake’s walk-on part back in spotlight as Chelmsford faces closure fears

The oft-troubled history of Chelmsford City racecourse in Essex took its latest turn for the worse on Wednesday when the track lost its licence to host fixtures. This means the cancellation of scheduled meetings including the lucrative Good Friday fixture and putting the long-term future of the venue in serious doubt.There have been enough twists in the Chelmsford saga that Justin Timberlake’s apparent walk-on part in the latest chapter is just one more to add to the list. The singer’s concert at the track on 4 July 2025 led to chaotic scenes when 25,000 fans left afterwards, forcing some to queue for up to four hours and others to abandon their cars and walk along the nearby A131 dual carriageway.A legal action arising from the concert was settled out of court, but the crowd capacity for gigs was lowered and the track’s operator, Great Leighs Estates Limited, went into administration on Monday