Lachlan Kennedy breaks 10-second barrier for 100m but Jess Hull crashes out of 1500m final

In a historic and dramatic evening of athletics at the national championships at Sydney Olympic Park, Lachie Kennedy became the first Australian 100m sprinter to break the 10-second barrier on home soil.The celebratory mood flipped in an instant, however, after Jess Hull’s fall in the final straight of the 1500m. The incident triggered two protests and prompted her father and coach Simon to shout angrily within earshot of the press that his daughter was “robbed”, and the result remains in limbo ahead of an appeal to be heard on Saturday.In the 100m heats, 22-year-old Kennedy stormed out of the blocks and surged through the finish line on Friday night, stopping the clock at 9.96sec with only a modest – and legal – tailwind of +0

Grand National 2026: horse-by-horse guide to all the runners

I Am Maximus, the 2024 winner, heads to Aintree on Saturday as favourite to triumph again. Here is a look at the chances of all 34 contendersOne of two previous winners at the top of the weights and he backed up his 2024 success by pressing Nick Rockett all the way to the Elbow 12 months ago before finally crying enough. He had shown precious few hints of his National-winning form in two runs before that exceptional performance under top weight and has more to recommend him this year, having finished second in a Grade One in December and fifth in the Irish Gold Cup. In strict handicapping terms, he should probably find one or two too good, but Aintree aptitude is a serious weapon and another podium place is no forlorn hope.Verdict: each-way hope on Aintree form, but no top-weight winner since 70sLast year’s winner Nick Rockett will not run in the Grand National after being withdrawn on a self certificate with the reason given as coughing

Women’s Six Nations: will anyone stop England’s conveyor belt of talent?

Despite a raft of absences, world champions have such depth they will begin the 2026 tournament as firm favouritesIf there isn’t a conspiracy theory out there about England having a factory that churns out world-class players then there should be. The Red Roses squad will be without eight Rugby World Cup winners because of injury, pregnancies and retirements for the Women’s Six Nations but they are still overwhelming favourites for a grand slam.For others, a squad so depleted would throw their campaign into chaos, but not for England. Abby Dow has retired? The brilliant Claudia Moloney-MacDonald can be brought in. The captain, Zoe Stratford, is pregnant? The World Rugby player of the year nominee Meg Jones steps up to take the armband

A lower-round AJ Brown to a 306lb missile: the 2026 NFL draft’s under-the-radar prospects

Fernando Mendoza will almost certainly go No 1 overall. But who are the players that teams may take a swing on after the big names have gone?You have to go back to 2013 to find a year in which fewer than four quarterbacks were selected in the top 100 picks. But in this year’s mediocre quarterback class, the fourth quarterback may not go off the board until day three. After Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, it’s unclear who will even be the third taken. There is a chasm from the top two down to LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, Penn State’s Drew Allar and Miami’s Carson Beck

Chess: Sindarov extends Candidates lead and heads for world title challenge

Javokhir Sindarov extended his lead at the world championship Candidates in Cyprus on Thursday when the 20-year-old Uzbek grandmaster won for the sixth time at the event to take his overall total to an unbeaten eight points out of 10, two ahead of his closest challenger, the Netherlands No 1, Anish Giri.India’s Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu had prepared a sharp and complex defence to the Queen’s Gambit with an early push of his g and h pawns, but he blundered at move 22 and Sindarov was able to acquire a queen and several pawns for two ineffective rooks.In the previous round, Giri, 31, had established himself as Sindarov’s main rival when he defeated the pre-tournament favourite and US champion, Fabiano Caruana, in a game with a brilliant finish, where the exquisite sequence 42…f5+! 43 exf5 Kh6!! led to unavoidable checkmate or win of the queen.In the same round, Sindarov, after creating a winning attack against Matthias Blübaum’s king, miscalculated and allowed a queen exchange instead of converting by 24…Qb7!The last remaining obstacle for Sindarov may be in round 13, when he has Black against Giri. If he overcomes that, then it will be on to the best of 14 games world championship match later in 2026 against Gukesh Dommaraju

The Masters 2026: Rory McIlroy shares lead with Sam Burns after first round – as it happened

Thanks for reading and join us again for round two. Rory McIlroy has the opportunity to join a very elite club this week because only three men have successfully defended the Green Jacket. The three current members of that club are Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. What an incentive and what a prospect. Here’s Ewan Murray’s report of the first round