Athletics can’t keep kidding itself – it needs a five-pronged plan to save track and field | Sean Ingle

The world’s fastest man is being trash-talked by a YouTuber. “Are you ready man?” asks Darren Watkins, AKA IShowSpeed, on a live stream broadcast around the world. “You know my name’s Speed, right? And you know I am going to win.” Noah Lyles, the Olympic and world 100m champion, smiles at the teenage upstart. Then he bites back

Unprecedented strike shows racing unified to send pre-budget message to Labour over betting duty crisis

There was just a single day of racing in Britain between 22 December and 9 March during the famously bitter winter in 1962-63 and dozens of blank days during the foot-and-mouth outbreaks in 1967 and 2001. Even in the era of racing on Polytrack and Tapeta, which dates back almost 40 years, there are occasional days when, to the delight of headline-writers, the so-called “all-weather” surfaces cannot cope.But there has never been a day throughout those decades when a scheduled programme of racing has been called off voluntarily, so the decision to “strike” on Wednesday, when meetings were due to be staged at Lingfield, Carlisle, Uttoxeter and Kempton, is a sign of how seriously racing’s administrators and stakeholders view the threat to the sport’s finances from a government proposal to “harmonise” the rate of duty charged on profits from betting on sport and other uncertain events, and fixed-margin casino products such as online slots where the operator takes a guaranteed percentage of turnover.Martin Cruddace, the chief executive of Arena Racing Company, one of Britain’s two major racecourse operators alongside Jockey Club Racecourses, has described the proposal as representing an “existential threat” to Britain’s second-biggest spectator sport.That might seem a little overwrought given that the current rate of betting duty is 15% of an operator’s gross profits, while the rate for gaming products is 21%

Surrey all out for 246, McKinney punishes Essex: county cricket day one – as it happened

It was one of those soul-soaring autumn days in the East Midlands, trees like overripe broccoli, skies huge and blue. On the bright green benches of Grace Road, a man filled out the crossword, while the County Championship resumed for its final three-round act. Nothing is decided, not even next season’s schedule – to be voted on later this month – with a choice of a 13-game two-division playoff compromise or the status quo.Leicestershire, the runaway stars of Division Two, are in touching distance of promotion for the first time since 2003, but this was one of their more forgettable days. They are without Rehan Ahmed (England), Ben Green (Somerset), Liam Trevaskis and Tom Scriven (injured) and Gloucestershire were able to make merry – with a stylish hundred for Graeme van Buuren and half-centuries from Ben Charlesworth, Miles Hammond and James Bracey

Jack Draper ruled out for rest of the season with arm injury

Jack Draper, the British No 1, has been ruled out for the rest of the season with the arm injury that forced him to withdraw from the US Open.Draper said: “Unfortunately, the injury to my arm is something I have to rest and means I’ll be sitting out the rest of 2025. It is very difficult for me to accept as I was building some incredible momentum this year and playing some great stuff.“However I’ve been through this before and I always come back stronger as I’m so motivated to fulfil my potential as a player. Huge thanks to everyone who backs me to do well and supports me on my journey

Sinner’s reaction to US Open defeat shows why he and Alcaraz will tower over the tour for years to come

In the 90 minutes between Jannik Sinner’s defeat by Carlos Alcaraz in the US Open final and his post-match debrief, his mind had already shifted. Rather than dwelling on the pain of losing his US Open title and No 1 ranking, he was thinking about the future.Sinner felt his game was too predictable, even one-dimensional, compared with Alcaraz, whose deep toolbox of shots left him uncomfortable and unable to find rhythm on the court. As a result of that discomfort, Sinner made a decision. The 24-year-old resolved to make significant changes to his game in pursuit of becoming a better, more complete tennis player and keeping up with his rival, even if he might suffer in the short term

England look to get smart after one-day romp fails to mask long-term troubles

There might have been a few sore heads in England’s squad on the morning after their epic, extraordinary victory against South Africa in Southampton, if only because of dizziness. On Sunday, after all, what had been down was suddenly up, what was bad became good, what was strong appeared feeble. And so the series ended having only really proved that what fails today can flourish tomorrow, which does not necessarily help with planning for the day after that.Clearly England have a team with great potential, but across the week it only really shone when their opponents had misplaced both motivation and quality. Brendon McCullum, the England head coach, described “an oscillating series” that concluded with “an incredible blueprint of what this team’s capable of achieving if we can get it right”, but if it is hard to argue that scoring 414 before routing your opponents for 72 is anything less than ideal it is also not hugely repeatable