30 Aug 2021

Today's sports news: What you need to know

12:46 pm on 30 August 2021

Latest - New Zealand swimmer Sophie Pascoe has qualified third fastest for tonight's final of her category of the 100 metres backstroke at the Paralympics in Tokyo.

Sophie Pascoe winning silver in the women's 100m breaststroke SB8 swimming final. Tokyo Paralympics.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Pascoe, who is the defending champion in the event, was second in her heat.

The final is at 8:20pm.

Jesse Reynolds qualified sixth fastest for his 100 backstroke final which is also tonight at 8:14pm.

Pascoe is chasing her second medal of the Tokyo Games after winning silver in the in the 100 metre breaststroke SB8 last week.

It was New Zealand's first medal of the Tokyo Paralympics.

Pascoe is New Zealand's most decorated Paralympian and her silver medal was her 16th Paralympic medal - her seventh silver.

She will also race the 100m freestyle, 200m individual medley and the 100m butterfly in Tokyo.

Cantlay topples DeChambeau

American golfer Patrick Cantlay has won the second PGA Tour playoff tournament in Maryland to secure the top seeding for the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Cantlay has sunk a 17-foot putt birdie putt on the sixth playoff hole to beat fellow countryman Bryson DeChambeau.

The pair finished level at 27-under par after 72 holes, four shots clear of South Korea's Sungjae Im, and they couldn't be separated through five playoff holes.

Cantlay will start the Tour Championship at 10-under par, with DeChambeau the third seed at 7-under.

Tony Finau, who won the first playoff tournament in New Jersey, is the second seed and will start at 8-under par.

Woods' backup putter sold at auction

Tiger Woods' backup putter from his sensational 2002 season has sold for $562,000 at auction.

Tiger Woods in 2019.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The price paid for the Scotty Cameron putter has reportedly made it the most expensive golf club ever sold.

The putter was personally produced by Cameron for Woods and comes with a letter of authenticity.

Woods won five tournaments, including the Masters and the U.S. Open, in 2002.

Fifteen-times major champion Woods practiced and experimented with the putter but did not use it in competition.

The putter Woods has used for the majority of his 15 major victories is still in his possession and would fetch millions if it was to ever go on the block, the auction house said.

Woods, 45, is still recovering from the multiple leg injuries he suffered in a car crash in February near Los Angeles.

- Reuters

Spurs top of the Premier League

Tottenham Hotspur maintained their 100% start to the Premier League season with a 1-0 win over Watford thanks to a first half goal from Son Heung-min.

Tottenham forward Son Heung-min.

Tottenham forward Son Heung-min. Photo: Offside Sports Photography/Photosport

Spurs striker Harry Kane, who had been the subject of a lengthy but unsuccessful transfer bid from Manchester City, made his first start of the season for the club.

Tottenham head into the international break at the top of the table having won all three games 1-0 under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo. Watford are 12th with three points.

Mason Greenwood's late winner earned Manchester United a 1-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers, breaking the record for the longest unbeaten away run in English Football League history in the process.

United made it 28 unbeaten on the road in the league, beating Arsenal's record set between April 2003 and September 2004.

Patrick Bamford celebrated his England call-up with an 86th-minute equaliser as Leeds United came back for a 1-1 draw at Burnley.

Burnley striker Chris Wood had opened the scoring in the 61st minute against his former club.

Leeds have two points from their opening three games while Sean Dyche's Burnley had lost their opening two games.

Scottish champions Rangers stretched their unbeaten Old Firm run to seven games after a second-half goal by Swedish defender Filip Helander gave them a 1-0 win over Celtic at Ibrox.

The result left Rangers, who had won five of their previous six meetings against Celtic, third in the Scottish Premiership while Celtic are sixth.

- Reuters

Top ten finish for mountainbiker

Jessica Blewitt has finished the best of New Zealand's elite downhill mountain bikers at the world championships in Italy.

New Zealand rider Finn Hawkesby-Browne in action in the elite men's downhill at the UCI 2021 Mountain Bike World Championships, Val di Sole, Trentino, Italy

Finn Hawkesby-Browne. Photo: SWpix

The 19-year-old has recorded the eighth best time in the women's race, 11.673 secs behind the winner, Frenchwoman Myriam Nicole.

Tuhoto-Ariki Pene finished 14th in the men's event, 6.677 secs behind the world champion, South Africa's Greg Minnaar.

Finn Hawkesby-Browne finished 27, a further three seconds back, with Sam Gale 35th, George Brannigan 45th, Charles Murray 64th, Brook MacDonald 73rd and Samuel Blenkinsop 75th.

Lachlan Stevens-McNab finished third in the men's junior downhill, with James MacDermid sixth and Guy Johnston eighth.

NRL minor premiership still undecided

The NRL minor premiership will be decided in the final round.

Matt Burton of the Panthers celebrates scoring a try.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The Penrith Panthers have beaten the Wests Tigers 30-16 in the final match of the penultimate round in Redcliffe to draw level with the Melbourne Storm at the top of the ladder.

Given Melbourne still enjoy a 131-point for-and-against advantage, Penrith will require a Cronulla upset in the final round and a win over the Eels to pinch the JJ Giltinan Shield from last year's premiers.

Earlier Tom Trbojevic scored a second-half hat-trick to lead the Manly Sea Eagles to a come-from-behind 36-18 win over the Bulldogs in Redcliffe.

The Sea Eagles are now fourth on the NRL ladder, with a round remaining, ahead of the Eels and Roosters on points differential.

Trbojevic has now scored 22 tries this season in just 14 games.

Rogge dies

Former International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge has died at the age of 79.

Jacques Rogge, Former IOC boss.

Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Rogge served as the IOC's eighth president from 2001 to 2013 and went on to become the organisation's honorary president.

Rogge, a former orthopaedic surgeon, represented the Belgian national team in rugby and was a 16-time Belgian national champion and a world champion in sailing. He competed in sailing at three Olympics, in 1968, 1972 and 1976, in the Finn class.

He went on to become President of the Belgian and European Olympic Committees before being elected IOC president, and served as a Special Envoy for Youth, Refugees and Sport to the United Nations after his IOC presidency.

The IOC said it would fly the Olympic flag at half-mast at Olympic House, at The Olympic Museum and all its other properties for five days as a mark of respect for Rogge, with a public memorial to be held later in the year.

- Reuters

Eiking still in red in Spain

Rafal Majka of Poland was in imperious form in the mountains as he enjoyed a solo victory in stage 15 of the Vuelta a Espana while Odd Christian Eiking held on to the leader's red jersey.

Majka and Maxim Van Gils formed an early break in the 197-km stage from Navalmoral de la Mata to El Barraco and were joined by Fabio Aru.

Van Gils soon faded as Aru and Majka worked together to extend the gap with the chasers but the Pole soon pulled ahead of the Italian to become the sole leader with 87km to go and comfortably saw out the remainder of the stage to finish one minute 27 seconds ahead of second-placed Steven Kruijswijk.

Norwegian rider Eiking came fifth, crossing the line along with the other overall contenders, preserving his 54-second lead over second-placed Guillaume Martin and reigning champion and race favourite Primoz Roglic, who is one minute 36 seconds behind in third.

The riders take the second and final rest day on Monday while racing resumes with Tuesday's flat stage before a return to the mountains on Wednesday, when Roglic will look to regain the overall lead.

- Reuters

Half marathon world record broken

Ethiopia's Yalemzerf Yehualaw has smashed the half marathon world record, finishing in one hour, three minutes, 43 seconds at the Antrim Coast Half Marathon in Larne, Northern Ireland, to shave 19 seconds of the previous mark.

The previous record was set by Kenya's Ruth Chepngetich in Istanbul on April 4.

Yehualaw, who is the first woman to break 64 minutes for the half marathon, finished just over six minutes ahead of Kenya's Jane Nyaboke, with Britain's Rose Harvey completing the podium.

Ethiopia's national record holder Jemal Yimer won the men's race, finishing one second ahead of his compatriot Tesfahun Akalnew, with Kenya's Shadrack Kimining coming third.

- Reuters