Man City’s İlkay Gündoğan has won a third straight Premier League (Credit: Steffen Prößdorf/WikiCommons)
Athletics
Four-time Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah finished eighth at the Great Manchester Run on May 21, the penultimate race of his career.
The 40-year-old Briton completed the 10-kilometre course in 29 minutes, 11 seconds – 44 seconds behind winner Eyob Faniel of Italy. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri defended the women’s title in 31 minutes, 14 seconds.
Farah’s final competitive race will be the Great North Run in Newcastle on September 10.
“I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved throughout my career,” he told BBC Sport. “I was a bit nervous at the start, but this city has some great history, and the support I got was amazing.”
Farah won 5,000- and 10,000-metre golds at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. He has also won six world and five European golds and was knighted in 2017.
Boxing
Janibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan successfully defended his WBO middleweight world title against Canada’s Steven Butler in the second round at the Stockton Arena in Stockton, California.
The undefeated 30-year-old caught Butler with a left hook and followed with a series of lefts, flooring Butler three times before the referee stopped the bout.
The win on May 13 means Alimkhanuly now has 14 wins with nine knockouts. After his victory, Alimkhanuly called out Mexico’s Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and American Jermall Charlo. Alvarez is the undisputed super-middleweight champion, while Charlo holds the WBC middleweight belt.
“Champions and boxing superstars, where are you?” Alimkhanuly said. “I’m the most avoided fighter.” “I’m the middleweight king.” Canelo and Charlo, I’m coming. “I’m ready for anybody, anytime, anywhere.”
Cricket
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has confirmed to the International Cricket Council (ICC) that the national side will travel to India for the ICC One-Day International World Cup 2023.
This revelation comes at a critical juncture in the conflict between Pakistan and the Indian Board over the hosting of the Asia Cup in 2023.
The fate of the vital India vs. Pakistan match in the World Cup 2023 and Asia Cup 2023 is expected to be the main topic of debate at the BCCI’s Special General Meeting (SGM) on May 27.
Football
İlkay Gündoğan says winning a third straight Premier League title and his fifth crown overall ranks as one of the most memorable moments of his illustrious Manchester City career.
The Manchester City captain was the first signing made by manager Pep Guardiola after he took charge at City in the summer of 2016.
And in the intervening seven years since joining the clubfrom Borussia Dortmund, the German midfielder has established himself as a true Manchester City legend, performing with huge intelligence and distinction.
Gündoğan cemented himself in City folklore with his dramatic late brace of goals in last season’s Premier League finale, helping Man City fight back from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2.
Appointed club captain in succession to Fernandinho at the start of this season, the 32-year-old’s impact and influence have been profound once again this term.
And having helped City secure a remarkable hat-trick of league titles, and a fifth success in six years under Guardiola, Gündoğan said it was an achievement that was the measure of anything he had achieved in his stellar career.
Liverpool fans are raging at Mohamed Salah’s exclusion from the six-man shortlist for the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award, which was announced on May 17. Salah, who holds the record for winning the award three times and is the current winner, has been in fantastic form this season despite Liverpool’s disappointing Premier League campaign.
He has 19 league goals and 10 assists, including a hat-trick of assists in his team’s 3-0 win over Leicester City on May 15. That’s 29 goal involvements, which is more than Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka, who have both been included in the shortlist for the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year award. One Twitter user wrote: “The disrespect he gets is incredible.”
“He’s probably the most consistent player in the Premier League with goals and assists combined.” A second tweeted: “Because he missed two pens doesn’t mean he can’t be on the list.” He has scored more goals than some of the names mentioned on the list. A third added, “Most disrespected player ever.”
Hockey
The Pakistan Hockey team’s coach, Siegfried Aikman, resigned from his post on Thursday, as he revealed that he had not been paid his salary for the last 12 months and did not have any other option. The Dutch coach said that he wanted to complete his tenure, and many promises were made to him, but none of them were fulfilled, so he had to resign.
General Secretary of the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF), Haider Hussain, was disappointed and said that he had told the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) many times that nothing was being paid to the head coach, but they were not bothered.
PHF recently hired former coach Roelant Oltmans as the consultant for the Pakistan Junior Team for the Junior Asia Cup.
Judo
The president of the International Judo Federation (IJF) earlier this month promised that Iran would be “welcome back” this September following a four-year suspension from the federation over the Iran Judo Federation’s (IRIJF) anti-Israel normalisation policy.
President Marius Vizer told insidethegames, “The sanction for Iran will finish in September. They are welcome back. I hope they do their best to respect the rules and do not repeat the past inconvenient incidents”.
Vizer also said that “it was a hard decision [to impose the suspension], and we regret that this has affected the athletes and the judo community in Iran. It’s not their fault.”
Iranian judokas will be open to participating again when the ban expires on September 17, as the ban was backdated to the start of 2019. The IRIJF was originally handed an “indefinite” ban after Saeid Mollaei was ordered to withdraw from the 2019 World Championships in Tokyo in order to avoid competing against an Israeli opponent.
Squash
Egypt’s dominance on the squash court continued earlier this month when Nour El Sherbini won the women’s title for the seventh time, closing in on Nicol David’s record, and Ali Farag won the men’s title for the fourth time.
El Sherbini and Farag defended their titles in two all-Egyptian finals, defeating compatriots Nouran Gohar and Karim Abdel Gawad, respectively. After a stunning 11-6, 11-4, and 12-10 victory over world number two Gohar, El Sherbini, 27, is now just one World Championship title away from breaking Malaysian great David’s current women’s record. It was the third time in a row that El Sherbini and Gohar were contesting the World Championship final.
Tennis
Despite her inconsistent preparation on clay this season, Ons Jabeur, the seventh-ranked tennis player in the world, is still optimistic that she will accomplish “amazing achievements” at the French Open.
When the Tunisian won the first clay event of April in Charleston, it appeared that she was getting back into shape. But she then retired with an injury after three games of her Stuttgart semi-final against Iga Swiatek and missed her title defence in Madrid. At the Italian Open, she was beaten in her first match by Paula Badosa on May 12.
Despite not having advanced past the fourth round at the French Open, Jabeur feels optimistic as the Grand Slam nears. “You just keep going and remember who you are and the ranking that you had,” she told the French Open.
“The game is there; you just need to get back in shape physically and everything and see what could happen… wish I had an easier draw, but it is what it is; it’s tennis, and maybe it’s time for Paula to get back to where she belongs.” Maybe it doesn’t matter if you have a lot of matches coming in or your confidence is high.
“Maybe this year is better because I have no matches under my belt and am just trying to get through the journey.” For me, maybe I have less pressure this Roland-Garros, but you know I like pressure, so I’m trying to find the good pressure to keep me alive and play a good game.
“The thing that maybe worries me is that I want to be physically 100 percent; that’s going to help me get more matches, and if I can do that, if I can have a good two weeks of practicse, I think I will be able to have great results at Roland-Garros.”
