Category: General

The Formula One 2019 Season is coming to an end, with rumours growing before the final race in Abu Dhabi. Since Ferrari’s dominance after the winter break, many teams, including Red Bull, have claimed that they tricked fuel-flow sensors into gaining their straight-line advantage. The FIA announced a month ago that they would begin creating new technical directives that clamp down on the fuel-flow of F1 Cars. They confirmed that all teams would be required to run a secondary sensor come the 2020 Season.

The first driver that mentioned his speculation over Ferrari was Max Verstappen. Afterwards, Red Bull went to the FIA with concerns regarding the legality of tricking fuel-flow sensors. Immediately, speculation began all over the grid, and by the United States Grand Prix, those straight-line speeds had disappeared. Though Ferrari hasn’t been penalized for their actions, it was confirmed that they had altered fuel sensors to increase the rate of fuel to the engine. This was accomplished by managing an electric interference through the sensors flow rate bypass. Since then, the FIA has announced new technical directives that state this practice is illegal and contradicts with the rules.

The directive wasn’t publicly announced until after the United States Grand Prix in Austin. However, fans knew that something was wrong when the pace dropped tenfold for Ferrari. Their speeds in Brazil were lower than previous circuits after the summer break as well. Many have taken this as confirmation that Italian Horses broke the rules, but Ferrari has denied these claims and noted that performance drops are from other numerous factors.

FIA Moves In

The governing body for Formula One has since confiscated two of Ferrari’s Fuel Systems and is then using another sensor from a separate team to correlate the data. This confiscation came right after Sebastien Vettel, and Charles Leclerc struck each other at Interlagos. The FIA confirmed that all secondary fuel-flow sensor systems managed next season will be exclusively controlled by the governing body. The last race in 2019 will be the final time that Formula 1 Teams have full control over their fuel-flow sensor systems. Subsequently, all teams will have to race at a more even playing field.

None of the teams has publicly come forward to talk about the new racing directives. Most of them are focusing on the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi. Any teams wanting to contest this directive will wait the new year in January.

Formula One’s Driver Championship ended in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas Grand Prix, with all eyes now looking towards Brazil. Red Bull and Ferrari are looking to win at the next two circuits. Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel now move forward to Brazil and Abu Dhabi for a third-place position in the 2019 Championship.

The battle between these three for third place is the real championship of 2019. It was well known that Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes would win the 2019 Season. It’s also anticipated that he will win the 2020 Season before the regulation and car changes in 2021. Afterwards, most expect that Hamilton would keep up with the new young blood in Formula 1 and be forced to retire.

The teams are focusing on these last two races for money. Depending on your position in the constructor’s standings, more money is paid out by Formula 1 towards the development on next years car. Right now, Red Bull is third in the standings and Ferrari is in second. However, this could change in Brazil with Charles Leclerc facing a 10-Place Grid penalty. Gaining pole position against Charles would immediately jump Max and Red Bull into the second standing position. Regardless, Interlagos Brazil is a senior circuit that is known for supporting the Italian Horses.

The Battles

Internally, there has been substantial competition between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Mercedes placed first and second at Circuit of the Americas, with Valtteri Bottas winning the race from his teammate. Bottas now moves forward to Interlagos and Abu Dhabi for a second back-to-back win. This will be easier for the Finn, who can highlight on the fact that Toto Wolff won’t be at the upcoming race to assist Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari and Red Bull have actively been battling one another for 19 Races. In the first half of the season, the Honda-powered Bulls were able to defeat Ferrari regularly. Unfortunately, new fuel mixtures enabled the Italian Horses to fight back after the summer break. Multiple races were won back to back, with Charles Leclerc taking the first win for Ferrari at Monza in decades. These two rival teams will fiercely compete with each other over the next two races, with Max and Charles are known for driving aggressively. There’s the chance we will see the two upcoming rivals touch each other or worse, place a DNF.

The sports legends of the world give it they’re all while playing, both mentally as well as physically. This extreme devotion to the sport often takes its toll on their bodies and later on they have to pay the price with their health. This has just been proven once again as studies revealed that professional footballers stand a much higher chance of suffering from dementia as well as other neurological diseases than others.

The University of Glasgow’s Brain Injury Group has just completed a 22-month study which revealed that professional footballers have an increased likelihood of suffering from dementia or any other neurological severe disease later on in life, of three and a half times. They also revealed a risk increase of five times for Alzheimer’s and four times for motor neuron disease and twice for Parkinson’s. The causes of these finding, however, remains still uncertain and researchers couldn’t determine whether this is due to the heading of leather footballs, regular concussions or any other contributing factor. Further research funded by the Football Association will now continue to determine the contributing factors affecting the lives of these heroes.

No Changes

The Football Association stated that the study has been revealing. They mentioned that it used digitized data from NHS Scotland and compared the cause of death of 7 676 former professional male footballers born between 1900 and 1976 with the data of 23 000 people living ordinary lives. Yet the FA stated that this is not yet providing enough evidence to bring about any change to any aspect of the game. Still, Marc Bullingham, FA chief executive said that they would continuously monitor the situation and continually reassess all aspects of the game if any new evidence brings about new findings.

Over past years the Professional Footballers’ Association has been criticized for their slow response to the problem of dementia in former players. With the new research coming to light, family members of former players who have already passed away due to these diseases required an apology from the FA. One such player is Mike Sutton who formerly played for Norwich. Sutton’s son Chris Sutton stated that over the past decade the FA has been slow to give any response to the evident dementia problem among former players and now he wants an apology for this.

Another family expressing their shock regarding the situation is the family of Jeff Astle. Astle, the former striker to West Bromwich Albion, passed away in 2002 due to what was stated by the coroner as “industrial disease”. His career of heading heavy footballs at least partly caused this. They now said that they are shocked by how large the scale of the problem is.

These families will never get their loved ones back, but they do have some questions answered now and want the FA to show that they cared enough for their players to make the necessary changes to protect and support them.

There is a fascinating scene unfolding on the European football fields. All teams are pushing hard in the race to be in next season’s Champions League. Currently, there are a couple of clubs in the lead of their leagues. This is no surprise, and then there are a few which are a refreshing change. Below we list the teams that are looking to win the Premier League and all other European Soccer Leagues.

The Winning Teams

• Real Madrid Leading La Liga – They had a bumpy start and then shot out to the top. Currently standing at eight games undefeated.
• Liverpool Heading in Premier League – They are keeping their advance from the rest at quite a distance.
• Borussia Mönchengladbach in Bundesliga – Refreshing replacement of Bayern Munich at the top for a change. Holding on to the first place will be tough.
• Juventus Number 1 in Serie A – Currently in a battle with Inter to keep their position. Thus far, it hasn’t been easy for them.
• Paris Saint Germain Fighting in Ligue 1 – They aren’t dominating and will have to work hard to get a third consecutive title.
• Lokomotiv Moscow Heading the Premier Liga – They are adamant about getting it one step further than the previous season when they didn’t make it.
• Famalicão at the top of Liga NOS – Newly promoted and fired up. A beautiful story filled with inspiration.
• Club Brugge – The club had a high season thus far with a no defeat start to the season.
• Ajax Shooting Out in Eredivisie – A healthy competition between the current number one and PSV Eindhoven.
• Shakhtar Donetsk in Premier Liga – Dominating the Ukraine scene and as it seems now, their current position isn’t likely to change.
• Alanyaspor for Süper Lig – Currently, the first place is still up for grabs as there are no dominant leaders that can be identified thus far.
• Red Bull Salzburg Leading Austrian Bundesliga – Erling Håland is having a ball of a time with scoring goals, and thus the new edition is attracting a lot of attention.
• Slavia Prague Leading Fortuna Liga – After a dry-spell, Slavia was back in the game with the trophy in hand at the end of last season, and this year they are defending it with all their might.
• Midtjylland Number 1 in Superliga – They have been the runners-up for two seasons and are set to change that this season. Ten games and no defeat indicates that they are ready to do this.
• Olympiacos Heading the Super League – 2018 brought an end to seven consecutive wins, this year they are ready to get back on track with their record.
• Anorthosis Famagusta First in First Division – This team is making Cyprus proud, clawing their way up to the top from a position of being locked in previously.
• Red Star Belgrade First in Serbian SuperLiga – Being the runaway winners in two previous seasons, they are set to do it a third time.
• Hajduk Split for the HNL – In a leading position but not secure at all yet.
• Rangers First in Scottish Premiership – This team is fighting it out with Celtic for this acclaimed position.
• Basel Leading Swiss Super League – Looking for revenge after defeat in the previous season against Young Boys.

World Rugby is caught in a moment of embarrassment not due to the super typhoon on its way to hit Tokyo but much rather due to their lack of having a contingency plan in place. In addition to that, the question has also been asked about why was the tournament schedule during typhoon season in this country. This is not an out of the ordinary event, and Japan is often experiencing this kind of weather but plans to have venues available on short notice to be able to proceed with games haven’t been put in place.

The games affected by the super typhoon heading to Japan are France who would have taken on England in Pool C and New Zealand and Italy would have taken on each other in Pool B. These games won’t be rescheduled and according to World Rugby rules, both teams will receive two points for the game which couldn’t be played. France was hoping to defeat England this weekend to rise to the top of Pool C. Now the chances of that happening has vanished, and this is creating a scenario where the integrity of the tournament is now being questioned.

The Italians were already at a point of elimination and their only chance of making the playoffs would have been if mathematically they could have managed to succeed by gaining enough points during their match against the All Blacks and preventing the New Zealanders from scoring another bonus point. Thus the cancellation of their game isn’t that detrimental since in 14 attempts Italy has never been able to defeat the current world champions.

New Games

Typhoon Hagibis is making landfall on Saturday and thus effecting both of Saturday’s games. Currently, the games set for Sunday is still set to continue since by then the typhoon would have passed Tokyo, but it can’t be said with certainty that there won’t be any structural damage which might prevent the matches to continue. Thus Sunday’s games might still also be cancelled.

This year is the first time in 32 years in which some of the matches have to be cancelled in the tournament. This is bringing a tremendous financial implication to World Rugby. The fact that around 200 000 tickets for these matches need to be refunded is only partial to the economic impact of the storm. Broadcasters have committed to broadcasting these games, and they might request compensation form World Rugby for this income loss. The expected number of viewers for the match between Japan and Scotland would have been one of the highest in history, and thus if the game has to be cancelled, the financial impact is tremendous.

Also in terms of the teams in the tournament, the outcome can be detrimental with at least three of the teams in the quarter-finals not being able to complete all their pool games. In the end, World Rugby couldn’t plan the weather, but they could have made better plans surrounding the tournament.

Kevin Na was on an emotional brink when he secured his playoff victory at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open which were played in his hometown, Las Vegas. Shortly after his success, he delivered an emotional speech in his mother tongue to his native fans in Korea, thanking them for their support and that they always believed in him.

Kevin Na moved to the United States from Seoul where he was born, when he was a young boy of eight years old. He played on the Asian Tour, and in 2002 he won the Volvo Masters of Asia. Na was also playing in the European Tour and the PGA Tour during 2004. During the next couple of years, his successes weren’t great. He landed the third position in the Southern Farm Bureau Classic, fourth in the Honda Classic and 2005 he came in second place at the world-renowned FBR Open and Chrysler Classic of Tucson.

His career was somewhat held back due to first a hand injury and then a back injury. In 2011 he won his first PGA Tour after attempting it 211 times. He earned $792 000 in prize money after being on tour for eight days. After this victory, the 36-year-old Korean had almost seven years with no great success. Then last summer he had won at The Greenbrier and during early this year, he was victorious once again at Colonial. He was thus making this victory the third in a relatively short period for him.

The Open in Las Vegas

It was an exciting series of events as Na’s position wasn’t so great after losing his three-shot lead during the back nine. Then he made up with a clutch par putt when playing the 17th hole and ended up winning the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

At the 10th hole, Na made a triple bogey and then on the 16th he hit the waterhole on a par five and that made him lose his lead for the first time during the day when he hit a bogey. On the 17th hole, he managed a 25-foot par putt again which brought him back into a tie position with Cantlay whose ball landed in the water. On the 18th hole, he matched a birdie putt from Cantlay.

This day was a day riddled with mistakes, but the worse was made by Cantlay delivering three-putt from 45 feet and another one from inside 6 feet territory. Na closed 1-under 70, and when his four-foot par rolled in, he lifted his arms victoriously. Na’s victory made Cantlay the runner-up for the second time in a row in Las Vegas. Even though Cantlay reaped the benefits from mistakes that Na made, he made too many himself and Na gained the victory. Cantlay finished with a deficit of three shots, and he closed on 68 in the Open which was his first PGA victory three years ago.

Every single time over the past eight Rugby World Cup Tournaments, there have been specific teams which were without a doubt the favourites to win the Webb Ellis trophy. They are considered the leading organizations, and whether it is with love or hate, the globe acknowledges their greatness on the field. There have been many surprises over time too. Once again Japan reminded us that sometimes the underdog could surprise us when they defeated the much more favoured Ireland. Reflecting on five of these unexpected events, it is clear that some teams need more recognition than what they get.

The History

Japan Beating Ireland – Hosting country, Japan managed to take the world by surprise when they defeated Ireland, currently second-ranked in the world. By half-time, Ireland was in the lead, only slightly and with far less of an advantage as that viewers have expected, but during the second half the sunset on Ireland and Japan roared to victory. For especially South African supporters, this was a déjà vu moment. Only this time around the green jerseys didn’t reflect the Springbok emblem.

Japan Defeats the Springboks – This was by far the biggest World Cup shock in 2015. More than that it was probably also the biggest stir in Test union rugby history. The Cherry Blossoms was under the guidance of Eddie Jones, and they didn’t bend their knee before the mighty Springboks, leaving the Boks defeated and embarrassed.

Fiji defeats Wales – Wales was kicked out of the tournament by none other than the underdogs from Fiji. This was the third time that Wales had to endure embarrassment from the South Sea Islands. During 1991 and 1999 it was the Samoans who forced the Welsh to bend their knees before their rugby superiority. During half-time already, the strong Welsh team were on their knees with a 25-10 score on the board. Then they fought back and were convinced of a win, but Graham Dewes, prop to the Fiji team muscled up for a last-minute score and Fiji went to the quarter-finals.

Western Samoa Crushing Wales – This legendary moment meant that for the first time in World Cup history, one of the leading nations in the world of rugby was defeated by a rank outsider. The Samoan team included names which later on became very familiar like that of Pat Lam, Brian Lima and Frank Bunce and they demolished the already bruised Welsh squad in front of a packed audience at Cardiff Arms Park.

France Defeating the All Blacks – Whether you want to call this a spectacular moment or some French flair, this game is serving until today as a reference to what can happen. The All Blacks were ahead with 24-10 by half-time, but the second half became an epic battle for the French when they started raking in some great tries.

Since 2013, the international women’s team of Thailand has been present every year in the qualifying rounds for the ICCT20 World Cup. This year they are performing brilliantly, and there is only one game left to win, for them to make it to the World Cup, due take place next year in Australia. Considering the short history of cricket in this country, it is an extraordinary journey of immaculate success for these women.

In Thailand, cricket has mostly been played by expats from abroad. In 2007, the new CEO of the Association of Cricket in Thailand, Mohideen Kader, has gone to great lengths to introduce the sport to the local communities to recruit young Thai players for the team. This effort to increase the popularity of the competition was further expanded during 2008; then the local government recognized cricket as an official sport of the country. Today cricket is being played throughout the entire country and has teams in all 14 provinces representing the age groups U15, U19 as well as both a male and female teams in the senior league.

Captaining the Thai Team

In the position of captain of the Thailand Women’s team is Sornnarin Tippoch. Tippoch came from a softball background when she was introduced to cricket during the 2007 drive to expand the sport. At that stage, she was already 20 years old, which would be considered as rather late by most, yet this didn’t stop her. Merely one year later she was leading the Thai team as captain. Tippoch’s career is a classic example of how the sport expanded in Thailand. She immediately loved the game, and since she felt that it was relatively much like softball, the switch over happened smoothly for her. She also soon realized that cricket might be a much better opportunity for her to represent her country on a professional level.

Growing As a Team

The team has been performing well enough every year to make it to the qualifying rounds, but during 2018 Harshal Pathak was employed as the new coach to the side, and since then their performance excelled. Some of the highlights which they managed to achieve are not only having four bowlers on their team with a record low of bowling averages of less than 500 balls, but also a record winning streak of 17 matches and winning the quadrangular series against Scotland, Netherlands and Ireland. This left them at the top of their group in the ICC T20 World Qualifiers. Pathak stated that when he joined, the team was already there with so much talent and ability, the only thing which he needed to provide was the right direction for them to follow and to get them there. He worked with them on improving their consistency as well as specific technical aspects of their game, and the results are showing.

This year the Shiseido WTA Finals taking place in Shenzhen is the highlight in a series of a great play. After the season-long ranking, based on the Porsche Race Rankings, eight of the best is determined to compete against each other for an actual record-breaking amount of money.

A Record in Sport History

After signing with Shiseido, the WTA Finals winner is set to win a historically record-breaking sum of money. This was made possible by the generosity of the name-bearing sponsor. The total prize money for the tournament has been doubled since last year from $7million to $14million, and the undefeated champion in the singles stand to win $4.75 million. This amount is exceeding not only the prize money for all four the major grand slams but also the price money of other international sporting events. These include the Masters Champions, the ICC Cricket World Cup, the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Tour de France.

The History of the WTA Finals

The first finals were held in 1972 in Florida’s Boca Raton. The amount on the champion’s check back then reflected $25 000. Since back then it was held in 12 different cities from various countries. During the years the list of hosts included the United State, Europe, the Middle East as well as Asia. When Singapore passed the honour on to Shenzhen during a 10-year hosting deal, it was considered to be a landmark in history.

Since the first finals, there have been 22 champions lifting the Billie Jean King Trophy in the air. The most successful of these was Martina Navratilova, who had the honour of holding it high eight times during her career, followed by German pride, Steffi Graff and the US Serena Williams both winning five times. Of the most recent 16 champions, eight were undefeated. With the 2018 winner, Elina Svitolina, being the most recent.

Shiseido

Shiseido is the largest cosmetic company in Japan and ranks as the fifth-largest in the world. They are known for their involvement in tennis due to having Naomi Osaka, the tennis sensation from Japan, as their brand ambassador. Shiseido is committed to the empowerment of women. They want to not only create better opportunities for the younger players but also create a great synergy between the company and the WTA Finals. The tournament’s slogan “Sparks Will Fly” is to celebrate the new relationship. Their marketing campaign is going to include some of the most influential women in the world of tennis, with Jennifer Zhang being the face with whom they start with. Zhang was the first Chinese female umpire in the WTA tour.

Shiseido considers the WTA as a leader in the world of professional sports when it comes to enabling equal opportunities for females. This is a perfect alignment with Shiseido’s vision and ideals of empowering women. Both sides are also very pleased with having Shenzhen being the hosting city. Shenzhen is a city which is in the lead of all innovation trends currently in China and maybe even the world.