Here’s a weird one: the first stage of the Volta ao Algarve cycling race in Portugal has been cancelled, after a large pack of cyclists went the wrong way around the track.

The cyclists were following a motorbike that was carrying a cameraman in the final stretch of the 190km race, missing the finish line entirely.

Oops.

4.7 million
The number of U.S. viewers for the annual NBA All-Star event, which brings the best players in the league together on the same court. Despite changing format from a one-off match to a tournament, it was the second-lowest viewership for an All-Star event. The low viewership is thought to be caused by the absence of some key stars (notably, an injured LeBron James) and going head-to-head with Saturday Night Live’s 50th Anniversary Special.

"I haven’t spoken to him. No concerns about him or his driving — that happened last year and I want to focus on myself. But obviously things got out of line at the end of last year, and I made it pretty clear that I’m not going to take it."
Mercedes driver George Russell speaking to media about his feud with Max Verstappen at the close of the last F1 season, when Verstappen called Russell a “backstabber”.

The most expensive game-worn athlete jersey to be sold at auction was a Chicago Bulls jersey worn by Michael Jordan in the 1998 NBA Finals (the famous “Last Dance” season for the Bulls). It was sold in September 2022 for $US10.1 million ($AU15.9 million).

⚽️A hat-trick from French star Kylian Mbappé helped Real Madrid to a 3-1 victory over Manchester City in the UEFA Champions League, knocking City out of the tournament and propelling Real Madrid to the final 16 teams. After the match, Mbappé said he wanted to “define an era” at the Spanish club, and is seeking his first Champions League trophy. Real Madrid will now play either fellow Spanish team Atlético Madrid, or German side Bayer Leverkusen.

🏃🏿‍♂️ Teen sprinting sensation Gout Gout has confirmed he will run in the legendary Stawell Gift race — one of the most prestigious races on grass in the running world. The race will be held on Monday 21 April. Competitors are handicapped, which means they all start from different points in a 10m window based on their current form. This week, Gout also announced a major sponsorship deal with Adidas.

🎾 44-year-old Venus Williams has been granted a wildcard to play at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, her first event in almost a year. Williams, who has won seven individual Grand Slams and 14 Grand Slam Doubles titles, is currently ranked 974 in the world, and has knocked back speculation she would announce her retirement after a long absence from the game.

🏈 South Sydney Rabbitohs captain Latrell Mitchell will miss at least the first six weeks of the NRL season, after scans confirmed a hamstring injury. It’s not the first time Mitchell has had hamstring problems, having missing large parts of the 2020 and 2022 seasons with injuries. Mitchell’s injury was reported yesterday alongside another serious injury to captain Cameron Murray, who will miss at least five months with a torn achilles tendon.

Four NRL sides and Australia’s NRLW representative side jet off today and tomorrow ahead of the code’s second annual exhibition tournament in Las Vegas.

Four rugby league matches are scheduled for 1 March:

Fox Sports will broadcast the matches on their free-to-air channel in the U.S, which reaches 125 million households.

Last year, more than 40,000 people attended the inaugural Vegas matches.

As well as the actual matches, the NRL will host a ‘Talent Combine’ — a training session with a series of physical tests where invited American athletes exhibit their skills to NRL recruiters.

Meanwhile, Australian Rugby League Commission Chair Peter V’Landys has made a formal pitch for U.S. President Donald Trump to attend the tournament.

V’Landys said he wanted to introduce Trump “to the toughest game on earth, rugby league, in the world’s sport and entertainment capital, Las Vegas”. Trump has attended a handful of sporting events in his first weeks in office, including the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500.

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2021 U.S. Open women’s singles champion Emma Raducanu has reassured fans she is ok, after she had to pause a match while a “fixated” male spectator was ejected from the match.

Raducanu lost the match to Karolína Muchová 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

On Tuesday, Raducanu stopped the match during the first set to alert the chair umpire to a disturbance – which, at the time, was unknown to match commentators. Raducanu, who was visibly distressed during the pause, then resumed the match.

It was later revealed by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) that a male spectator had been ejected from the venue, after Raducanu identified him as the same individual who had approached her in a public area and “exhibited fixated behaviour”. According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, the man had handed her a letter during the encounter in a public area.

The WTA said he would “be banned from all WTA events pending a threat assessment,” and that it would be working with Raducanu “to ensure her well-being and provide any necessary support”.

Response

Today, the player posted on Instagram thanking her fans for messages of support, saying: “Difficult experience yesterday but I’ll be OK and proud of how I came back and competed despite what happened at the start of the match. Thank you to Karolina for being a great sport and best of luck to her for the rest of the tournament.”

Raducanu has previously been the subject of other harassment, with a London man handed a five-year restraining order in 2022 for repeatedly visiting her home.

Meanwhile, English football star Millie Bright has said Raducanu’s incident was a reminder that “nobody owns us”, and that female sporting identities often deal with similar incidents of fixated behaviour or verbal abuse from fans.

Bright has posted about her experience with a verbally abusive fan after a match between Chelsea and Aston Villa earlier this month.

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