Paul Dickenson obituary

Paul Dickenson, who has died aged 74, worked as a BBC commentator for more than 20 years and was associated with some of the greatest moments in British athletics history.It was Dickenson who was commentating when the triple jumper Jonathan Edwards broke the world record at the 1995 World Athletics Championships with a leap of 18.29m, which still holds. His was also the principal voice describing Olympic heptathlon gold-medal-winning performances by Denise Lewis in the 2000 Games in Sydney and Jessica Ennis-Hill, who triumphed in the London Games 12 years later.Respected by journalists and athletes alike, and universally known as “Dicko”, Dickenson was generous with his knowledge and constructive with the criticism and advice he was always ready to offer

‘I kept his secret’: Emma Finucane on pushing past limits and her boyfriend’s cycling defection

Triple Olympic medallist is fiercely honest about the storm of emotion that engulfed her in the Paris velodrome and being unable to tell her family Matthew Richardson would soon be joining her in Britain‘It’s a good question,” Emma Finucane says as she thinks searchingly of the most important lesson she has learned about herself after a year like no other for the 21-year-old sprint cyclist. She won three Olympic medals, including one gold, and two world champion titles while carrying a secret she could not even share with her family for many months.Finucane’s fierce honesty and questioning introspection is rare in such a young rider who is in the foothills of a career that may yet transcend the achievements of British Olympic track riders led by Jason and Laura Kenny and Chris Hoy. Her candour and intelligence soon emerge as she charts the physical and psychological depths explored at the Paris Olympics before she talks openly about the way she and her boyfriend, Matthew Richardson, who won three sprint medals for Australia at the Games, knew he would soon switch countries and move to GB Cycling. That decision shocked and dismayed his former teammates and supporters

No panic and a brilliant striker of the ball – why Bethell’s selection could be inspired | Mark Ramprakash

Nearly six years ago the 15-year-old Jacob Bethell was given the Gray Nicolls Young Cricketer of the Year award and I sat next to him at lunch after the presentation. I have been aware of his background and looked out for his name since then, though I did not have a good look at him in action until he exploded on to the scene over the past 18 months, culminating in his Test debut last week.I really like the way he sets up: he looks pretty side-on, seems to have good orthodox basics, presents the full face of the bat, moves forward and back. He scored 10 in his first Test innings but his mentality was right: there was no panic, he gave himself the chance to have a look, and did not seem flustered when he was faced with a string of balls he could not score off.I and many others have often described Ollie Pope, who normally bats at No 3 for England, as looking a bit frenetic early in his innings, and you could argue that Bethell, at 21 and at his first attempt, looked much more composed

Ding Liren escapes after blunder in wild 72-move draw with Gukesh D in Game 7

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju came dangerously close to scoring a decisive result in Tuesday’s seventh game of his world championship match against Ding Liren only to allow his opponent off the hook, leaving the best-of-14-games match no closer to resolution in a 3½-all deadlock.“The score is fine,” Gukesh said after the players settled for a fourth successive draw in the match at Resorts World Sentosa. “Obviously, today was a missed chance. That is a bit of a disappointment, but he also missed some chances earlier in the match. So, I think it’s fair that we are here

Finance fears overshadow racing as BHA’s chief executive search goes on

Brant Dunshea, the British Horseracing Authority’s chief regulatory officer, will take over as the Authority’s “acting” chief executive from 1 January as the search for a permanent replacement for Julie Harrington, the CEO since January 2021, continues, the sport’s governing body said on Tuesday.Dunshea has been closely associated with many of the sport’s key issues and initiatives since joining the authority in March 2015, including a wide-ranging review of Cheltenham’s Festival meeting in 2018, when six horses suffered fatal injuries, and regular attempts to tighten the rules around the use of the whip.The BHA said as it announced Dunshea’s new role on Tuesday that the search for Harrington’s permanent successor has been delayed to allow the recently appointed new chair of the Authority, Lord Allen of Kensington, who will take over from Joe Saumarez Smith in May, to play a role in the recruitment process.That makes sense, but at the same time, the hunt for a new CEO is already six months old and the list of both immediate and longer-term concerns that the incoming chief executive will need to address is, if anything, even more unsettling than it was back in June.Bookies pay a percentage of their profits on racing bets back to the sport via a mechanism known as the Levy, and the possibility of a reform to that system, to deliver a much-needed boost to one of the sport’s main income streams, seems as distant as ever, at the same time as the latest official industry statistics from the Gambling Commission, published last week, show a continuing and worrying decline in betting turnover on the sport

Neale Fraser obituary

Although the Australian tennis player Neale Fraser, who has died aged 91, won three grand slam singles titles including Wimbledon in 1960, it is as one of the most successful Davis Cup captains that he will be remembered. The tournament gave Fraser the chance to represent his country, both as player and captain, and he wore the badge with great pride.In 1970, when Fraser was appointed Davis Cup captain, the role was seen as one of the most daunting in Australian sport. How could he live up to the exploits and reputation of his predecessor, Harry Hopman? Under Hopman’s leadership, Australia had produced a line of champions that people have never seen before or since.Starting with Frank Sedgman and continuing through Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Ashley Cooper, Mervyn Rose, Mal Anderson, Rod Laver, Roy Emerson, Fred Stolle, John Newcombe, Tony Roche and Fraser himself (a team member from 1958 to 1963), Hopman had guided this group of athletes as they helped Australia win the Davis Cup 16 times, with five additional appearances as losing finalists