Skelton’s Cheltenham winner maintains narrow title lead in duel with Mullins

A single winner on Cheltenham’s final card of the season was enough to maintain Dan Skelton’s narrow lead in the contest for the National Hunt trainers’ championship on Thursday, ahead of a busy Easter programme weekend when Skelton and the defending champion, Willie Mullins, will send dozens of runners to tracks in all parts of the country as the title race goes into its final week.Mullins, who was the first Irish trainer to win the British championship for 70 years when he edged out Skelton 12 months ago, equalled his own record of 10 wins at the track’s festival meeting last month.He could not add to his Cheltenham tally for the year from four runners yesterday, however, although all four finished in the money, adding £17,645 to the Mullins cause before Skelton’s mare Shakeyatailfeather went to post as 2-1 favourite for the Holland Cooper Mares’ Handicap Chase.It was a clear shot at a valuable prize for the stable as Mullins did not have a runner in the race, and Harry Skelton, the trainer’s brother, brought Shakeyatailfeather with a smooth run to overhaul the second-favourite, Somespring Special, on the run to the final fence on the way to a four-and-a-quarter length success.The Skeltons also fielded the 3-1 favourite in the concluding bumper, but while Sheezer Dancer finished strongly against the stands’ rail, she crossed the line in third

Andrew Flintoff to share ‘vivid’ memories of Top Gear crash

The former England cricketer Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff has promised to share “what actually happened” in the horrific Top Gear crash in December 2022 that left him with life-altering injuries.In the trailer for a Disney+ documentary about his life and career, which will air next Friday, he says of the accident: “I remember everything about it … it’s so vivid.”Flintoff was airlifted to hospital after a crash at Dunsfold Park in Surrey while filming an episode of Top Gear for the BBC. The popular motoring show was subsequently taken off air and the broadcaster reached a financial settlement with Flintoff for a reported £9m.“It’s almost like a reset and I’m trying to understand what I am now,” Flintoff says in the trailer for the documentary

Three dead after boat collision at Major League Fishing event in Alabama

A fishing tournament on Alabama’s Lewis Smith Lake turned deadly on Wednesday morning when two boats collided during competition, killing three people and injuring at least three others.The crash occurred around 7am during the second day of the Major League Fishing (MLF) Tackle Warehouse Invitational, prompting the league to cancel the remainder of the event.According to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), the collision involved a Nitro bass boat and a center-console style vessel. One man, identified as Joey M Broom, 58, of Altoona, was fatally injured when the bass boat struck the vessel he was aboard. He was pronounced dead at the scene

Australia’s women’s surfers lead local charge before bell tolls on WSL season | Kieran Pender

Every morning of competition at the Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro, the longest running surfing event in the world, begins with AC/DC. Hells Bells by the iconic Australian rockers booms through speakers around the contest site on the Victorian surf coast. The bell tolls slowly, before the guitar riff gradually builds – an overlay of drums lifts the tempo until finally, a full third of the way into the song, Brian Johnson’s booming vocals begin.When the 62nd edition of the legendary surf competition begins on Friday, the backing track will serve as a useful metaphor for the World Surf League season to date. After four gripping but relatively slowly-building events so far, the world’s best surfers begin the first of three legs in Australia: Bells, the Gold Coast Pro and then the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia

NFL scouting is broken. Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders is all the proof you need | Andrew Lawrence

NFL scouting is broken, and Shedeur Sanders is the proof. Everything about him screams future star quarterback, and yet teams would sooner assume the worst.Make no mistake: there is no prospect in this year’s draft who is better equipped to turn around a struggling franchise than the 23-year-old Texan, a savior to not one but two college fanbases. The last four years saw him restore the proud football tradition at Jackson State and put Colorado back on the college football map. Sanders did this despite skeptics casting doubt on his ability to make the jump up from competing against small historically Black schools to playing against major college powers in the Pac 12 and Big 12 conferences

A road trip to Lambeau Field: my search for the magic of the NFL draft | Emma John

I’ve just got back from a road trip in Wisconsin. The upper midwest is not an obvious destination for a spring break, certainly not in early April. As my plane circled above Milwaukee, the brown and leafless landscape warned me I’d travelled back in time to midwinter.It was too cold to brave the beaches – the Lake Michigan shore was covered in snow and ice – but the bars at least were convivial. This is often the case in Wisconsin, the state with the highest alcohol consumption per capita