The Times - UK (2020-08-07)

the times | Friday August 7 2020 2GM 65

Sport

The 2020 London Marathon will be an
elite-athlete only event, organisers
have announced.
A multi-lap race between the world’s
fastest marathon runners will instead
take place on an enclosed course in St
James’s Park on October 4. The Times
revealed yesterday that the race would
replace the mass-participation event.
Elite races for men, women and
wheelchair athletes will take place with
Eliud Kipchoge, Kenenisa Bekele, the
women’s world record holder Brigid
Kosgei and the para-athletes David
Weir and Manuela Schär confirmed to
be taking part. No spectators will be
allowed but the BBC will broadcast
coverage of the race, encompassing 19.8
laps around the central London park
and finishing as usual on The Mall.
Those who had planned to take part
in the event — originally postponed

Hamilton is ‘not stressed’ by

contract saga or tyre failure

Formula One

Tony Dodgins

Just days after winning his 87th grand

prix on three wheels at Silverstone,

Lewis Hamilton is laissez-faire about

both his 2021 Mercedes contract and

the tyres he will use to try to equal

Michael Schumacher’s record 155 For-

mula One podium finishes in the 70th

Anniversary Grand Prix on Sunday.

As Mercedes announced yesterday

that Hamilton’s Finnish team-mate

Valtteri Bottas, 30, has been signed to a

fifth consecutive season with the team,

Hamilton said it doesn’t feel like the

right time to ink his own deal.

“When you think about so many

people in the world that have lost their

jobs, are unemployed, then to sit and

negotiate a big contract... it just doesn’t

seem like the most important thing that

I need to apply time to right at this

second,” he said. “I’m not talking to

anybody else. We’ve just started a new

chapter in terms of how we educate

ourselves and what we are going to do

to be more diverse moving forward. I’m

super excited about what it’s possible to

do with Mercedes-Benz. At some stage

it will get done. I’m not stressed.”

And Hamilton is most certainly not

stressed about the last-lap tyre failure

that could have cost him his seventh

Silverstone victory. He even turned to

team-mate Bottas to ask, “What was it

we were told was wrong with the tyre?”

“Sidewall,” responded Bottas, “and

high loads.”

Ross Brawn, the F1 managing direct-

or, called Hamilton’s final lap on three

wheels “absolutely mind-blowing, a

brilliant example of the amazing talents

and bravery of Lewis”.

Sergio Pérez’s quarantine period

after his positive Covid-19 test before

the British Grand Prix has ended, but

Racing Point have made it clear that

Pérez will need to return a negative test

before he can re-enter the paddock.

from April 26 to October because of the

coronavirus pandemic — have been

offered the option to defer their places

to the 2021, 2022 or 2023 events.

Meanwhile, the head of UK Athletics

has said it is “shocking” and “a disgrace”

that there are not more BAME (black,

Asian and minority ethnic) or female

candidates as she prepares to appoint a

new performance director.

Joanna Coates, the UKA chief execu-

tive, wants to have a new performance

director and head coach in place this

month. She said that there had been a

diverse range of applicants for the

coaching job, but not for the perform-

ance director role.

“There just aren’t females or people

of colour who are performance direct-

ors,” she said. “There are very few to

pick from, which is a disgrace. I want to

be a sport that leads in this area. We

should go out and find the young talent

and bring them through the sporting

system, or it will never change.”

Kipchoge and Bekele to vie

for glory in St James’s Park

Athletics
Rick Broadbent

Higgins joins Crucible’s

147 club – then goes out

Snooker John Higgins made only

the 11th maximum break in World

Championship history but saw his

hopes of a fifth title shattered by a

shock 13-11 second-round defeat by

Kurt Maflin.

Higgins, runner-up in each of the

last three years, trailed Norway-based

world No 43 Maflin overnight and

was 7-4 down when he fired the first

147 of his glittering Crucible career,

the first achieved at the Sheffield

venue since Stephen Hendry in 2012.

It was the tenth 147 Higgins had

made in his career and in the next

frame he made the most of a missed

red by Maflin on a 57 break to close

the gap to one.

But despite going on to nudge into

an 11-10 lead, the veteran Scot was

hauled back by an inspired Maflin,

who has lost in qualifying in 15 of the

previous 16 years, but who reeled off

three straight frames to claim by

far the biggest win of his career.

Capitalising on uncharacteristic

mistakes from Higgins, Maflin took

control, winning the match with an

assured break of 63.

Where Shan scored his runs

1-3s

56

4s

18

6s

2

Off side Leg side

Local lockdowns force

Lancashire on road again

Elizabeth Ammon

Lancashire’s Bob Willis Trophy match

against Nottinghamshire that was due

to be played at Emirates Old Trafford

next week has been moved to Trent

Bridge because of the increased cases of

Covid-19 in the North West and the

local lockdown measures around

Greater Manchester.

This will be the second time that Lan-

cashire have had to move venues. Their

first match of the new competition,

against Leicestershire, which had been

scheduled to be played at Grace Road,

was moved to New Road in Worcester

because of the lockdown in Leicester.

Although it was not technically their

home fixture, Lancashire picked up

most of the costs incurred by moving

the match to Worcester.

Emirates Old Trafford has been used

as a biosecure bubble for international

squads for the past two months but will

be empty after the first Test against

Pakistan, until the T20 series against

the same opponents at the end of the

month. It was felt that it was too high

risk to play a county match there given

the situation in Manchester.

County cricket is not being played

under biosecure conditions and both

the ECB and Nottinghamshire felt it

was safer to move the match — which is

due to start a week tomorrow — to

Nottingham, where there are fewer

concerns about the present rate of

community infection. It means that

Lancashire will play four of their five

Bob Willis Trophy group matches away

from home, with their final match being

played at Liverpool.

The counties were informed yester-

day by Scott Smith, the ECB’s financial

director, that the organisation is facing

a deficit of at least £106 million in this

financial year and that there will need

to be cost-cutting across the board,

which could impact the amount of

money that each county receives from

the governing body. For some of the

smaller counties, the revenue they

receive from the governing body makes

up about 70 to 80 per cent of their total

annual income.

The ECB is expected to make signifi-

cant redundancies of up to 25 per cent

of the 380 people it employs, although

no decisions will be taken until it is clear

what the financial losses for this

summer are. The exact figure will

depend on whether the limited-overs

series against Australia goes ahead in

September.

Most of the redundancies at the ECB

will come from cuts at the Loughbor-

ough performance centre and a reduc-

tion in the number of people working

on the Hundred, which has been post-

poned until 2021. The tournament will

cost about £40 million a year, and the

players’ pay will also be cut.

TOM JENKINS/NMC/POOL

Pakistan have

brought a star

coaching team to

England: head coach

Misbah-ul-Haq, fast

bowling coach Waqar

Younis, spin bowling

coach Mushtaq

Ahmed and batting

coach Younis Khan,

right, who took notes

throughout Pakistan’s

innings yesterday.

There was plenty to

please him.

Like what

you see,

Younis?