Sprinter Amy Hunt comfortably wins 200m as 800m runner Isabelle Boffey and hurdler Josh Zeller also take titles on Saturday at European U20 Champs

Three gold medals for British athletes highlighted the third day of action at the European Athletics Under-20 Championships in Borås, Sweden.

Isabelle Boffey (800m), Amy Hunt (200m) and Josh Zeller (110m hurdles) were crowned European champions on a day when the team collected four other medals: Amber Anning (silver, 400m), Josh Lay (bronze, 1500m), Keely Hodgkinson (bronze, 800m) and Lucy-Jane Matthews (bronze, 110m hurdles).

It was difficult to see beyond Hunt when looking for a potential winner of the 200m. The recent-setter of a world under-18 record of 22.42, she came into the championships more than three quarters of a second quicker than anyone else in her age group on the continent this year. She duly delivered with a winning time of 22.94 into a 1.7m/sec headwind.

The 17-year-old had only a slight lead coming off the bend but powered away for victory by a massive margin of 0.66 seconds. France’s Gemima Joseph came in next and Belgium’s Lucie Ferauge clocked 23.63 for bronze.

Hunt, who all being well will be part of Britain’s quartet in the 4x100m on the final day of the championships on Sunday, said: “I had an amazing start for once, really powered around the first bit of the bend and tried to maintain it in the second half and I really went for it down the home straight. I could hear my name being screamed, which is really special – it was really awesome.

“It is incredible. It has been a quick turnaround but a great learning curve. I have learnt a lot about myself and how my recovery works and the team that support me.”

The other Brit in the final, Georgina Adam, was fifth in 23.75. Hannah Kelly went out in the semi-final earlier in the day after clocking 23.76 for sixth.

In the women’s 800m Boffey was a convincing winner in a PB by nearly a second of 2:02.92. After Switzerland’s Delia Sclabas took them through the bell in 60.93 and held a decent lead at 500m, Boffey reeled her in and went away to add to her European under-18 title in 2016.

Boffey’s team-mate, Keely Hodgkinson, also came back at Sclabas but, after a tense battle, was unable to pass her in the home straight. Sclabas was just four hundredths in front as Hodgkinson could nevertheless be happy with a PB of 2:03.40 and bronze. The European youth champion is still an under-18 and has two years in the junior age group after this.

Britain’s Sarah Calvert was seventh in a PB of 2:05.68.

Reacting to her win, Boffey said: “I am buzzing. It was such a good race and I am so happy with myself that I went for it in the last 250m because it paid off. I knew someone was going to go for it and she (Sclabas) did but I knew if I ran my own race I could challenge with my kick.”

Zeller completed a great display of hurdling as he clocked 13.39 to come home well clear. Netherlands’ Mark Heiden was second with a PB of 13.58 and France’s Paul Chabauty was third in 13.64. Zeller (below) said: “I feel great. I came here for that gold medal and it feels so amazing to have gone and done what I have been thinking about for however many months. It feels amazing.

“Yesterday my race was technically better but it doesn’t matter because everything I put out on the track there did the job. At a championships like this it isn’t always about times but who crosses that line first. I did that today and I am going to be going home with a gold around my neck.”

Neutral athlete Polina Miller, the pre-race favourite, took gold in the 400m in 51.72 as GB’s Anning impressively took silver. After her strong finish, her 52.18 lifted her to third on the UK all-time under-20 list. Not since 1982 has a British junior run as quick. Britain’s Louise Evans (54.06) was seventh.

In the 1500m, Lay agonisingly missed out on gold after having what appeared to be a winning lead with 100m to go. He was in front at the bell and powered away over the next 200m, but Portugal’s Nuno Pereira led the chase and passed him with 10m remaining.

The winning time was 3:55.85 as Netherlands’ Robin van Riel came by on the Brit’s inside for silver in 3:56.03. Lay, who was fastest on this season’s times held on for the medal in 3:56.20.

Matthews had the race of her life as she claimed bronze in the 100m hurdles in a UK under-18 best of 13.38. The youngest athlete in the field was 0.13 under her previous PB.

Sweden’s Tilde Johansson was a clear winner, taking more than two tenths from her PB with 13.16. The home nation favourite could leave the stadium on Sunday with a second gold as she lines up in the long jump as favourite.

In the hammer, Britain’s Charlotte Williams held a medal position until round four, but eventually placed fourth behind winner Valeriya Ivanenko of Ukraine (65.83m). Williams threw 61.24m in the first round but ultimately could not match Germany’s Samantha Borutta (63.53m) and Hungary’s Zsannett Nemeth (61.99m) for the final medals. Her team-mate Charlotte Payne was seventh with 59.61m.

Britain had high hopes in the men’s 200m, but Joe Ferguson, who was second on the season rankings, could not take his place in the semi-final on Saturaday morning due to a calf injury he sustained in his heat on Friday. Ireland’s Aaron Sexton thus went into the final as favourite but was marginally run out of the medals in fourth in 21.18. Gold went to Netherlands’ Onyema Adigida in 21.08 as Germany’s Elias Goer (21.16) took silver. Third was Italy’s Mattia Donola in 21.18 while Britain’s Praise Olatoke was fifth in 21.21.

Germany’s Paula Schneiders upstaged her team-mate and the pre-race favourite to win the women’s 3000m steeplechase. She ran a PB of 10:08.66 as Claire Palou set a French junior record of 10:12.31 in coming through strongly for silver. Germany’s Josia Papenfuss, the fastest junior in Europe this year, was third in 10:12.42. Britain’s Holly Page was ninth in 10:29.98.

In the 3000m, Germany’s Elias Schrebl took victory after leading a group of four who were together at the bell, clocking 8:16.07. Serbia’s Milos Malesevic was second in 8:16.68 and Turkey’s Omer Amactan was third 8:17.51 as the first four set PBs. Britain’s Max Heyden was fifth with 8:18.73 and team-mate Ben West was 12th in 8:26.03.

Italy’s Edoardo Scotti, who was fourth at last year’s World Under-20 Championships, clocked 45.85 to win the 400m. Britain’s Ethan Brown finished strongly but had to be content with fifth in 46.45, just one hundredth outside his PB.

Long-time decathlon leader Simon Ehammer wrapped up the title, ending with a Swiss junior record of 7851. That put him 151 points ahead of Netherlands’ Leon Mak, while Britain’s Joel McFarlane (7203) and Jack Turner (7040) were 14th and 18th respectively. McFarlane added to his two PBs from yesterday with another in the hurdles, running 15.12.

Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh (below) took high jump gold with 1.92m. After adding to golds in the world and European under-18 championships over the past two years, she had three tries at a world junior record height to 2.02m and was close on one attempt. Neutral athlete Adelina Khalikova took silver with 1.90m, the best by a European under-18 athlete this year. Another neutral athlete, Natalya Spiridonova, filled the bronze medal position with 1.87m.

Norway’s Pal Haugen Lillefosse cleared a best of 5.41m to take pole vault gold. With silver going to Ukraine’s Ilya Kravchenko (5.31m), France’s Robin Emig (5.31m) won bronze. Rankings leader Matthias Orban of France was just fifth with a clearance of 5.11m.

On the triple jump runway, Spiridoula Karidi went out to a Greek record 14.00m in the first round, adding 36cm to her PB and was not caught. Bulgaria’s Aleksandra Nacheva took silver on 13.81m and Latvia’s Ruta Lasmane the bronze with 13.48m.

There was massive disappointment for the British team in the 400m hurdles for men as Alistair Chalmers, by far the quickest in Europe in the age group this year, was disqualified at the semi-final stage for running outside of his lane. Britain’s Seamus Derbyshire did win his heat, however, as he clocked 51.30, but Sweden’s Carl Bengtstrom won the other semi in 50.71 and will go into the final as favourite.
Britain’s Marcey Winter safely progressed through to the final of the women’s 400m hurdles, qualifying automatically in second in her heat with 58.67.

GB’s Sarah Omoregie made it through to the final of the shot put, seventh best in qualifying with 15.10m. However, team-mate Serena Vincent, with a best of 14.21m, didn’t make the cut.

After finishing fourth in the heptathlon on Friday, Holly Mills safely progressed to the final of the long jump, registering a best of 6.28m. That put her fourth best as Italy’s Larissa Iapichino led the qualifiers with 6.50m. Fellow Brit Josie Oliarnyk went through as 10th best with 6.12m.

Britain’s 4x400m relay squads had mixed results in the semi-finals. The women’s quartet of Natasha Harrison, Maisey Snaith, Nayanna Dubarry-Gay and Hannah Foster were second in their heat behind Poland with 3:39.84

The GB men’s quartet, after runs from Lewis Davey, Callum Dodds and Ben Hawkes, led on the final leg of their heat. However, their campaign to an end as Michael Fagbenie pulled up injured after 70m. France were quickest overall with 3:09.96.

LAKEVILLE, Conn. — Laurens Vanthoor picked up his first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship pole, setting a GT Le Mans track record at Lime Rock Park in a 1-2 sweep of qualifying for the Porsche GT Team ahead of this afternoon’s Northeast Grand Prix.

Vanthoor posted a best time of 49.133 seconds (108.000 mph) in the No. 912 Porsche 911 RSR, breaking the previous record of 49.754 seconds (106.6 mph) set last year in qualifying by Antonio Garcia in the No. 3 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C7.R. Vanthoor’s time was just 0.052 seconds quicker than teammate Nick Tandy, who turned in a best lap of 49.185 seconds (107.886 mph) in the No. 911 Porsche.

“Finally!” Vanthoor exclaimed. “Everyone is always laughing at me because I have the record for the most second places in qualifying. I always have to take on a lot of jokes. I do love qualifying a lot. For myself, I find it important personally. I’m so happy one finally worked out. I hope it’s the first of many.”

Connor De Phillippi qualified third in the No. 25 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE at 49.322 seconds (107.586 mph) followed by 2018 Lime Rock winner Dirk Mueller at 49.458 seconds (107.290 mph) in the No. 66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT. Garcia completed the top five at 49.690 seconds (106.789 mph) in the No. 3 Corvette.

The entire GTLM field qualified within 0.731 seconds.

Trent Hindman scored his third Motul Pole Award of the season in the GT Daytona class in an incredibly close 15-minute qualifying session. Hindman’s pole-winning time of 51.456 seconds (103.124 mph) was just 0.026 seconds faster than Ben Keating’s second-place time in the No. 33 Mercedes-AMG Team Riley GT3 machine.

In fact, the top five cars in the session were covered by just 0.119 seconds, and the entire, 12-car field was covered by 0.780 seconds.

“It was a little bit sketchier than I wanted it to be,” Hindman said. “But I’ll take it. Just a big thanks to the Meyer Shank Racing guys. I kind of put them through the ringer in the warm-up there. I was trying to get every last ounce out of this thing right before qualifying.

“We got it out of the warm-up and everything felt really good. So, I was kind of like, the pressure was on, got to get it done. There’s no excuse if we don’t for qualifying there. I’m glad we pulled through.”

SEATTLE — Reigning Funny Car champion J.R. Todd claims his class is the toughest in NHRA competition.

You should believe him. He has won eight races in a Top Fuel dragster and as many in a Funny Car, mastering the move to the closed-body, shorter-wheelbase Funny Car with a series title during his second season in the DHL Toyota Camry.

But Todd has experienced many other forms of motorsports.

Most recently, the drag racer visited Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he squeezed into the cockpit of the Dreyer & Reinbold Indy car driven by his Wix-sponsored teammate Sage Karam, and Todd immediately erased his assumption that it might be akin to a Top Fuel dragster.

“They’re so laid out. Your feet are so far in front of you. It’s a tight fit,” Todd said of Karam’s office. “And they’ve got a lot going on with the steering wheel.”

Todd also rode in the two-seat Indy car with Mario Andretti behind the wheel.

“To be able to do it with Mario Andretti driving was a dream come true,” Todd explained. “Going into the corner like that, I thought, ‘No way this thing is going to stick.’ That just shows how much downforce one of these things has. It gives you a new perspective and respect for what they do going around the corner here at 220 mph. I cannot imagine that. It was a lot of fun and totally a different sensation to what us drag racers go through.

“We don’t deal with lateral Gs like that. Going into a corner, it pins your hands up against the side. It is just a different sensation. That is by far the fastest I have gone turning left,” Todd added. “Just the sensation of the G-forces you feel going into the corners. We deal with a lot of Gs going in a straight line and you aren’t going as fast as we do, but you are going fast through a corner, which means you are dealing with a different type of G-forces than we are.

“I can see why these guys need to work on their neck muscles to keep their head from moving around there. That would wear me out, going 500 miles around this place. I was trying to keep my neck straight so I could see what was going on, but it was trying to ping your head to the side of the car, which was pretty cool. It was a lot of fun and I would love to do it again.”

Todd was the epitome of cool when in 2016, he rode along with Formula Drift star Ken Gushi in his GReddy Racing Toyota at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash.

“I didn’t have anything to hang onto. I had both hands on my phone, videoing the whole time. So I was somewhat relaxed. I didn’t have time to be scared,” he said.

The skidding, tire-shredding Tilt-A-Whirl-like sprint roughly compared to a drag-racing pedalfest gone amok.

Gushi’s 870-horsepower race car was no match for Todd’s 11,000-horsepower machine. A single cylinder of the eight in Todd’s dragster produces 750 horsepower. Gushi’s car accelerates from zero to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds; Todd’s would be stopping by that time.

“It’s definitely something that you need to experience in person, kind of like drag racing,” Todd said. “It’s pretty impressive seeing these four-cylinder and six-cylinder cars the amount of horsepower they’re making and burning the tires off in a different way than what we’re used to. These things make a lot of power for what they are.

“They’re definitely out of control but in control. They’re inches away from the walls and barriers out here and going at a high rate of speed and in control,” Todd noted. “It’s a different style of burnout than I’m used to, for sure. We don’t turn on our burnouts. The only drifting I’ve ever done is in the snow in Indiana and usually it’s unintentional.”

In 2016, Todd and Kalitta Motorsports teammate Richie Crampton, in Crampton’s words, “got our helmets handed to us” in a midweek karting matchup with Rico Abreu and Matt Crafton that took place on an eighth-mile dirt track located on the Abreu family’s California property.

Powered by motorcycle engines, the outlaw karts they drove were equipped with wings and capable of speeds around 80 mph. Still, Todd said, “My arms got tired.”

Todd even learned about Global Rallycross at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis in 2017.

Rallycross’ Alex Keyes was the tutor at the 10-turn circuit staked out in the paved lot where the Kalitta Motorsports team parks Todd’s DHL Camry during NHRA’s U.S. Nationals.

“You are shifting gears going all the way around the course,” Todd said. “It’s easy to go as fast as you can on the straightaways, but then you got to get on the brakes to get on the corners that are always coming up.”

Carlos Vela and LAFC lost 3-2 on Friday night to a Zlatan Ibrahimovic hat-trick for El Trafico rival L.A. Galaxy, but the Mexican is adamant he is the better player at the moment.

Vela scored twice but Ibrahimovic's treble settled an intense L.A. derby, with the Swede stating afterwards it was "a mistake" to compare him to the LAFC captain.

The 37-year-old claimed ahead of the game that he was "by far" the best player in MLS, but Vela doesn't agree.

"Comparing would show a lack of respect towards him, but if we look at the stats and forget age and whatever, I'm better than him right now, that's the reality," Vela, 30, said after the game.

"And in terms of the rest, he's been Zlatan and only [Lionel] Messi and Cristiano [Ronaldo] are better than him; the rest of us aren't in the same league."

The Ibrahimovic and Vela comparison dominated the build up to El Trafico and although the Galaxy took the victory, Vela made it 21 goals for the season in just 20 games -- a new MLS record.

But the night belonged to Ibrahimovic, whose three goals drew praise from Galaxy teammate Jonathan dos Santos.

"Zlatan has proven it again," Dos Santos said. "Who can say anything to Zlatan? Who would say anything when he scores three goals?"

"He says what he says, but in the end he backs it up on the field and that's Zlatan. He's very, very good and has shown that throughout his career. He tries to create pressure for himself, he plays with the minds of the opponents."

The three points lifted the Galaxy temporarily into second in the Western Conference, while LAFC is nine points clear and on course to win the Supporters' Shield.

Zimbabwe will not be able to stage their domestic competitions in the coming season, or fulfil their Future Tours Programme (FTP) itinerary and other international obligations, including the tour to Bangladesh for a T20I tri-series that was to include Afghanistan in September, according to a statement released by Zimbabwe Cricket on Saturday.

For their part, the Bangladesh Cricket Board has suggested that Zimbabwe's participation in the tri-series is up to ZC, and they themselves remain fluid in their response to the situation. If Zimbabwe do not travel, as seems likely, the tri-series will turn into a bilateral affair.

Zimbabwe's suspension from the ICC this week has also jeopardised both the men and women's teams' participation in the T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019.

"The ICC had also awarded Zimbabwe the right to host another global qualifier event next, but that now hangs in the balance," ZC's statement read.

"In all this, players and staff are bearing the brunt of the standoff and they might be forced to go for months or forever without their salaries and match fees," the statement continued.

Sikandar Raza had said that the ICC's actions had brought an end to both his and several other cricket careers, while allrounder Solomon Mire has already announced his retirement from international cricket.

Zimbabwe's isolation has also thrown the women's side, which won the Africa Region T20 qualifying tournament in May, into disarray. Their tour to Ireland was cancelled at the last minute, while it appears impossible that they will appear at the T20 Qualifier tournament in Scotland, starting next month.

"A chance for a ticket to different life, for millions of women out there in Zimbabwe," national captain Mary-Anne Musonda tweeted. "For generations of girls and women to come. Vanished in 3 weeks. Okay. Life. I'm sorry Lady Chevrons. I led. I tried."

Meanwhile, the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA) has urged the ICC to consider the effect that Zimbabwe's suspension will have on the players in that country.

"The Zimbabwean players have endured years of hardship under the previous board of ZC," FICA executive chairman Tony Irish said. "This has included many instances of non-payment and frequent breaches of their playing contracts. We have asked ICC to consider some mechanism to enable player contracts to be honoured despite the unfortunate suspension of the new board of ZC.

"Some of the domestic players in Zimbabwe live a hand-to-mouth existence, and there is an important 'human' element to this situation which we believe needs to be addressed."

ZC has offered to submit a new financial audit and set aside their differences with the Sports and Recreation Commission, which in June suspended the entire ZC board and set in motion the chain of events that led to Zimbabwe's suspension, "in an effort to find amicable solutions that will avert expulsion and the total demise of the game".

"We would like to see our teams playing again as soon as possible and the ZC board is ready to cooperate with the SRC and other stakeholders to get Zimbabwe back to operating within the confines of the ICC statutes again," ZC's statement read.