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Lindor having ankle reassessed after rehab finale
Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor will appear in another minor league rehab game Thursday before rejoining Cleveland on Friday, at which point the team will reassess his ailing left ankle and determine whether he's ready to be activated off the injured list.
Lindor began his rehab assignment Tuesday at Triple-A Columbus. In two games, he's gone 2-for-8 with one home run.
The plan is for him to serve as Columbus' shortstop Thursday at Louisville and then rejoin the Indians on Friday, when he'll be reassessed by the team's medical staff.
The switch-hitting Lindor was making steady progress from a right calf injury when he rolled his ankle while caught in a rundown during a minor league scrimmage in Arizona.
Lindor batted .277 last season with 38 home runs, 92 RBIs and 25 steals.
Atlanta Braves closer Arodys Vizcaino, who on Monday was placed on the IL with right shoulder inflammation, has had season-ending shoulder surgery, the team announced Wednesday.
Vizcaino elected to have the surgery to clean up his labrum and remove scar tissue from his right shoulder joint, the Braves said.
The surgery was performed in New York by Dr. David Altchek.
Vizcaino, 28, appeared in only four games this season before suffering the injury. The right-hander has 50 career saves, including a team-high 16 last season.
Can’t miss it! Record TV & Streaming coverage in store for Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships
Viewers from at least 145 countries will be able to watch the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships on TV, while the rest of the world will have daily access to the action from the Hungexpo, Budapest, on the ITTF’s official live streaming platform itTV.
The figures mark an increase on the 122 nations receiving televised coverage of the most recent individual World Table Tennis Championships, held in 2017 in Düsseldorf, when a total of 355.6 million TV viewers was registered.
From the moment that play begins at 10.00 GMT+2 on Sunday 21 April, viewers will be able to watch the action on as many as eight tables by tuning into itTV.
The ITTF’s official live streaming platform will be providing worldwide coverage of the whole event right up until the epic final matches played on Sunday 28 April.
Furthermore, 25 national and international TV channels, covering at least 145 countries and representing every continent in the world, will be broadcasting a busy programme of matches across Tables 1 and 2 from when the main draw begins on Monday 22 April up until the following Sunday (28 April), when the biggest table tennis event of 2019 eventually draws to a close and the final World Champions are confirmed.
Among the major TV channels are China Central Television (CCTV), TV Tokyo and Eurosport, between them covering all of Europe, West/Central Asia, China and Japan – the latter nation representing a more crucial market than ever, as table tennis interest continues to accelerate with the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games just around the corner.
CCTV alone will be showing more than 50 hours of live action to the globe’s largest population. Together with all the other broadcasters, this will result in a record amount of TV coverage in World Table Tennis Championships history.
The TV production will also be next-level with a staggering 18 cameras being used on Table 1, ensuring that every angle possible will be shown around the world.
Matches from all four tables in the Main Hall and a further four tables in Hall 2, for an impressive total of eight tables, will be streamed live on itTV.
What is for sure is that wherever you are between 21-28 April, the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships will be brought right to you!
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Suffering from an ankle injury there is no place for Ruwen Filus in the selection, notably he reached the fourth round two years ago in Düsseldorf eventually losing to China’s Fan Zhendong.
Rather differently for Qiu Dang, a right handed pen-holder, who has been in outstanding form this year, having been the runner up at the Seamaster 2019 ITTF Challenge Spanish Open in March; on debut, he appears in all three possible events.
Additional to the men’s singles, he partners Bastian Steger in the men’s doubles and Nina Mittelham in the mixed doubles; the latter an event in which it is confirmed the Japan’s Maharu Yoshimura and Kasumi Ishikawa will defend their title. Tomokazu Harimoto, aiming to be the youngest ever medallist, competes in the men’s singles and partners Yuto Kizukuri in the men’s doubles.
Focus for Tomokazu Harimoto is very much centred on the men’s singles, the 15 year old being currently listed at no.4 on the world rankings. It is very much the same for Brazil, pertinently, the name of Hugo Calderano, standing at no.7 in the current order of merit, appears only in the men’s singles. Erstwhile doubles partner, Gustavo Tsuboi, joins forces with Eric Jouti.
Meanwhile, for Frenchmen Tristan Flore and Portugal’s João Monteiro, players who are very much returning to the international scene following a period of injury; there are special seedings. Listed at no.103 on the present day men’s world rankings, Tristan Flore is the no.30 seed; João Monteiro, who has dropped to no.173, is the no.48 seed.
There are 64 seeds in each of the men’s singles and women’s singles events, 32 seeded pairs in each of the men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles competitions.
Experienced warrior but can Chuang Chih-Yuan inspire success?
Always a worthy adversary but Chuang Chih-Yuan is yet to reach the lofty heights of a quarter-finals spot in the men’s singles category with his personal best finishes coming in 2007, 2013 and 2017, reaching the Round of 16 on all three occasions.
Seeded 19th in Budapest another top 16 finish would be seen as another strong performance for Chuang Chih-Yuan, who turned 38 early this month, but surely the quarter-finals is the objective for the Chinese Taipei legend?
Another name to note is the player seeded directly below Chuang Chih-Yuan, 18-year-old Lin Yun-Ju. Winner of his first men’s singles title at the recent ITTF Challenge Plus event in Oman Lin Yun-Ju also produced a fine display in Qatar, beating Wong Chun Ting and Dimitrij Ovtcharov. Exiting at the opening hurdle of the World Championships two years ago – will the teenage star fare better in Budapest?
Chen Chien-An, who famously defeated Zhang Jike in the lead-up to Rio 2016, is also included in the player roster for the men’s singles event as are Peng Wang-Wei and Wang Tai-Wei.
Over in the women’s singles tournament it’s Cheng I-Ching who carries Chinese Taipei’s greatest threat in the race for podium positions. Her breakthrough moment came at the 2016 Women’s World Cup where she took home a silver medal and has since won two bronzes at the event – in Budapest she occupies the no.7 seeded position.
Then there’s Chen Szu-Yu, Chinese Taipei’s second highest seeded player in the women’s singles draw at 20th and a major threat to anyone who stands in his way. Finishing in the third round in 2017, Chen Szu-Yu will be determined to enjoy a stronger outing this time out.
Rounding out the rest of Chinese Taipei’s squad list for the women’s singles draw is Cheng Hsien-Tzu, Liu Hsing-Yin and Su Pei-Ling.
Away from the singles action the 2013 championship winning pair of Chen Chien-An and Chuang Chih-Yuan partner up yet again in the hunt for men’s doubles glory while Cheng I-Ching, who won silver two years back in Düsseldorf, will compete alongside Lin Yun-Ju in the mixed doubles competition.
See the Chinese Taipei stars take on the world’s finest in Budapest by purchasing your tickets for the Liebherr 2019 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships:
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Marwan ElShorbagy top seed at Wimbledon Club Squash Squared Open
Marwan ElShorbagy and Declan James will be competing in the Squash Squared Open at Wimbledon
Declan James leads strong English contingent at Wimbledon
By ELLIE MAWSON
Egypt’s World No.11 Marwan ElShorbagy will lead the line-up at the Wimbledon Club Squash Squared Open when the PSA World Tour Bronze tournament takes place from May 11-16 in London, England.
This year’s tournament, which takes place at The Wimbledon Club, will be the fourth instalment of the event and the largest to date with a prize purse of $50,000 on offer.
Last season saw France’s Mathieu Castagnet claim the title, his first PSA title triumph in two years, and the Frenchman will once again return to defend his title at this year’s event.
ElShorbagy and Castagnet will be joined by some big names in men’s squash, including Egypt’s former World No.3 Omar Mosaad, England’s No.1 Declan James and former World No.1 James Willstrop.
James Willstrop will be keen to add another Wimbledon title to his CV
Alongside James and Willstrop, there is a strong English contingent featuring at the tournament with the likes of last season’s runner-up Tom Richards, Daryl Selby, Chris Simpson and George Parker all battling it out for the title, while the wildcard spots are occupied by Jordan Warne and Tom Walsh.
The likes of Mexico’s Cesar Salazar, France’s Lucas Serme and Egypt’s World Junior champion Mostafa Asal will also all be in action in the English capital.
The event is a significant fundraiser for Squash Squared, which is a UK registered squash and education charity supporting disadvantaged students for academic and sporting success. Tickets can be purchased via the tournament website and prices start from £20 for adults and £10 for juniors
You can also follow the Squash Squared charity on Twitter and Instagram.
Squash Squared Open, The Wimbledon Club, Wimbledon, London, England, May 11-16.
Entry List:
Marwan ElShorbagy (EGY)
Omar Mosaad (EGY)
Declan James (ENG)
James Willstrop (ENG)
Tom Richards (ENG)
Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)
Daryl Selby (ENG)
Cesar Salazar (MEX)
Lucas Serme (FRA)
Chris Simpson (ENG)
George Parker (ENG)
Mostafa Asal (EGY)
Fares Dessouky (EGY)
Ben Coleman (ENG)
Ramit Tandon (IND)
Iker Pajares Bernabeu (ESP)
Baptiste Masotti (FRA)
Olli Tuominen (FIN)
Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND)
Asim Khan (PAK)
Carlos Cornes Ribadas (ESP)
Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA)
Jordan Warne (ENG)
Tom Walsh (ENG)
Pictures courtesy of Patrick Lauson and PSA
DARLINGTON, S.C. – Darlington Raceway announced today that Hartsville, S.C., native Haylee Johnson has been selected as the Lady in Black for this year.
As the Lady in Black, Johnson will serve as a key ambassador for Darlington Raceway throughout the year.
She will represent the track at various community and media events, as well as during the 70th annual Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend.
“We are pleased that Haylee Johnson will be our Lady in Black for 2019,” track president Kerry Tharp said. “Haylee has a wonderful personality and understands the importance of Darlington Raceway in our community, having grown up in nearby Hartsville. She will be a great ambassador for the track.”
Johnson is excited to get started in her new position.
“This is a great opportunity for me to serve as Darlington Raceway’s Lady in Black,” Johnson said. “I’m excited to get started and represent the track at many events this year.”
Johnson is a 2018 graduate of Hartsville High School. She is currently a student at Francis Marion University, where she is studying nursing, and is also currently employed at The Retreat of Carolina Bay assisted living facility in Hartsville.
Talladega Helped Forge Martin’s Hall Of Fame Career
TALLADEGA, Ala. – The ARCA Menards Series has been a part of Talladega Superspeedway’s history since the track’s inaugural season in 1969.
Over the course of those 50 years, the series has run 55 races on the daunting 33-degree banks, where speeds approach 200 miles per hour.
The list of previous winners reads as a mixture of a who’s who of racing and some of the greatest underdog stories in stock car racing.
ARCA first visited the rolling foothills of Talladega in 1969. Jim Vandiver won the first race, a 500-miler, by two laps over Ramo Stott and Freddie Fryar. He averaged an impressive 156.017 mph in a race that was slowed five times by cautions.
Since then, drivers like Mark Martin, Davey Allison, and Jimmy Horton used Talladega wins to propel themselves into rides in the NASCAR Cup Series, while drivers like Rick Roland, Sandy Satullo, and Jim Vaughan all scored their only series wins at the 2.66-mile tri-oval.
Most recently, Talladega has been a proving ground for young drivers who need experience racing at high speeds and in the draft before gaining approval to race in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series or the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Daytona.
Current NASCAR drivers with a win on their resume at Talladega include 2008 ARCA champion Justin Allgaier and his JR Motorsports teammate Michael Annett – both of whom race in the Xfinity Series – as well as Gander Outdoors Truck Series rookie Gus Dean, 2011 ARCA champion and Monster Energy Cup Series regular Ty Dillon, Xfinity Series regular Justin Haley and Cup Series contender Paul Menard.
For NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Martin, who won at Talladega in 1981 as a 22-year-old superspeedway rookie, he already had a solid record of success on the midwestern short tracks. At the time, he had won three American Speed Ass’n championships and was preparing to take his small team to the big leagues.
He outran Joe Ruttman and Tim Richmond, two drivers who would forge their own paths to stock car success, for the win.
Interestingly, 1985 Indianapolis 500 winner Danny Sullivan finished sixth that day.
“(That win) was huge for us in a couple of different ways,” Martin said. “First, it was with my own little team that we raced late models with around the Midwest. And it was my first race on a superspeedway in preparation for Daytona in February of 1982. It was my plan to get some experience at a monster race track like Talladega and then run some other Busch Series – now Xfinity Series – races to prepare myself for the full 1982 season.
“We raced out of North Liberty, Indiana,” Martin continued. “We came down and we had a really fast car. We qualified second and ran strong all day. It was a big deal to get experience on a track that big because all of my experience had been on tracks that were a quarter mile or a half mile long.”
Martin’s 1981 ARCA win was, at the time, seen by many one of those dramatic underdog wins. However, Martin didn’t necessarily agree with that assessment.
“I didn’t really see it that way at the time,” he said. “We had already won three ASA championships in a row in 1978, 1979, and 1980. We were pretty strong. Yes, we were on a different playground, but we were strong. The guys we were racing against like Tim Richmond, Joe Ruttman, and Billie Harvey, all the guys in that race, I understood that I didn’t know a lot about their kind of racing, but we had plenty of experience.
“At the time it was really cool, but I just didn’t see it as an underdog win because we were really strong,” Martin added. “I can see how others might have because we just didn’t have a lot of experience at that kind of racing. We were pretty good at doing our homework.”
Through tremendous perseverance and dedication, he managed to also join that who’s who of motorsports list later in his career.
The Carolina Hurricanes erupted for five goals to beat the Capitals in Game 3, but they will be missing some firepower for Thursday's game.
Coach Rod Brind'Amour said Wednesday that power forward Micheal Ferland is not expected to play with an upper-body injury.
"I would say (he's) still a ways away," he told reporters.
That news comes after he said Tuesday that 19-year-old forward Andrei Svechnikov is in the concussion protocol after being knocked out in a fight with Alex Ovechkin and is unlikely to be back for Game 4.
Ferland, 26, tried to lay a hit on Washington tough guy Tom Wilson in the first period Monday. He left the game shortly after and did not return.
Svechnikov has three points in the Hurricanes' three playoff games. Ferland hasn't registered a point in the postseason, but he was fourth on the team in scoring with 40 points during the regular season.
Carolina trails the opening-round series 2-1 after winning 5-0 Monday.
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