A World Championships qualifying mark and a world record are among the stand-out performances at the Loughborough International

Younger sprinters were among those to impress in what seemed to be near perfect running conditions at the Loughborough International Athletics competition, as the European U20 and U23 Championships qualifying standards drew interest.

However, it was more experienced athletes who stole the show. Sophie McKinna was pleased to get the Doha World Championships qualifying shot put standard with 18.04m. Although not as far as her 18.23m in the Norfolk Championships the previous week, she was happy to make her point on her first throw.

A world record was broken on the track as Paralympic champion Sophie Hahn improved the T38 100m mark to 12.43 (1.3m/sec).

“I’m so surprised and I can’t believe that just happened,” she said. “I didn’t expect that time going into the race.

“This is only my third 100m race of the season and it shows that I’m in such great form.”

?Loughborough International Athletics

Paralympic champion @SophieHahnT38 smashes the competition as she claims first place in the Women's Para-Elite 100m#LIA2019 #Battleofthenations #WhereHistoryBegins pic.twitter.com/caf43jSz8R

— Loughborough Sport (@LboroSport) May 19, 2019

The women’s 3000m saw Jess Judd track Amelia Quirk before sprinting clear to win in 9:02.86 and confirm that her track ambitions lie over either 1500 or 5000m.

Amy Hunt took the 100m in a personal best of 11.31 and the 17-year-old sees the European U20 Championships as a serious possibility. It was a similar story for Jeremiah Azu in the men’s race as his recent 18th birthday passed during the week and her was rewarded with a 10.27 personal best.

Hunt added a 200m win in 23.17.

Also among the under-20s, Ethan Brown fancies a Europeans slot after his 46.88 400m win, while Josh Zeller’s 13.62 under-20 110m hurdles victory confirmed his top-ranked status and similar ambitions.

Among the more seasoned competitors, Meghan Beesley took the women’s 400m hurdles in 56.72, while Seb Rodger won the men’s race in 50.06, in his first outing of the season.

Shannon Hylton was another to come good, but had to battle a wind in her 23.42 200m, after an 11.59 guest 100m victory. These came after her Doha Diamond League 200m disqualification.

Phillipa Lowe said she wants a 400m individual berth in the World Championships after victory in Loughborough in 52.91.

In the field, Scott Lincoln continued his four-year No.1 ranking with a 19.23m shot victory, while Ben Hawkes won a close hammer with 70.52 from Craig Murch.

Harry Hughes impressed with 80.32m in the javelin, the first time a British athlete has thrown over 80 metres in seven years. That PB moves him to 11th on the UK all-time list.

Lucy Hadaway jumped 6.34m to win the women’s long jump, with Holly Mills leaping 6.29m to finish second and secure a European U20 Championships standard.

Charlotte Payne threw a hammer PB of 61.83m to move to third on the British all-time junior list and also achieve a European U20 qualifier.

World University Games qualification also drew interest as women’s 100m hurdles winner Jessica Hunter ran 13.54, just shy of the 13.40 qualifying standard.

For the under-23s, Shemar Boldizsar’s 20.81 200m in a guest race bettered that of Sam Miller’s 21.03 in the match event and was just 0.01 from the European U23 Championships standard.

British number one Johanna Konta's wait for a first WTA clay-court title continues after she lost to Karolina Pliskova in the Italian Open final.

Czech world number seven Pliskova won 6-3 6-4 in one hour 25 minutes in Rome for her second title of the season.

Konta, 28, beat two top-10 players to reach the final and earned a seeding at the French Open starting on 26 May.

"I'm super pleased with how I've been progressing this year and improving in every match," said Konta.

"This is my second biggest final after Miami. This is a big moment for me. I'm very pleased to be making that progress."

Konta was the first British woman to reach the Italian Open final since Virginia Wade in 1971, while Pliskova is the first Czech woman to win it since 1978.

Konta did not recover from being broken in her opening service game, and again at 3-3 in the second.

Pliskova required three match points to secure victory and claim her first title since the Brisbane International in January.

'What a week for Konta' - analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

Pliskova was the sharper player and allowed Konta a look at just one break point.

The serve remains the foundation of Pliskova's game, but she has developed into a very accomplished clay-court player, and will be the second seed at the French Open.

Konta could not reproduce the stunning form she found earlier in the tournament, but what a week - a season-changing week.

She will no longer be at the mercy of the draw come the French Open, and almost certainly Wimbledon too. As a seed, she cannot player anyone else in the world's top 32 until at least the third round.

Konta's tour results before April were unspectacular, but she now sits 13th in the annual rankings race. And she has also won six Fed Cup matches for her country, which aren't taken into consideration.

BBC Sport has launched #ChangeTheGame this summer to showcase female athletes in a way they never have been before. Through more live women's sport available to watch across the BBC this summer, complemented by our journalism, we are aiming to turn up the volume on women's sport and alter perceptions. Find out more here.

Rafael Nadal claimed his first title of the year by defeating world number one Novak Djokovic 6-0 4-6 6-1 in the Italian Open final in Rome.

The Spaniard raced through the opener in 39 minutes, the first 6-0 between the great rivals in 141 previous sets.

Djokovic battled back, but in the Rome sunshine Nadal sealed his ninth Italian Open title in two hours, 25 minutes.

It was his 81st tournament win and it takes him 34-33 ahead of Djokovic in Masters 1,000 Series titles.

Victory is a boost before the French Open for Nadal, who was beaten by Djokovic in the Australian Open final in January, and had lost at the semi-final stage in his past four tournaments.

Since 2005, Nadal has won at least one of the nine Masters 1,000 events in a season every year except 2015.

Djokovic had saved two match points in his quarter-final win over Juan Martin del Potro that finished at 1.05am local time on Saturday and then had another three-set encounter later that evening against Diego Schwartzman which lasted two hours, 31 minutes.

The 54th meeting between the world's top two players saw the Serb, perhaps sufferings the effects of those two gruelling matches, initially overwhelmed by Nadal, who was ruthless with his trademark forehand.

To tumultuous acclaim from the capacity crowd, Djokovic forged his first break point opportunity of the match in the fourth game of the second set, but a magnificent, whirling forehand into the corner from Nadal soon eradicated it.

However, the 31-year-old showed his famous powers of resolve, firing some fierce returns as he took the next chance to break, which sealed the set in 59 minutes.

Nadal broke in the opening game of the decider, prompting Djokovic to demolish his racquet in frustration and with the Serb continuing to falter with drop shot attempts, Nadal surged to a 58th clay-court title.

It reduced his career deficit against Djokovic to 28-26, improving his record on clay against him to 17-7.

Analysis

BBC tennis correspondent Russell Fuller

A ninth title in Rome; a record 34th Masters title; but most significantly a first clay court title of the year for Nadal a week before the start of Roland Garros.

In fact, a first title anywhere since last August. He was irresistible in the first set, in a week in which he has won four sets 6-0 and only dropped serve twice.

But both should go to Paris in excellent heart.

A tiring Djokovic struck a useful psychological blow by dragging Nadal into a decider.

And this after winning the title in Madrid last weekend, and enduring a more gruelling week in Rome which included night shifts on both Friday and Saturday.

Gloucester and former Scotland prop Kyle Traynor has announced he is to retire from professional rugby union at the end of the Premiership season.

The 33-year-old will participate in the play-offs with the Cherry and Whites after they finished third this season.

Traynor, who also represented Bristol, Edinburgh and Leicester, won the last of his four Scotland caps in 2012.

"I have experienced so many amazing and unforgettable things and made some truly incredible friends," he said.

"To represent my country was a lifelong dream and I will never, ever forget the feeling of pulling on the Scotland jersey and wearing the Thistle."

Traynor says he will now start a career in management consulting.

"It was like a rugby team, the Dothraki rugby team."

Joe Naufahu had lights in his eyes, an iconic actress in front of him, and a backdrop of the Essos desert. His past life as a Glasgow Warriors centre could not be further away.

It was through turmoil and heartache that Naufahu, a New Zealander of Tongan descent, found salvation in fitness and more bizarrely acting, a pursuit that landed him a recurring role in Game of Thrones, the television epic which is brought to a conclusion this weekend after eight series.

Naufahu tells BBC Scotland of his tale, including nights out in Glasgow, the agony of retirement at the age of 26, and how he ended up in Spain as a protagonist in the battle for the Iron Throne.

'Emilia Clarke's standing in front of me'

The third instalment of the final series of Game of Thrones was apparently the most-tweeted-about television episode in history. In America alone, it is reported that more than 17 million people have watched the army of the dead march on Winterfell.

Naufahu landed a recurring role on this mother of all shows courtesy of a self-shot tape, sent off to the producers and consigned to memory until a call from his agent and the summons to attend a beard and wig fitting in London.

He played Khal Moro in the sixth series, a horse-riding warlord of the savage Dothraki, monstrous fighters who maraud, butcher and pillage their way through the desert. A "terrible man", as Naufahu puts it.

Khal Moro met a suitably grotesque end after three episodes when Emilia Clarke's character Daenerys roasted him alive inside a temple - but only after she had been brought chained before him in her guise as heir to the throne and a Dothraki captive.

"Emilia was lovely to work with, very humble and very funny," Naufahu says. "She's a very big star, so she enjoyed her privacy when we weren't shooting, but at the same time, she was just really nice and hung out with us. That first scene where I was in my temple and Emilia was brought up to me, that was probably the most memorable one and a bit of a wake-up call - you realise, 'man, I'm on the set of Game of Thrones'.

"I don't think I realised how big the show was until I had my first day on set in Spain, the cameras everywhere, the amount of extras, Emilia's standing in front of me shackled up and it's like, wow, okay, let's go. You get flown around the world, it's a huge operation. It was like a rugby team - the Dothraki rugby team. We had guys from England, France, Brazil - all good guys. No egos, no-one above anyone else.

"One minute you're staring down the barrel of retirement from the thing you love, the next you're on a set in Spain. Crazy."

'I'll come back and have a turbo shandy'

Naufahu was a bruiser of a centre reared at the Canterbury Crusaders with age-grade caps for New Zealand under his belt. Glasgow were a pretty modest operation when he arrived at Hughenden in 2002, playing in front of little crowds but still holding their own in the old Celtic League.

He was never able to leave the mark he wanted. A degenerative knee problem saw to that. Still, Naufahu loved the city and the people, the fervour of the fans, and the parties on the cobbles of Ashton Lane, typically propelled by a hideous-sounding concoction of lager and Smirnoff Ice known as a turbo shandy.

"I will come back one day and have a turbo shandy - you don't get older and wiser," Naufahu, now 41, says.

"The weather made for a different style of rugby to what I was used to back home, where there's generally a faster track and opportunities with defences being freer, but I had mad respect for the boys playing and coaching in Glasgow. For me, it was just a case of not enjoying the rugby so much because of injuries.

"As rugby players, you have a pre-built community that you walk into. You don't really have to go outside it, but at the same time it's a little bit of a bubble and when it pops you're like, 'what do I do now?'"

'When you can't play, you don't feel like you're enough'

Naufahu loved lifting weights, but the cold reality that he would never play again left him feeling ashamed of picking up a dumbbell.

He went back to New Zealand and worked on construction sites while reviving the adolescent interest that led him to Game of Thrones, and opening a gym with no mirrors in Auckland.

"When you can't play anymore, you don't feel like you're enough, you don't want to go to the gym," he says.

"I'd done a little acting as a teen. At the time, there weren't many Polynesian actors in New Zealand, so I got a small part when I was injured.

"I never went to formal drama school or whatever. But what acting did was give me a creative outlet which had been closed when I lost the ability to play rugby."

SALISBURY, N.C. – Clark Houston has done virtually everything in Millbridge Speedway’s premier Open division, except win a top-class feature at the sixth-mile dirt oval.

He’s broken while leading, spun out while challenging for the top spot, suffered mechanical failures, missed the handling and even had plain-old bad luck rob him of a chance to celebrate in victory lane.

After more than two years of trying to break through and hoist a trophy, Houston is hoping – profusely – that his long-awaited first Open triumph comes during Wednesday night’s sixth-annual QRC Open presented by HMS Motorsport.

Houston knows he has the speed to contend up front. He’s led laps before. This week, however, it’s all about finding a golden horseshoe or something that will lead him to the break he needs to finish the job.

“I just need a little bit of luck, man,” Houston said. “It’s crazy to think about, really. We’ve had the speed, but it seems like every time we get in position to win one of these things, either I screw up or something breaks and we can’t close it out. It’s honestly frustrating, because I feel like we should have a few wins here and not even have to be talking about this anymore, but we’re still here on a goose-egg.

“Hopefully after Wednesday night, we won’t have to worry about those questions anymore,” Houston added. “We’ve got the pace and we’ve got the skills, so now we just need the right breaks.”

Houston has started the big show during the Open before – finishing 17th in the main event – but arguably his best chance at shining came in last year’s edition, when he was leading his heat race and in position to advance to the pole shuffle before the chain came off and he stalled on-track.

The teenager went on to finish ninth in the B-main and had to watch the feature from the grandstands, something he hopes to rectify this time around by making his second QRC Speed51 Open A-main start.

“We had a lot of speed last year, right around the top, and we were in position to maybe make some magic happen before the heat-race issue kind of doomed us,” Houston recalled. “We haven’t changed much since then, so hopefully we can come back and pick up right where we left off in that one.

“I hope it dusts off around the top and we can get to ripping,” he added. “If it does that, I think you’ll see us contending for the win Wednesday night just like we did last year.”

While Houston is used to contending among the track’s weekly competitors – who are no slouches in their own right – he knows that the field over the three days of the QRC Open is going to be as deep as any that he races in all season long.

“Just the competition is what makes this race so much different than a weekly show,” Houston noted. “Everyone is so good; you’ve got guys and girls with a lot of money coming out here from the West Coast and all over the country to try and leave their mark. It makes for a different atmosphere, because you know everyone has blinders on and they’ll do what they have to in order to come out a winner.

“We’ve all got the same goal this week, and I hope we can be the ones to achieve it and leave on top.”

At this juncture in his career, Houston is simply hoping to scratch out that long-present zero in his win column at Millbridge. Doing so on the track’s richest night would just be an added bonus.

“I’ve said it before, I just want to win … one race, any race,” Houston said. “But if it came Wednesday night, in the biggest-paying race we have and with the kind of attention that the QRC Open gets … it’d be awesome.

“I’m not sure I’d have words in that moment if it happens, to be honest.”

Practice for the QRC Open presented by HMS Motorsport at Millbridge Speedway begins on Monday, May 20.

Feature racing takes place on both Tuesday, May 21 and Wednesday, May 22.

SEATTLE — Top Fuel rookies Austin Prock and Jordan Vandergriff are challenging each other — and even interacting with the legends of the sport, who are still fussing with each other after all these years.

The result is a lot of juicy smack-talk.

Prock, who drives the Montana Brand-Rocky Mountain Twist dragster for John Force Racing, and Vandergriff, who wheels his uncle Bob’s D-A Lubricant-Penn Grade dragster, are the early frontrunners for the Auto Club of Southern California Road To The Future Award.

Each had an impressive debut. By the third race, the icon-centric 50th Gatornationals at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway, the naturally confident Prock was declaring he’s “ready to show these legends what this new rookie is all about.”

One of those legends made this Top Fuel career possible for Prock. Don “The Snake” Prudhomme had an unexpected conversation with an old buddy during the January’s Barrett-Jackson Auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., that ended with sponsorship for Prock.

“We started talking drag racing,” Prudhomme said. “I told him Force needed a sponsor. He said, ‘Hell, I’ll sponsor him!’ The kid is dynamite. I like rookie kids. I just enjoy being around rookies and watching them build themselves up.”

Prock says his hastily brokered opportunity “is all because of ‘The Snake.’ He stuck his neck out for me and got it done. I owe him the world.”

Prudhomme has been promoting Prock, saying, “I saw someone who’s a rookie that looked like a veteran today. It pumps me up a lot. I enjoy it.” And at Gainesville, he didn’t hesitate to declare Prock a legend-in-the-making.

Darrell Gwynn claimed in front of other drag-racing legends such as Kenny Bernstein, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch and Joe Amato that reigning Funny Car champion J.R. Todd is “as good as anybody in this room.” Prudhomme straightaway said, “Wait a minute,” and indicated he’s the top dog.

Todd, clearly flattered, later laughed and said, “Exactly. Snake, he’s the first one to bust your chops, for sure. He’s not going to tell anybody how good they really are. He’s always going to be better than you. That’s something he told me when we won Sonoma in 2017. He said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll always be second-best to me.’ If I’m second-best to somebody, it might as well be Snake.”

Vandergriff and Prock learned to drive dragsters as classmates at Frank Hawley’s Gainesville school. Vandergriff, whose style is less in-your-face than Prock’s, said he and Prock “are learning together. We’re really good friends. We started this journey together. We’ve taken every step together. We share a bond. Whatever I learn, I’m going to share with him, and whatever he learns he’s going to share with me. We’re going to bounce ideas off of each other.”

By the time they returned to Gainesville in March, they were locked in a friendly T-shirt sales contest. The driver who sold the fewer souvenir T-shirts had to wear the winner’s shirt during the NHRA round at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Texas.

All that developed during the weekend when the NHRA celebrated a handful of legends and put them on the track in Toyota Camrys for an “Unfinished Business” bracket race.

Final-round, crowd-entertaining shenanigans between eventual winner Warren Johnson, the six-time champion “Professor of Pro Stock,” and runner-up McCulloch ended the program with business still unfinished. It involved hints that Johnson doctored his car, a challenge to swap rides at the starting line and an actual swap after the official final. The legends said they wanted to do it again, next time involving money for charity.

Shirley Muldowney reveled in her first-round victory over one-time chief rival “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Prudhomme was grousing even before McCulloch eliminated him. Lynn Prudhomme had been honored with the Pat Garlits Award the night before the race during Garlits’ annual International Drag Racing Hall of Fame dinner. But “The Snake” wasn’t interested in elaborating. He said he didn’t want her to go because “I’m kind of pissed off at Garlits.”

And the beat and beating-up continued.  Bernstein said, “In any sport, in any endeavor, the pipeline always gets refilled. We’ll be gone. We’ll be talking about these (younger) guys 10 to 15 years from now.”

Lest anyone think Prock is being anointed, his own crew chief, Ronnie Thompson, has dogged him on social media. He posted a photo of Prock tipped headfirst into his chassis, installing seat belts.

“We’re calling him a prodigy, huh? Never seen anybody put the seat belts in upside down. I’m not sure where the crotch strap is going to end up … #newbie,” Thompson wrote.

That was after Thompson tweeted a roundabout compliment to Prock and Vandergriff: “Love this rivalry that’s starting up. I’ve known them both since they thought (poop)ing their pants was cool! Proud to see them both get a shot and step up.”

LE MANS, France – Marc Marquez delivered Honda’s 300th premier class victory during Sunday’s MotoGP event at the Bugatti Circuit.

Marquez started from the pole and launched away at the start, with Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller the only rider able to keep up with Marquez in the opening circuits.

Miller briefly overtook Marquez to take the lead, but Marquez responded on lap six to regain the top spot. Once out front again Marquez slowly built his lead, eventually crossing the finish line 1.9 seconds ahead of his closest pursuer.

“Of course here in Le Mans it’s always difficult with the temperature and the weather, especially today,” Marquez said after his 47th victory in the premier class. “I think this is the first time I have had a race where I had the soft tyre in the front but it was the safest option. I was focused on being consistent until I saw the gap increasing, I pushed a little bit more and into the low 32s until I saw I had two seconds. I’m happy with today’s result and it is fantastic to be able to take Honda’s 300th premier class win.”

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci completed the podium. Miller faded to fourth behind the Ducati duo and Valentino Rossi finished fifth for Monster Energy Yamaha.

ST. LOUIS -- It was Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals against the Colorado Avalanche, and San Jose Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon was avoiding social media at all costs. Not because the Avalanche defeated his team at the Shark Tank, which no doubt perturbed him. But because the living army was scheduled to battle the Army of the Dead outside of Winterfell that evening, and the last thing he wanted to do on that last Sunday in April was accidentally stumble upon the fate of the Night King.

Like millions of others -- 18.4 million people watched the penultimate episode on various HBO platforms last Sunday, in fact -- Dillon is a "Game of Thrones" fanatic, one of more than a dozen in the Sharks' dressing room.

"It's not something I was necessarily into, with dragons and make-believe stuff. It's not really my thing. But it was so well-written," said Dillon, who began watching "Thrones" during his days in the American Hockey League, streaming it on the plane or bus.

But he's a die-hard now. On the road, Dillon and a few of his teammates -- Tomas Hertl and Martin Jones among them -- would crowd into a hotel room, plug in their streaming device to the flat screen and watch the "Thrones" together.

Then, the next morning, they have to be respectful of the viewing habits of others.

"Some guys don't watch it in the night [it premieres], so you have to be careful with what you say in the room the next day, so you're not giving away too much information," he said. "We have a pretty good setup in the hotel. We can plug in and stream it. If you wait too long, you've already heard this or seen a picture of that. In this culture, nothing stays secret for too long."

Down the hall at the arena hosting the Western Conference finals, St. Louis Blues forward Zach Sanford is also dutifully avoiding spoilers.

"I don't wait. It's definitely better at home, but I watched it on the laptop the other day," he said. "I've been trying to watch it before bed, but I keep falling asleep. So I'm more of a Monday afternoon guy. After the skate."

Like many players, he said his "Thrones" fandom was born out of peer pressure from teammates who were already into it. "All my buddies on the team watched it, and they were giving me grief for not watching it. I told them it looked dumb, and that I didn't want to watch it. But then I buzzed through the first season in a couple of days. I was hooked," he said.

Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly tells a similar story. "I started around Season 2. I did the whole first season in a couple of days. I was like, 'This is unbelievable,'" he said.

O'Reilly is another kind of "Thrones" fan, the kind who appreciates the spectacle as much as the storytelling. So while Sanford is staying caught up on his laptop, O'Reilly is willing to wait it out until he can properly experience it.

"I don't want watch it when I'm on the road, in the hotel. It's not a good enough TV. I want to watch it at home, in the dark, in my home theater, volume cranked. You need the best picture quality as possible," he said.

So what are their predictions for the series finale, which airs this Sunday?

SPOILER ALERT

First of all, the players polled weren't all that thrilled with Daenerys going all Mad Queen and having her dragon Drogon torch a bunch of civilians at King's Landing.

"I was pretty shocked. She was so great up until then, and now she's turned," O'Reilly said.

"You could see it coming. But I thought there might be something with her dying and Jon Snow wouldn't even have to tell everyone that he's a Targaryen. I thought he'd get the easy way out," Sanford said.

"I wasn't a huge fan of it, to be honest. I thought once the bell started ringing last episode, she would have a little mercy. She basically burnt down the throne she's going to sit on," Dillon said.

All three expect Jon Snow will be the one to ultimately sit on the Iron Throne.

"It's tough to say. I'm hoping Jon Snow, but that's the thing with 'Game of Thrones' -- it's never what you expect," O'Reilly said.

"I think he's the one that has to take down Daenerys if that happens," Dillon said.

As for the players' favorite character on "Game of Thrones" ... well, it should come as no surprise that a bunch of hockey players appreciate someone who's tenacious, efficient and frequently punches above her weight class.

"I like Arya [Stark]. She's a badass. She always gets the job done," Sanford said.

"She always just seems to be standing up for good. She had her list there. Had a good head on her shoulders. And the best kill of the season," Dillon said.

Game 5 of the Western Conference finals between the Sharks and Blues is Sunday in San Jose, the same day as the series finale. Luckily for these "Thrones" fans, it's a 3 p.m. ET start. No need to avoid Twitter, and plenty of time to gather teammates 'round the hotel television to see how it ends.