Gary Lemke looks back at a jam-packed sporting weekend as regular scheduling resumed with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continuing his dominance in F1, coastal sides the Sharks and Stormers suffered heavy URC defeats, and Manchester is blue and more!
VERSTAPPEN STARTS AS HE LEFT OFF
New season, old story. In 2023 Max Verstappen won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix over his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez by 11 seconds. He started 2024 where he left off last year – remembering that he won 19 of 22 grands prix then.
This time he crossed the line with double that to spare, 22 seconds, with Perez again runner-up. With one race gone, it already looks like the die is cast and that Verstappen is going to take some stopping. As will Red Bull in the constructors.
However, in a sign of the times. Spice Girl Geri Halliwell’s public display of solidarity with Christian Horner following another celebrity text scandal received more global attention than did Verstappen’s drive.
BLITZBOKS’ DISMAL RUN CONTINUES
No one can tell you how, where or why, except that it did – and still is. How could the Blitzboks fall from grace so quickly and alarmingly?
They’ve been off-key for a while, but even this 2024 season started well with South Africa claiming their fifth straight Dubai title. Since then it’s been a downhill plummet. They sunk to their lowest depths in Los Angeles at the weekend when defeats to Ireland, Argentina and Samoa – interrupted by a 22-19 win over Spain – left them taking on Canada for the wooden spoon.
The fact they won that game 28-15 and finished 11th of 12 is no cause for celebration. The women had a better weekend, finishing sixth. France won the men’s title and NZ the women’s.
SHARKS, STORMERS SUFFER HEAVY LOSSES
South Africa’s two coastal teams in the United Rugby Championship had a tough time of it when they were trounced by their inland rivals. Both the Lions and the Bulls ran up 40 points in beating the Sharks and the Stormers 40-10 and 40-22, respectively.
These are worrying times for the Sharks who are the bottom feeders in the 16-team competition. They have lost 10 of their 11 games. The Lions are in 11th after their five-pointer.
The Stormers are now sitting in ninth, while Jake White will be smiling after stopping a seven-match losing streak to them, and the emphatic win moves the Pretoria-based side up to second behind Leinster.
CITY KEEP PRESSURE ON LIVERPOOL
Well, the bragging rights stay in the blue part of Manchester. It was City who got the better of United. When Marcus Rashford put the Red Devils ahead, United fans dared to dream.
But, this is City, a juggernaut and possibly the best side in club football. They’d also hold their own against most countries. Goals from Phil Foden (2) and Erling Haaland turned 0-1 into 3-1. And, after Liverpool’s 99th-minute winner over Nottingham Forest, there’s still a one-point gap at the top of the EPL, with 11 games to play.
DON’T GET ONTO THE PAUL HYPE TRAIN
YouTuber Jake Paul “stopped” an out-of-shape, limited opponent Ryan Bourland inside one round in their “fight” in Puerto Rico and then ran off to the corner where he celebrated as if he’d just beaten a prime, Mike Tyson. And, true to form, he called out super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
The Mexican is an elite champion, a winner of 60 of his 64 fights. The match-up will never happen. Boxing’s authorities would be licensing a possible manslaughter case, because Paul and Alvarez don’t belong in the same postcode, let alone the same ring. However, there are those who continue to take Paul seriously. Seriously?
ALCARAZ ‘BEATS’ NADAL IN NETFLIX SLAM
The lines between reality and “made for the screen generation”, as the above, extended to the world of tennis when Carlos Alcaraz “beat” Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-4, 14-12 in Las Vegas.
The contest, an exhibition, was streamed live by Netflix. The “event” was known as the inaugural “Netflix Slam” and Alcarez was even presented with a trophy at the end. A sell-out crowd of 9 489 people (can’t begrudge them for wanting to see two legends in action), dotted with celebrities, attended.