Ten things to know from what happened in the world of sport. September 7-13, 2021. US Open, Diamond League, McLaren, Boxing...
  • Historic US Open. Daniil Medvédev (RUS) prevented Novak Djokovic (SRB) from winning the calendar Grand Slam, after beating him in the Men’s Division Final in three straight sets. This is his first Grand Slam win. In the women’s division, 18 year-old Emma Raducanu (ENG) pulled a historic upset. She was ranked 150th going into the tournament and had to win her way through the qualifying tournament, winning every single set of her 10 matches en route to the Women’s singles win. In doubles, Joe Salisbury (ENG) became the first male player to win both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles titles at the US Open in the same year, since Bob Bryan (USA) in 2010. His mixed partner, Desirae Krawczyk (USA) became the first player to win three consecutive mixed doubles grand slam trophies since 2005 and the 7th player in the Open era to win 3 out of 4 mixed doubles titles in a single season. In Wheelchair tennis, Shingo Kunieda (JPN) won his record-extending 25th singles Grand Slam, while Diede de Groot (NED) continued her winning streak after winning the Golden Slam, and Dylan Alcott (AUS) also completed the consecutive Golden Slam in Quads, after winning the Tokyo 2020 gold medal and every Grand Slam, in men’s quads.
  • McLaren, finally! The McLaren F1 Team, the second most successful in F1 history, had dismal seasons starting in 2013. Finally, for the first time since the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix, they were back to their winning ways, as Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) won the Italian Grand Prix, ahead of teammate Lando Norris (ENG) and Valtteri Botas (FIN, Mercedes). Championship leaders, Lewis Hamilton (ENG, Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (NED, Red Bull) collided on lap 25. Verstappen received a grid penalty for the next race. Where McLaren did not excel was in IndyCar. Their Championship leader, Patricio O’Ward (MEX) had a great start at the Portland Grand Prix but a bad strategy put him down to 14th. His Championship rival, Álex Palou (ESP, Ganasi) won and took the Championship lead with two races to go.
  • Redemption and rivalry. The Diamond League Final in Zürich (SUI) featured redemption and rivalry. Johannes Vetter (DEU), dominated the season but failed at the Olympic Games but won this event. So did Christin Hussong (DEU), medal favorite in the women’s division, who failed at Tokyo 2020. Stories of rivalry included the Women’s 1500 meters, where Faith Kipyegon (KEN) barely repeated her Tokyo 2020 win against the Tokyo 2020 athletics standout, Sifan Hassan (NED). The men’s 1,500 was another good story of rivalry: Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN) avenged his Tokyo 2020 loss to Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR), who had lost to him for 13 times…Until the most important event.
  • Dominance and breakthrough. The Diamond League Final also featured such stories. Yulimar Rojas’s (VEN) won the Women’s Triple Jump. She now has six of the seven top jumps in the discipline. Other athletes that reaffirmed their clear status as world #1 included figures such as Armand Duplantis (SWE, Men’s Pole Vault), Pedro Pichardo (POR, Men’s Triple Jump), Ryan Crouser (USA, Men’s Shot Put), Daniel Ståhl (SWE, Men’s Discus Throw), and Valarie Allman (USA, Women’s Discus Throw). Stories of breakthrough included Anzhelika Sidorova (RUS), who became the fifth woman to go over 5 meters in Women’s Pole Vault. Francine Niyonsaba’s (BDI) won the 5,000 -she was a middle distance runner until recently-, beating former World Champion Helen Obiri (KEN), who will now transition to road running events. Meanwhile, Fred Kerley (USA), who won the 100 meters and became the first athlete to win the Diamond League in 100 and 400 meters.
  • Dolomitenmann. The Red Bull Dolomitenmann is a the unofficial ‘World Championship’ for extreme sport relays. Kolland Topsport Professional won for the fourth time in a row, with Joseph Gray (USA, Fell racing), Christian Maurer (SUI, Paragliding), Héctor-Leonardo Páez-León (COL, Mountain Bike) and Lukáš Kubričan (CZE, Whitewater Kayaking). Maurer and Kubričan have won four times in a row now, while Gray won for the third time.
  • The WBC’ controversies. Last week we criticize how the World Boxing Council allowed the fight between Tatyana Zrazhevskaya (RUS) and Jessica González (MEX) for the interim World Female Bantam Title, as González had not won since 2014 and Zrazhevskaya was unbeaten (11-0). The Mexican, however, pulled the big upset and won a fair Unanimous Decision in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Yuliahn Luna (MEX) beat Karla Valenzuela (MEX) for the main version of the Title with a 4-Round TKO. Valenzuela had not won any of her last 9 fights. Another controversial fight was Óscar Valdez’s (MEX) successful defense of his World Boxing Council World Super Featherwight title against Robson Conceiçao (BRA) via Unanimous Decision. A card of 117-110 by no means reflected the fight, where perhaps the Brazilian had made enough to win. Even more controversial was the fact that Valdez had failed an antidoping test a few days before the fight.
  • No eight Championship. Endika Barrenetxea (ESP) beat Javier Urriza (ESP) in the Grand Final of the Torneo Individual de Remonte-Gran Premio Kutxabank, in the Basque Pelota discipline of Remonte. He prevented Pamplona’s Champion, Urriza, from taking an eight txapela.
  • Grass Skiing. Jan Němec (CZE) furthered his standing as the greatest Grass Skier of all time by winning his 15th World Championship. He won the Super G at the World Championship in home soil. The most impressive was that this competition was his return to international competition after five years! Also impressive was Chisaki Maeda (JPN), who won all of the women’s competitions.
  • Cliff Diving, Consitency. Iffland increased her record-breaking winning streak at the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series by taking her 11th straight win, this time at the meet in Ireland. Further, she achieved a rare ‘perfect dive’, receiving five scores of ’10’, breaking the record for the highest scored dive. She won every event since 2018. Meanwhile, Gary Hunt (FRA) extended his record for most Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series wins to 41 after winning in Ireland with excellent dives, including triple tens both days.
  • World Cup for Scotland. Scotland won the PDC World Cup of Darts by beating Austria 3-1 in the Final. This turned out to be an emotional partnership. Peter Wright won two years ago with Gary Anderson and now helped John Henderson have the greatest moment of his sporting career.