Ramla Ali secured her first world title at the age of 36 after defeating Mikiah Kreps in a split-decision victory in Arlington, Texas.
The win is a crowning moment for the Briton, who fled a war-torn Somalia as a child before going on to become an Olympian, activist, author and now the WBO and IBF super-bantamweight champion.
With her biopic about her remarkable life just released, Ali fulfilled a dream long in the making and that seemed far away when she was swept aside by Yamileth Mercado in her first attempt two years ago.
An emotional Ali fell to her knees in tears as she was confirmed the winner with scorecards that read 97-92, 96-93 and 98-91 in her favour, dedicating the victory to her late father.
“When we were in the changing room, my coach said, because my dad passed away in May, ‘Do this for him’,” Ali said.
“That’s where those emotions came out at the end, because I did it for my dad.”
“I can’t put into words what this means to me and what this means to all of Somalia,” she added.
“I’ve hopefully inspired so many young girls and boys out there to dream big and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”
As Ali wept, there was devastation for Kreps who was convinced she had done enough to win the contest.
Alan Jones’ time at the very peak of F1 was short – essentially just under three years from mid-1979 to the end of 1981 – but he left a lasting impression.
Jones is synonymous with the Williams team, having become their first world champion in 1980, and he formed a close, almost brotherly bond with co-founders Frank Williams and Patrick Head.
Williams and Head loved Jones’ pugnacious, no-nonsense approach, and between them they were the leading force in F1 for a short time, as the team first emerged at the forefront of the sport.
Future Williams drivers, whoever they were, were almost always measured against Jones, and usually came up wanting in Williams’ and Head’s eyes.
After making his debut, it took a little while for Jones’ abilities to be appreciated. But victory for the unfancied Shadow team in the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix, beating Niki Lauda’s Ferrari fair and square, was an indicator of his potential.
Moving to Williams in 1978, the team showed well with their neat FW06 design, the first led by Head at the start of his iconic career.
But it was 1979 when Jones and Williams really turned it on. When the new FW07 car debuted mid-season, it and Jones soon became the standard setters.
Early reliability problems meant he was unable to challenge Ferrari drivers Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve for the title under the season’s bizarre split scoring system, but he won four of the final six races to set the tone for the following year.
In 1980, with the upgraded FW07B, Jones and Williams were the team to beat. Pushed hard to the title by Brabham’s Nelson Piquet, for whom Jones had little time, he won five of the 14 races and clinched the title with a race to spare.
He could and arguably should have won again in 1981, but a couple of retirements and some errors restricted his victory tally to the first and last grands prix.
A dominant victory on the unloved new circuit in the Caesars Palace car park in Las Vegas was overshadowed by team-mate Carlos Reutemann’s bizarre capitulation in the championship fight with Piquet.
After it, although at the height of his powers, Jones retired at the age of 34, to return to his beloved Australia.
He thought it was the right move, but he soon got the itch to return. A one-off outing for Arrows in 1983 was followed by a full-time comeback for the new US-based Haas team – no relation to the current one of the same name.
But the project was not a success. The car did not debut until the 12th race of 1985, and in 1986 was unreliable and slow, despite help from a then unknown Adrian Newey.
It collapsed at the end of the season, and Jones left F1 for good. He continued to race intermittently into his 50s, and also spent time as an F1 driver steward.
Kimi Antonelli has become Formula One’s youngest world champion at 20 years and 68 days old with his third-place finish for Mercedes at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
The first Italian champion since 1953 sobbed with joy over the team radio as he took the chequered flag at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won the red-flagged, restarted race for his second win of the season, but Antonelli’s overall lead reached an unassailable 119 points after finishing third.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton started from pole position and took a close second place – after clashing with teammate Charles Leclerc – on an afternoon of drama, with two safety cars, multiple crashes and an agonising 33-minute halt with 25 of the 71 laps remaining.
“Get in there, Kimi. Champion of the world,” said his race engineer Peter Bonnington, a regular target for the young driver’s practical jokes.
“We did it. Thank you so much,” gasped the Italian, whose parents and sister were there to embrace him when he stepped out of the car. He was then mobbed by his pit crew.
The previous youngest champion was Germany’s Sebastian Vettel, who took the first of his four with Red Bull at 23 years and 134 days old in 2010.
“I’m speechless. I’m trying to process what has just happened,” Antonelli said to the crowd.
“It’s been an incredible season, and to share this podium with Max and Lewis is truly incredible. And looking forward to some more battles in the future.
“This weekend, I did feel a bit more tense, but I’m just so happy that we got it done, and now we can enjoy the rest of the season,” he added, as he stood on the podium with an Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders, spraying the champagne with abandon.
The last Italian champion was Alberto Ascari, 73 years earlier.
“On the last lap, I just backed off, because I just couldn’t see the track. I was getting emotional,” Antonelli told a later news conference.
“So it was just good to bring it home.”
Kimi Antonelli celebrates with his father, Marco Antonelli, mother Veronica Pomaroo and sister, Maggie, after winning the world championship title [Yuri Cortez/AFP]
Verstappen second in drivers’ standings
Leclerc finished fourth, McLaren’s outgoing champion Lando Norris fifth, and Antonelli’s teammate George Russell only sixth in a race he had to win to have any chance of staying in contention.
That also meant that Verstappen went second in the overall standings, with Hamilton third and preseason favourite Russell plummeting to fourth, 130 points behind Antonelli.
Mercedes have 630 points in the constructors’ standings to Ferrari’s 504 and could clinch that title in Brazil next weekend.
The race was stopped after a brief safety car deployment on lap 46 of 71 after Valtteri Bottas suffered a high-speed front-left suspension failure down the straight, with his Cadillac pitching uncontrollably into the barriers at turn one.
Bottas received medical attention in the car, but then walked to an ambulance, giving a thumbs-up, as the rest of the field returned to the pits. He went to the medical centre and was released.
Verstappen led from the restart, challenged by Hamilton, with Antonelli passing Leclerc. There was then another safety car when Lindblad and Piastri collided, with the field released to race again with nine laps to the chequered flag.
‘Pushed out by my own teammate’
Hamilton had led away from the original pole position for the 105th time in his career, but the first for Ferrari at a full Grand Prix, with Leclerc slotting in behind from third on the grid.
The British driver held him off as they went side by side through the opening corners, but Leclerc cut turn four and went across the grass as they battled for the lead, with Verstappen then taking second from Hamilton as the Ferrari looped wide.
“Pushed out by my own teammate,” Hamilton said over the radio.
The stewards handed Leclerc a five-second penalty, but that did little for Hamilton, who remained behind his teammate after their respective stops on laps 28 and 29, with the Monegasque taking his penalty.
Russell, who had lined up on the front row, made a poor start and dropped to fifth. He also collided with Hadjar, punting the Red Bull off, and the stewards handed him a 10-second penalty.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen holds the trophy on the podium next to second-placed Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and third-placed Mercedes’s Kimi Antonelli at the Mexico City Formula One Grand Prix [Yuri Cortez/AFP]
While Sherrock was celebrating, Ireland’s ‘Fierce’ Pearse Mackle, a 21-year-old university student from County Cavan, was left wondering what could have been.
Mackle, who competes on PDC’s Development Tour, was the eighth competitor and failed to hit a match-winning bullseye, instead finding the nine, and his life-changing moment came and went.
He was the only other player, apart from Sherrock, to cause Littler a fright.
For most of the night, Littler cruised through the competition as he went in search of the £501,000, which he had said he would donate to charity.
With former England footballer Gary Lineker hosting and with comedian Lee Mack and television presenter Richard Osman joining Turner as part of the punditry team, this was a night to bring darts to a new audience.
The first challenger was 16-year-old Kasey Smith from Manchester, but Littler showed he was in no mood to mess about, hitting treble 20s against her with his first two darts on his way to an easy win.
Some of Littler’s opponents had never played a competitive game of darts, although everyone was keen to make the most of the experience.
With John McDonald, who retired as the main PDC master of ceremonies after the 2026 World Championship final, announcing the players before their elaborate walk-ons, this was a fun event, although most players came nowhere near beating Littler.
But there were still entertaining moments. Fourteen-year-old Jayden Walker, a year 10 pupil from Dorset, threw off a school blazer and tie to reveal his darts outfit and, as the third-highest ranked player, threatened to cause a huge shock.
But Littler raised his game when he needed to, hitting a maximum 180 followed by a 158 checkout, the highest of the night, to defeat his fellow teenager in only 12 darts.
Taylon Forrester, 18, described himself as a “binman who works with his dad” and he jumped out of a dumpster on his way to the oche.
Other entrants included Zac Spain, a jockey from Melbourne, Australia, Frenchman Theodore Wallich, who dubbed himself the ‘Moustache Kid’, 57-year-old Mark Pooke, another 14-year-old in Makinley Cooper-Johnson and Will Kemp, back playing after a heart attack earlier this year.
But Sherrock, whose participation in the competition had been questioned because of her past achievements in the sport, was the real winner, even if she had been described by Lineker as a “hairdresser from Milton Keynes”.
With Littler on stage for more than two hours, he inevitably tired with his standard dropping and Sherrock was the one to take advantage, winning in a 15-dart leg in match number 15.
Hearn reappeared to present Sherrock with a huge cheque for her life-changing victory to end a surreal night of action.
Great Britain’s Jody Cundy’s 20-year reign as para cycling’s C4 kilo time trial world champion was ended by Australian Korey Boddington at the para cycling track world championships in the Netherlands.
Cundy, 48, won the world title in 2006 and had managed to hold onto his rainbow jersey in the 15 world championships since.
But battling for his 17th title in the C4 kilo discipline, Cundy had to settle for silver after finishing his kilometre in one minute and 4.93 seconds, a time which Boddington beat by 2.25 seconds on the final run.
Cundy is a nine-time Paralympic champion – with three of his medals coming in para swimming between 1996 and 2000.
Elsewhere on day one of the championships, Great Britain’s Rebecca Newark took gold in the women’s C5 kilo time trial.
In the women’s B kilo time trial, Britain’s Sophie Unwin and pilot Jenny Holl won silver and Elizabeth Jordan and pilot Anna Whitworth Hay claimed bronze.
Great Britain’s Finlay Graham also took bronze in the men’s C3 sprint final.
Former Open Championship winner Louis Oosthuizen has become the latest high-profile player to quit LIV Golf, describing it as the “hardest decision he has had to make in his career”.
The league filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States in September after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund withdrew its multibillion-dollar backing.
Oosthuizen, 44, joined LIV Golf in 2022 and was captain of the Southern Guards GC team.
The South African now plans to return to the DP World Tour in 2027.
“Five years ago, I made one of the best decisions of my life, moving away from the traditional golf world and into something very special with LIV Golf and Southern Guards GC,” Oosthuizen posted on social media.
“I’m the biggest supporter of team golf and always will be. Golf needs more of it.
“This is probably the hardest decision I’ve had to make in my career, but I have to do what I believe is right for my golf.”
The 2010 Open champion, who has finished as a runner-up at least once in each of the other three majors, said a more flexible playing schedule will help him to compete at a high level.
“I realised I have a lot more in me, and my biggest fear was that the schedule on LIV 2.0 would be tough to manage,” said former world number four Oosthuizen.
“I feel I have a few more years of good, competitive golf left in me, and the only way to be really sharp and competitive is through a schedule I control.”
Oosthuizen joins Thomas Pieters, Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, David Puig and Adrian Meronk in announcing his departure.
Some former LIV Golf players, including Brooks Koepka, have since rejoined the PGA Tour, which rewrote its rules in December to allow the five-time major winner to return, subject to certain sanctions.
Guy Kinnings, CEO of the DP World Tour, told BBC Sport earlier this month that players who continue with LIV will not be allowed to be members of the European tour next season.
Six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek has called an early finish to what she described as “one of the most challenging” seasons of her career.
Poland’s Swiatek failed to qualify for the end-of-season WTA Finals – for the first time since 2019 – after pulling out of the Ningbo Open on Tuesday with a thigh injury.
Shortly afterwards, the 25-year-old announced she was bringing a largely barren season to a close, in order to recharge over a longer period of time before returning in 2027.
Former long-time world number one Swiatek – who has ended a season without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2021 – has dropped to ninth in the rankings.
“The past few months, or actually the past couple of years, have been incredibly intense,” said Swiatek, who will have an opportunity to complete the career Grand Slam at the Australian Open in January.
“I feel I need to rest and recover my body fully, so that’s exactly what I will do – [for] a bit longer this time.”
Her most recent Grand Slam triumph came at Wimbledon last year.
Swiatek has managed one WTA title this season – the Canadian Open in August – and ends 2026 with a 42-16 win-loss record.
On Saturday, she lost to fellow Pole Maja Chwalinska in the Wuhan Open semi-finals, only her fourth defeat in 23 matches.
“I’m especially proud of the work we’ve done in the second half of the year and the progress that came with it,” said Swiatek, who needed treatment on her thigh but played on against Chwalinska.
“It gives me a lot of confidence in what’s ahead.”
The school visit was followed by the event in Dolgellau’s Eldon Square, where crowds had gathered despite the persistent rain.
Most of the supporters were local, but some had travelled significant distances to be at the event.
When Elfyn Evans spoke from the podium, he thanked his family for supporting him throughout his career, saying his grandfather had “taught me to drive probably far too early”.
Wyn Williams from Llanrwst and Neil Pringle from Betws-y-Coed were in Sardinia when Evans clinched the championship.
Williams said the celebration was “the icing on the cake after being in Sardinia”.
Pringle added that the evening was “fantastic” and that the first minister’s presence “shows what this means to Wales”.
“This is for Elfyn, his family and the country.”
Heledd Edwards travelled from Talerddig to Dolgellau and described Elfyn’s perseverance as an inspiration.
Several members of Elfyn’s family were also in the crowd. His aunt, Lowri Edwards, had travelled from Glan Conwy, saying she was immensely proud to have a world champion in the family.
“We’re absolutely thrilled, to be honest. He’s come so close and been terribly unlucky, finishing second five times – we’re absolutely thrilled.”
Dolgellau Town Council helped organise the celebration, with Deputy Mayor Nia Wyn Evans, saying: “We are absolutely thrilled and delighted to be able to welcome Elfyn back as a world champion; there’s a real buzz in the town.”
