Great Britain’s Patrick Dever came an impressive fourth on his marathon debut in the men’s race in New York as Benson Kipruto beat Alexander Mutiso in a dramatic photo finish to claim victory.
Preston Harrier Dever, who finished in a time of two hours eight minutes and 58 seconds, was part of a four-man group before Kipruto and Mutiso broke clear in the latter stages.
Mutiso nearly overtook his fellow Kenyan on the line but Kipruto held him off to win as both were given a time of 2:08.09. Their compatriot Albert Korir was third in 2:08.57.
Hellen Obiri set a course record to win the women’s race in New York as the 35-year-old Kenyan claimed victory in 2:19.51.
The previous record of 2:22.31 had been set by Margaret Okaya in 2003.
Sharon Lokedi was second in 2:20.07 and fellow Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui was third in 2:20.24, while Great Britain’s Jessica Warner-Judd was seventh on her debut over the distance in 2:24.45.
Great Britain’s David Weir came second (1:34.09) behind Switzerland’s Marcel Hug (1:30.16) in the men’s wheelchair race.
Briton Eden Rainbow-Cooper (1:59.30) was seventh in the women’s wheelchair race, which was won by American Susannah Scaroni (1:42.10).
Billups and Miami Heat player Terry Rozier were among those arrested Thursday for what federal law enforcement officials described as their involvement in illicit gambling activities. Billups was charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games.
The NBA placed Billups and Rozier on leave following their arrests. Assistant coach Tiago Splitter is serving as Portland’s interim head coach.
Down 60-55 at the half, the Clippers outscored Portland 32-22 in the third quarter to take an 87-82 lead. Leonard, James Harden and Ivica Zubac each had nine points in the period.
Zubac finished with 21 points and eight rebounds. Harden had 20 points and 13 assists — along with seven turnovers. John Collins scored 16 points.
The Clippers improved to 2-1, following an opening loss at Utah and home victory over Phoenix. The Clippers are 19-2 against Portland since the start of the 2019-20 season.
Deni Avdija led the Trail Blazers with 23 points. Jrue Holiday had 21, Shaedon Sharpe 19 and Jerami Grant 17.
Portland played its first road game of the season. It opened with a loss to Minnesota under Billups, then beat Golden State.
Nathan Aspinall threw two nine-dart finishes during the Players Championship 31 only to be blown away in the final – as Luke Littler suffered an early exit.
Aspinall, 34, produced perfect darts in a 6-4 victory over Irishman Steve Lennon in the second round, then repeated the feat in a 6-5 win over Germany’s Lukas Wenig in the last 16.
Englishman Aspinall had taken a 2-0 lead against Jermaine Wattimena of the Netherlands in the final in Wigan.
However, Wattimena reeled off eight legs on the bounce to clinically see off Aspinall and seal his second ranking title of the season.
The 18-year-old world champion is currently 67th in the Players Championship standings, external and has three events to secure his place in the top 64 to qualify for the finals.
Michael van Gerwen is also in danger of not qualifying after he was knocked out at the same stage with a 6-4 loss to Dom Taylor.
The Dutchman is 92nd in table and must now make the final in the Players Championship 32 on Wednesday to secure his spot because he is skipping the final two events because of a pre-booked holiday.
There are 34 Players Championship events across the year, with the competition’s finals held in Minehead from 21-23 November.
Labour’s China spy trial explanation is total rubbish slams former security minister Tom Tugendhat
It didn’t bother explaining why — one minute the trial was on, the next it was dead meat.
Industrial secrets
It now transpires that the CPS took advice from British government officials.
It is entirely possible that the UK’s National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, a good mate of Keir, was one of the officials involved.
Shortly after their meeting with the CPS, the decision was taken to drop the case.
Why? They apparently told the CPS China couldn’t be called a “threat” to the UK.
Instead, it was just a “geo-political challenge”.
And so the charges against Cash and Berry wouldn’t stick.
In a previous spying case it was decided that charges were relevant only if it involved “a country which represents, at the time of the offence, a threat to the national security of the UK”.
Have you ever heard anything more ridiculous?
If China isn’t a threat to the UK, then who is?
The head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, has reported that the Chinese have tried to entice 20,000 Brits to act as spies for them, against our interests.
Did nobody think to ask Sir Ken if he thought China was a threat? I suspect I know the answer that would have been forthcoming
He also claimed that 10,000 UK businesses were at threat from the Chinese trying to nick industrial secrets.
In addition, he said that MI5 had 2,000 current investigations into Chinese spying activity — and that a new case was opened on the Chinese — behaving very deviously indeed — every 12 hours.
Did nobody think to ask Sir Ken if he thought China was a threat?
I suspect I know the answer that would have been forthcoming.
Of course the country is a threat.
It is menacing other nations down in South East Asia.
It has a whole bunch of nukes pointed directly at the West.
It arrests dissidents who want western-style freedoms.
And it does everything it can to undermine the UK’s politics and industry.
Truth be told, anybody who is working secretly for a foreign country in the UK is a threat to this country.
This seems to me so obvious that it should not need stating.
If their secret outside income involves a vast load of Yuan, some fortune cookies and cans of bubble tea, then we should investigate very seriously.
The truth in this particular case, though, is particularly damning.
It seems almost certain that Whitehall officials intervened at the behest of the Government.
And that they did this so as not to p**s off the Chinese — because aside from being a threat to the UK, which China certainly is, we are going cap in hand begging for investment from them.
Other nations don’t have a problem with employing a dual approach.
Make no mistake, we may need to do business with the likes of China, much as we did once with Russia — but they ARE the enemy
They understand that while they all need to do trade with horrible totalitarian countries such as China, they also need to count their spoons, if you get my meaning — and at the slightest sign of devious behaviour, call them out.
The Chinese understand this too.
Yes, being caught with a bunch of spies in our Parliament may be embarrassing for a short while.
But it won’t be allowed to get in the way of China making more money.
It seems that our government was too frit to risk it.
Too scared that the Chinese might react nastily and pull investment.
Or decide not to invest in the future. We mustn’t offend the Chinese.
Strategies like this simply do not work — and the Chinese, just like their big mates the Russians, will continue to spy on our institutions and do everything they can to harm our state.
Enemy is laughing
Make no mistake, we may need to do business with the likes of China, much as we did once with Russia — but they ARE the enemy.
And currently an enemy that is laughing its head off.
The government officials involved will be coming before the House of Commons Joint Committee on National Security Strategy.
If it is discovered that Jonathan Powell did warn off the CPS from pursuing the cases against Cash and Berry, then Powell should resign or be sacked.
Unless, of course, Powell was simply doing the bidding of the Prime Minister or the then Foreign Secretary, the intellectual colossus who is David Lammy.
If that’s the case then THEY should resign.
One way or another, we cannot allow Chinese spies to run amok in this country of ours just because we want to trouser some more wonga down the line, through Chinese investment.
This is a truly important week for Starmer.
The Chinese spygate scandal is the most serious he has faced since taking office last July.
It could yet be the finish of the man.
Which won’t make me lose a terrific amount of sleep, I have to tell you.
THE Man Who Never Sweats is probably feeling a bit moist under the armpits right now.
It has been discovered that Prince Andrew was still sending chummy texts to disgraced paedo Jeffrey Epstein long after the royal said he was.
Andrew is alleged to have messaged him to say: “We are in this together.”
This happened 12 weeks after the point at which Andrew claimed, in that BBC interview, to have cut off all contact with the odious slimeball.
It’s high time King Charles took action and kicked Andrew out of his Royal Lodge home in Windsor Great Park.
Wightman has endured a long road to return to the position of fighting for the sport’s biggest prizes since his crowning moment three years ago.
But he has always maintained his belief that he would get there.
Wightman was accepting that the injury which kept him out of Budapest two years ago was a consequence of the demands of winning world, European and Commonwealth medals in an intense 33-day period in 2022.
But his hopes of returning to the global stage at last summer’s Olympics were cruelly ended by a hamstring tear just one week out.
By that point, he had already been wearing the team’s kit at their final training camp in St Moritz.
He sought a refresh this year, making the difficult decision to end his coaching partnership with father Geoff, who was commentating inside the stadium when Wightman outlasted Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win gold in Eugene.
In what has been a year of significant change away from the track, Wightman began working with his partner Georgie’s father, John Hartigan, and relocated to Manchester to be closer to his physiotherapist.
The only major change in terms of his training, he says, has been to respect his body more.
“Honestly, it has been a very, very bleak couple of years for me. A lot of times I doubted if could make it back to this level,” Wightman said.
“I have made some huge changes in my life this year. Moving to Manchester, getting a new coach, and I hoped they were for the best and hope that the big stage is here, I stepped up.
“I want to thank my coaching team and my Dad for getting me to this point in the first place. He did all the hard work bringing me to this level.
“It will take a while to process this. I’m a big believer that you get what you put in at some point. I’m just very, very happy that all the persistence has been worth it.
“I felt like I had another gear through the rounds. I did not know what would happen but I nearly got there.
“For me this is a gold. Just getting on the start line is a gold.”
