Ten things to know from last week. August 2-8, 2022 included: Griner sentenced, Dixon beats Andretti, CrossFit legends.
Ten things to know from last week
  1. First major. Ashleigh Buhai (ZAF) became the first woman to win a major at Muirfield, Scotland -which only started to allow female membership in 2019-, by winning the AIG Women’s British Open after four playoff holes over three-time major winner In Gee Chun (KOR). In the US, Kim Joo-hyung (KOR, 20) won the Wyndham Championship and became the the second youngest winner on the PGA Tour since 1932.
  2. Griner sentenced. Brittney Griner (USA), a two-times Olympic gold medalist and four-times Women’s EuroLeague Champion with Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg was sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison after last February she entered the country with medicinal cannabis oil, which she had been legally prescribed in the US. She was coming back to Russia to play with UMMC Ekaterinburg.
  3. Esports Champions. Some esports games held their most important tournaments of the year. In the Call of Duty League Championship, The Los Angeles Thieves dethroned the Atlanta FaZe 5-2. They had an inconsistent season but won the New York Major and performed their best in the most important stage. Fighting games held their first Evolution Championship Series since the onset of the pandemic. Notably, Dominique “SonicFox” McLean (USA) won their sixth ECS title, by now winning in their 5th game, Skullgirls. Jae-Min “Knee” Bae (KOR) won Tekken 7, a third Championship, and Chia-Chen “ZJZ” Tseng (TWN) won their second EVO, in The King of Fighters XV. The rest were new winners. Smash Bros was not featured.
  4. Horses. The FEI Equestrian World Championships have already given out gold medals in Dressage and Vaulting. Lambert LeClézio (FRA) won his fifth World Championship in Men’s Vaulting, which included a World Record performance. Manon Moutinho (FRA) won the women’s division. Germany’s Norka des VV Koeln-Duenwald won the vaulting Squad competition. In Dressage, the local Danish team prevented further German domination by taking the Team gold, ahead of Great Britain -which included Individual special dressage gold medalist, Charlotte Fry (ENG), and Germany indeed. In racing, Cool Papa Bell (USA) scored the biggest upset in the Hambletonian trot race history, with a 52-1 win, driven by Todd McCarthy (AUS).
  5. Motorsport. Scott Dixon (NZL) won a chaotic IndyCar race in Nashville to surpass Mario Andretti (USA) in the all-time race win list with a 53rd. He finished ahead of Scott McLaughlin (NZL, Penske) and Álex Palou (ESP, Ganassi), who is in a contract dispute with his team for next year. The biggest loser was Patricio O’Ward (MEX), McLaren), who has dropped to 7th in the standings after he had to slow down for traffic and was punted from behind by Graham Rahal (USA) – his Championship aspirations might be gone. The circuit also held two Stadium Super Truck races, one of which was won by 14-year-old Max Gordon (USA, son of Robby). In Europe, Chrsitian Merli (ITA) broke the track record at the Onsnabrücker Bregrennen to secure another FIA International Hill-Climb Cup. In motos, With one test to go, Andrea Verona (ITA) has secured the Enduro1 World Championship after finishing 2nd at the EnduroGP in Hungary, won by Josep García (ESP). The Endurance World Championship held its Suzuka 8 Hour race, won by the Honda trio of Íker Lecuona (ESP), Tetsuta Nagashima, and Takumi Takahashi (JPN). The event was marred by accident during practice that has Gino Rea (ENG) in coma. In MotoGP, Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (ITA; Ducati) won the British Grand Prix ahead of Maverick Viñales (ESP, Aprilia).
  6. CrossFit legends. Rich Froning Jr. (USA) became the first person to win 10 times at the CrossFit Games, by winning for the record sixth time in the Team division, out of the last seven Games. He previously won four Men’s Individual titles, meaning he has won in 10 of the last 11 CrossFit Games. Rich Froning Jr., Andrea Nisler, and Taylor Williamson (USA) repeated from last year, and were joined by Samuel Cournoyer (CAN). Also impressive was Tia-Clair Toomey (AUS), who won the women’s division for a record sixth time, all in a row. Juston Medeiros (USA) won the Men’s division for the second year in a row.
  7. Ultracyclist. Christoph Strasser (AUT) became the first winner of the two most important Ultracycling competitions in the world, the Race Across America (which he has won six times) and the Transcontinental Race in Europe, which he won this week. He completed the race in 9 Days, 14 Hours, seven hours ahead of Krystian Jakubek (POL). Fiona Kolbinger (DEU) was the first woman finisher.
  8. Canoe Sprint. Emma Wiggs (ENG) increased her legacy as the most successful para-canoer of all time by winning her 10th World Championship gold medal, and her fourth consecutive in the Women’s VL2 division, which she also won in Tokyo 2020. Also impressive was Charlotte Henshaw (ENG), who scored two gold medals and now has 7 in total. Lisa Carrington (NZL) reached 12 gold medals at the World Championships by taking gold in the women’s K–1 200 m and K–1 500 m. Sebastian Brendel (DEU) reached 13 world titles by winning the C–2 1000 m alongside Tim Hecker.
  9. Unicon. The World Unicycle Convention is held every four years to consecrate the World Champions in unicycling. This year’s edition featured some great performances, notably the Pairs Freestyle winning routine by Mayuko Kogi and Anzu Hashimoto (JPN), inspired by their Japanese culture. It was almost perfect, except for a brief fall. The men’s basketball final was also one to remember between two French teams that exchanged the lead throughout. Eventually Woom Noir beat Cycl’as 50-48 .
  10. Home hero. Finn Iles (CAN) had an electric run to win of the return of the UCI Downhill World Cup to Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, after four years. He was very emotional on the win, as the race is also a tribute to Steve Smith (CAN), who died at 26 in a motorcycling accident in 2016.