Ten things to know from last week. April 5-11, 2022: Golf's Master, tragic Grand National, Short Track Worlds...
| Five things to know from last week |
- The Master. Scottie Scheffler (USA) made it clear that he is the best golfer in the world at the moment. A few weeks after winning the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and taking the #1 spot in the World Ranking, he now won the Masters tournament in a dominant fashion: Finishing -10, three strokes ahead of Rory McIlroy (IRL). Only even players finished under par. Tiger Woods (USA) returned to official competition and finished T47.
- Forza! Scuderia Ferrari continued their great start of season in F1 with a very dominant win by Charles Leclerc (MCO) at the Australian Grand Prix. Rivals Red Bull picked up a second place with Sergio Pérez (MEX), while Max Verstappen (NED) retired with a mechanical problem for a second time in three races. George Russell (ENG) scored his first point with Mercedes. In Italy, the Rome ePrix saw a double win by Mitch Evans (NZL, Jaguar). Jean-Éric Vergne (FRA, DS Techeetah) leads the Championship after a 4th and 2nd places. In IndyCar, Josef Newgarden (USA, Penske) won for a second time in a row, by taking the Grand Prix of Long Beach. Colton Herta (USA, Andretti) looked dominant throughout the week but made a mistake and ended in the wall.
- Tragic Grand National. Four horses died during the Grand National’s Festival, including two during the main race: Discorama (FRA) and Eclair Surf (FRA). The other deaths were Solwara One (IRL) and Elle Est Belle (ENG), who died from a suspected heart attack. The main race had 40 horses. It was won by the 50-1 longshot Noble Yeats (IRL), ridden by amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen (ENG).
- Combat sports. Alexander Volkanovski (AUS) beat Chan Sung Jung (KOR) with a fourth-round TKO to successfully defend his UFC Featherweight Title. He is now unbeaten since 2013. In boxing, Gennadiy Golovkin (KAZ) beat Ryota Murata (JPN) to unify the WBA Super and IBF Middleweight Titles. He has now won four times after losing to Saúl Álvarez (MEX). In Japan, Junto Nakatani (JPN) is now 23-0 after beating Ryota Yamauchi (JPN) in an 8-Round TKO to retain the WBO Flyweight Title.
- A new streak? 6-timesEnglish Billiards World Champion David Causier (ENG) saw a winning streak spanning back to 2019 broken last weekend at the Irish Open, when he was beaten by eventual winner, Rob Hall (ENG). This time he successfully defended his Macau Casino World Matchplay Championship beating 8-3 Sourav Kothari (IND) in the Final.
- Fourth in a row. The current Swedish Men’s Curling team is consolidating itself as the most successful of all time, as Niklas Edin, Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wranå, and Christoffer Sundgren won an unprecedented fourth World Title in a row, some weeks after becoming Olympic Champions. Daniel Magnusson won his third title. Sweden beat Canada 6-8 in the Final, while Italy beat the USA for the bronze.
- Mochy couldn¡t. The Japanese Backgammon coudln’t win the WBGF World Team Championship against the local team, Italy, in Venice. They won all of their first 8 matches, which is very difficult due to the nature of the game, before losing to Italy.
- Almost perfect. Choi Min-jeong won her fourth overall Short Track Speed Skating World Title after winning the Women’s 1000m, 1500m, 3000m, and 3000m Relay competitions -beating Canada and the Netherlands on the line-, just leaving the 500m available for Xandra Velzeboer (NED) to win. She is now third of all-time among women’s Overall World Titles and World Titles won. Shaoang Liu (HUN) also had an impressive Championship, by winning the Men’s Overall after taking the 500m, 1000m, and 1500m competitions. South Korea took the 3000m Relay.
- Not Exell. The news in the FEI Driving World Cup Final was that 8 times World Champion Boyd Exell (AUS) and team did not win this time, as Bram Chardon (NED) won in a drive off in Lepzig against Exell and Glen Geerts (BEL), and their respective teams. Jessica von Bredow-Werndl (DEU) won the Dressage final, Martin Fuchs (CHE) in Jumping, Manon Moutinho -with Corinne Bosshard as a support- (FRA) the Vaulting Women’s, Lorenzo Lupacchini -with Laura Carnabuci as a support- (ITA) the Men’s, and Janika Derks, Johannes Kay and Nina Vorberg (DEU) the Pas de Deux Vaulting Final.
- Third time Adelaide. The Adelaide Women’s Aussie Rules Football team won their third AFL Women’s title, after winning the editions in the inaugural 2017 season, and 2019. No other team has won more than once. They beat Melbourne 29-16 in the Final.
