An itchy trigger finger might win you plenty of Yellow Coins or Hylian Rupees, but in the real world if you want some of that cold hard cash, better to hold off with all of those video games. Sealed copies of old cartridge classics are earning record sums at auction.
Retro video games are graded on the Wata scale, with experts evaluating the condition of their packaging and contents. The copy of The Legend of Zelda received a rating of 9.0 A, indicating a seal of above average condition, perhaps with light signs of scuffing. The value of this particular cartridge however lay in its rarity, as part of an early production run when the game was released to American and European audiences in 1987.
The first game in the iconic action adventure series, set in the fantasy land of Hyrule and starring the elfin protagonist Link, eventually The Legend of Zelda would sell over 6.5 million copies. Alongside Super Mario Bros., the original Zelda proved pivotal to the success of the Nintendo Entertainment System.
According to Heritage Auctions, who handled both sales, the rare copy of The Legend of Zelda was ‘the earliest sealed copy one could realistically hope to obtain’. In an effusive listing, the Dallas-based auction house called the ‘No Rev-A’ cartridge ‘the apotheosis of rarity, cultural significance, and collection centerpieces’. In short, for hardened video game collectors, this version of Zelda was a holy grail.
By contrast the record-setting copy of Super Mario 64 was graded 9.8 A++ by the experts at Wata, indicating near perfect condition. But the game itself, which saw Mario transition to three dimensions from its roots as a side-scrolling platformer, is not especially rare as many sealed copies date back to the time of its release in 1996.
Super Mario 64 was a groundbreaking game for Nintendo, and a benchmark in early 3D video gaming featuring a dynamic camera system and full 360-degree analogue control. Still as the first video game cartridge to sell for more than one million dollars, the extraordinary price jump has been met with some scepticism by long-time auction watchers and video game experts.
Anything you can do, I can do better has been the ethos at the start of the outdoor athletics season. With the Tokyo Olympics fast approaching, the stars who were left spinning their wheels last summer have rolled out of the starting blocks to set a host of historic times on the track.
Her efforts over the longer distance opened up the 5000 metres, with Gudaf Tsegay scoring the fifth-fastest time in history ahead of Ejgayehu Taye and Senbere Teferi, who placed sixth and seventh on the all-time list. For the first time three women in the same race had gone under 14 minutes and 20 seconds. But while the likes of Joshua Cheptegei, Beatrice Chepkoech, Gidey, Tsegay, and Hassan vie for record times in the long distance disciplines, star athletes are also breaking boundaries in the sprints.
As the highly competitive American trials reached a climax, at the end of another day of lung-sapping Oregonian heat, the 21-year-old Sydney McLaughlin set a new world record in the 400 metre hurdles. Already one of the faces of athletics, McLaughlin kicked past the reigning world record holder Dalilah Muhammad in the straight to become the first woman to complete the race in under 52 seconds, finishing in a time of 51.90.
The weekend saw record temperatures and race postponements in the athletics bastion of Eugene, with the heat reaching a staggering high of 43 degrees Celsius. A day earlier on the track, Grant Holloway and Rai Benjamin had come within whiskers of world records in the 110 metre hurdles and 400 metre hurdles, with Gabby Thomas in the 200 metres also winding up second on the all-time list. Winning her trial in a time of 21.61, Thomas surpassed the likes of Marion Jones, Dafne Schippers, and Merlene Ottey in the history books, though she remains some way short of the apparently insurmountable record set by Florence Griffith-Joyner back in 1988.
The 400 metre hurdles is having a moment in the sun. Not to be outdone, in Oslo at the Bislett Games on Thursday night, the home favourite Karsten Warholm finally grabbed that elusive world record with a time of 46.70 over the distance, bettering the mark of 46.78 set by Kevin Young all the way back in 1992. Warholm and Rai Benjamin have been locked in battle over the record ever since both men broke 47 seconds in 2019. Speaking prior to the race in Oslo, Warholm had said:
‘Your competitors are what really push you towards bigger things. If it was only me running quick times, I wouldn’t need to push it any further, but with people there running fast times, I need to take a step up as well.’
At the Diamond League meet in Oslo, the Svein Arne Hansen Dream Mile stood as a fitting prelude to Warholm’s hurdle heroics. In the penultimate event on the track, Stewart McSweyn of Australia established a new area record, pressing ahead of Marcin Lewandowski who still managed a Polish record in second place.
Over 3000 metres, Yomif Kejelcha stretched the field almost to breaking point. Kejelcha – who trains alongside Sifan Hassan in the United States – led from the front to register a world-leading time of 7:26.25, enough to place the Ethiopian athlete seventh on the all-time list. In the end his hard work paid off for the rest of the field, as the first eight competitors all came away with new personal bests.
It was a similar story over 5000 metres, as the reigning world champion Hellen Obiri held off a stern challenge from Fantu Worku to head a slew of fast times and personal bests. Eilish McColgan managed to stick with the leading pack of Obiri, Worku, and Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, with her reward a new British record as the Scot bettered a mark set by Paula Radcliffe.
Many of the athletes who competed in Oslo made the short trip over to Stockholm, where the Diamond League season continued on Sunday afternoon. In the field Armand Duplantis set back-to-back meeting records, with vaults of 6.01 in Oslo then 6.02 in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. Sam Kendricks and Renaud Lavillenie finished in second and third on both occasions, their vaults of 5.92 in Stockholm serving as new season’s bests.
Daniel Ståhl, the other giant of Swedish athletics, dominated in the discus with one quirk. Despite throwing almost two metres further than Kristjan Čeh over the first five rounds in Oslo, in the winner-takes-all sixth round both men could only muster a fairly mediocre 65.72. After some confusion, Ståhl was awarded the victory based on his earlier throws.
Malaika Mihambo fell victim to the new sixth round format in Stockholm, after Oslo saw the rangy German long jumper ease to success. Instead in Stockholm it was Ivana Španović who came out ahead, as Mihambo’s jump of 7.02 in the third round counted for naught come the climax, which the tough Serbian competitor won with a season’s best of 6.88.
Grizzled veterans and aspiring youngsters alike were also rounding into form on the track. The 21-year-old Dutch star Femke Bol was first up in Oslo, and set a new national record in the 400 metre hurdles with a time of 53.33. Bol however is improving with every meet, and her Olympic prospects looked rosier still following her race in Stockholm on Sunday, where she held off the challenge from Shamier Little to smash her own national record in a time of 52.37. The run wedges Bol neatly between Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad, in second place on the world list.
The ever-present Ivorian sprinter Marie-Josée Ta Lou, now 32 years old, showed that she too will remain in medal contention come the Tokyo Olympics. In Oslo she came through over 100 metres with a winning time of 10.91, and in the 200 metres in Stockholm she recorded another season’s best even as she narrowly lost out to Shericka Jackson.
If Gabby Thomas appears to have the edge in the 200 metres following her historic time in Oregon, she will face stern competition from the Jamaican trio of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who looked impressive as they competed in their closely contested national trials.
The result was the same over 100 metres and 200 metres in Kingston, with Fraser-Pryce holding off Jackson while Thompson-Herah finished third. Jackson ran a personal best of 10.77 in the semi-finals of the 100 metres, and backed that up with a personal best of 21.82 in the final of the 200 metres, but her stellar form still wasn’t enough. Fraser-Pryce secured an expected victory over 100 metres, sprinting home in a time of 10.71. But it was in the 200 metres that the diminutive Jamaican truly excelled, knocking a whopping 0.30 off her previous best to win the race in a time of 21.79. Fraser-Pryce said:
‘I never ever doubted myself because everything has to do with time and being patient. I’m just elated that I was finally able to break the 22 seconds.’
Over 200 metres, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson will vie for Olympic gold with Gabby Thomas, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, and Dina Asher-Smith. Thompson-Herah, a double sprint champion at the Rio Olympics in 2016, may find better prospects over 100 metres, where Jackson, Asher-Smith, and Ta Lou are strong medal shouts even as Fraser-Pryce heads to Tokyo as the firm favourite.
Richardson hinted at the impending announcement with a cryptic tweet on Thursday night which read ‘I am human’. On The Today Show on NBC on Friday morning, she apologised to her supporters while providing some of the context around her actions. Richardson explained that she had been informed of the death of her biological mother during the trials, describing a state of ’emotional panic’ and adding:
‘I was definitely triggered and blinded by emotions, blinded by badness, and hurting, and hiding hurt. I know I can’t hide myself, so in some type of way, I was trying to hide my pain.’
Athletics bans for marijuana consumption increasingly seem like an anachronism, and Richardson was no doubt stricken with grief. The bottom line for track and field however is that the Tokyo Olympics has lost one of its star names, while Richardson has denied herself of the opportunity to prove her talents outside the provincial backwaters of the United States.
While the women were excelling in the sprints, there was misfortune for Omar McLeod in Kingston. The reigning Olympic champion in the 110 metre hurdles suffered from cramp and clattered the barriers at the Jamaican trials, finishing last to miss out on the trip to Tokyo. Jamaican hopes in the event will rest instead on the shoulders of Ronald Levy.
In Oslo, the American Kate Grace ran a personal best over 800 metres, small solace perhaps after finishing seventh at the American trials, where Raevyn Rogers and Ajeé Wilson trailed the blistering 19-year-old Athing Mu. In Stockholm there was a return to winning ways for Timothy Cheruiyot over 1500 metres, while Rose Mary Almanza edged the 800 metres in a new meeting record and personal best.
Alison dos Santos kept his name in contention in the 400 metre hurdles, as the Brazilian athlete achieved a new area record with a time of 47.34. Yaroslava Mahuchikh managed a world leading height in the high jump, the Ukrainian soaring clear of 2.03 on her third attempt. Ronnie Baker, Kirani James, and Hyvin Kiyeng won their respective races out on track, while Tajay Gayle went deep into the sandpit with a leap of 8.55 in a wind-assisted long jump.
The qualification period for the Tokyo Olympics drew to a close this week, with competition scheduled to start on 31 July in the Japanese capital. In the meantime the top athletes will head to Hungary on Tuesday night for the star-studded Gyulai István Memorial, with Diamond League meets in Monaco and Gateshead serving as preludes to the Olympics.
Blue by Joni Mitchell found the artist at an emotional and creative crossroads, a rare instance of the truly, vividly, and sometimes keeningly personal culminating in renewed commercial success. The record stands at a midpoint between her early sixties-infused folk stylings, which often featured and sometimes figured Crosby, Stills & Nash, and the freeform jazz experiments which would eventually see her collaborate with the likes of Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, and Herbie Hancock.
Less ornate than Ladies of the Canyon, less austere than For the Roses, on Blue Joni Mitchell found her footing at some remove from the madding crowd. She had taken a break from performing and travelled across Europe, with Paris stirring up reflections on her adopted hometown of California, while in Crete and the Balearic Islands she contemplated her frictious relationships with James Taylor and Graham Nash.
Over intricately plucked Appalachian dulcimer and roiling piano, her voice already beginning to age like fine wine, sounding rich and full and deep, Mitchell relayed personal anecdotes covering her adventures among the cave-dwelling hippies of Matala, pored over her relationships with a prescient sense of absence and loss, and with one of her most cryptic yet intimate lyrics summoned the spirit of the daughter she had given up for adoption.
Critically acclaimed upon its release in the summer of 1971, today Blue is routinely listed among the greatest albums of all time. In 2000, The New York Times selected Blue as one of the 25 albums which represented ‘turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music’, and in 2017, Blue was chosen by National Public Radio as the greatest album ever recorded by a woman.
Years of slow and steady progression culminated in a breakthrough for the Tunisian at the Australian Open in 2020. Victories over Johanna Konta, Caroline Garcia, and Caroline Wozniacki in the Dane’s last match made Jabeur the first Arab woman to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam. She entered the top fifty of the WTA rankings, and has become one of the fixtures of the women’s tour.
After a fourth-round showing at the French Open, Jabeur entered the Birmingham Classic with her highest ranking to date at number 24 in the world. She had twice reached the final of WTA tournaments, losing out to Kasatkina in Moscow in 2018, then to Astra Sharma in Charleston earlier this year. In Moscow she had been a set and a break up before losing in three sets, but on Sunday in Birmingham she held her nerve. Jabeur said:
‘I knew I had to go for it, I had to win this title to at least breathe, and give an example. There’s not a lot of Tunisian or Arabic players playing, so I hope this could inspire them. I want to see more Arabic and Tunisians playing with me on tour.’
The women of the Birmingham Classic were shaking off the red clay from Roland Garros, and stepping out onto grass in preparation for Wimbledon. Jabeur was the only woman in the draw who made it to the second week in France, and was seeded second behind Elise Mertens. Instead it was a resurgent Kasatkina and qualifier CoCo Vandeweghe who came through in the top half of the draw, with Vandeweghe reaching her first singles semi-final in three years after being blighted by injury. Kasatkina emerged unscathed from their match, winning 6-2, 6-4 to progress to the final.
In the bottom half of the draw, Jabeur survived a scare up against the 18-year-old Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez, while third seed Donna Vekić fought back in three sets versus Camila Giorgi only to succumb to Heather Watson in the quarter-finals. An impressive showing from Watson, the local favourite, drew to a close in the semis as Jabeur prevailed 6-3, 6-3.
The Birmingham Classic skipped a year owing to the coronavirus pandemic. When the event was last held in 2019, the winner was Ash Barty, whose victory saw her ascend for the first time to number one in the world. This year Barty had hoped to compete at the German Open in Berlin, but injury forced her withdrawal before the start of the tournament.
In the second week of June, residents of Quehue District in Canas Province in Peru come together to repair Queshuachaca, the last remaining Inca rope bridge, which has spanned the Apurímac River for more than 500 years.
Cutting a swathe through gorges and canyons which reach depths of up to 3,000 metres, around 730 kilometres in length and dotted with rapids and falls, the Apurímac River stood between the Incas and the Pacific Coast. In the thirteenth century, the Incas began to construct suspension bridges over the Apurímac, with one famous example purportedly the inspiration for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Fey by Thornton Wilder, following an illustration by E. G. Squier.
Traditionally constructed from the ichu grass endemic to the region, today the restoration of Queshuachaca serves as a tribute to ancestors while breathing fresh life into old skills.The work lasts for three days and survives as a communal effort, from the cutting and twisting of straw and the preparation of mats for decking to the braiding and hanging of ropes. Most of the residents of Canas Province are indigenous people of Quechua descent.
Last year the repair of Queshuachaca was put on hold owing to the coronavirus pandemic, and in March the bridge collapsed. But this year the local Huinchiri, Chaupibanda, Choccayhua, and Ccollana Quehue communities have been back in action, putting old skills to good use. Groups of workers started from both sides of the 98-foot pass, balancing precariously on a main rope which stretched out 60 feet above the river rapids. Working in tandem they progressed gradually towards the middle, stringing together the handrail and padding out the walkway floor.
‘Last year because of the pandemic, it wasn’t strengthened. That is why at the beginning of this year the bridge fell. But now it is like an answer to the pandemic itself. From the depths of the Peruvian Andean identity, this bridge is strung up across the Apurímac basin and we can tell the world that we are coming out if this little by little.’
Canas Province lies in the southern highlands of Peru, in the Cusco region which was once the social and political heartland of the Inca Empire. The city of Cusco is a World Heritage Site which attracts millions of visitors each year, and intrepid travellers plus waifs and strays have increasingly been making their way to Queshuachaca.
Once these swaying rope bridges transported llama and chasqui runners, the agile young messengers of the Inca Empire, with construction a matter of obligation and tampering even punishable by death. Now the restoration of Queshuachaca is a local celebration and a spiritual endeavour, boosting tourism while the Quechua commune with the land and pay homage to the past.
The actor Ned Beatty died of natural causes on Sunday at the age of 83 years old. A prolific character actor who scarcely left an audience untouched over his four decades on screen, Beatty is best remembered for a series of films which continue to define American cultural life and the shifting cinematic landscape of the seventies. Between 1972 and 1976, he starred in Deliverance, Nashville, All the President’s Men, and Network which all received Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards.
Beatty featured in the cult disaster comedy The Big Bus, added to the dense paranoia as the hitman Kinney in Mikey and Nicky by Elaine May, then embraced one of his most popular roles as Otis in Superman, the bumbling henchman of the arch-villain Lex Luthor. He was directed by John Huston in Wise Blood, by Steven Spielberg in the war comedy 1941, and by Joel Schumacher as the director made his theatrical debut with The Incredible Shrinking Woman.
In the late eighties he played the corrupt police captain in the neo-noir thriller The Big Easy, and had bit-parts in a number of spoof comedies including the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle Back to School. In 1991 he played the Irish tenor Josef Locke in the charming comedy Hear My Song, and was nominated for a Golden Globe. He subsequently featured in the screwball homage Radioland Murders and in the sports dramas Rudy and He Got Game.
In the meantime Beatty had steadily built his resume on television. From the mid-seventies he appeared in episodes of M*A*S*H, Gunsmoke, and every crime drama or police procedural running, including Kojak, The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-O, and Murder, She Wrote. In 1979 he starred alongside Carol Burnett as a couple fighting for justice following the death of their son in Vietnam. Friendly Fire was watched on ABC by an audience of 64 million, and went on to win four Emmy Awards.
In 1985 he starred in the pilot of the rebooted anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and from 1989 he held the recurring role of Ed Conner in the hit sitcom Roseanne. Lead roles in the CBS projects Szysznyk and The Boys meanwhile petered out. Then between 1993 and 1995, Beatty made a major contribution to television as the gruff detective Stanley Bolander, one of the original leads in the gritty procedural Homicide: Life on the Street.
Ned Beatty returned to the role of Stanley Bolander for Homicide: The Movie in 2000. He reunited with Robert Altman as part of an ensemble cast in Cookie’s Fortune, starred opposite Liev Schreiber in the independent drama Spring Forward, and played the congressman Doc Long in the final film by Mike Nichols, the light biographical drama Charlie Wilson’s War.
In 2001, Beatty was back on stage under the guise of Big Daddy, in a West End revival of the Tennessee Williams play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. When the revival moved to Broadway in 2003, Beatty and Margo Martindale drew praise for their performances, with Beatty in the words of The New York Times managing to convey ‘the monstrous, exhilarated egotism of a man who believes he has outrun death’.
He returned to television in episodes of CSI and Law & Order. Among his final film roles, Beatty played opposite Woody Harrelson in the police scandal drama Rampart, and assumed the villainous voice behind the plush pink teddy bear Lotso in Toy Story 3. Beatty was married four times with eight children, and marked his retirement from acting in 2013.
Familiarity seemed to breed a certain strain of contempt at the French Open in 2021, as players swept aside the established norms even as spectators returned to the stands and Grand Slam tennis made a springtime comeback on the clay of Roland Garros.
The air of change was etched in stone prior to the start of the tournament, as for the first time in the modern history of Grand Slam tennis, world number one Novak Djokovic, world number three and thirteen-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, and world number eight Roger Federer found themselves in the same side of the draw.
When Dominic Thiem continued his run of poor form by losing in the first round to Pablo Andújar, the French Open was guaranteed a new finalist from the bottom half of the men’s draw. In the shock of the opening day at Roland Garros, the reigning US Open champion and two-time runner-up in France suffered his worst performance to date at the tournament, falling in four sets to the talented 35-year-old Spanish underdog.
Stefanos Tsitsipas faced no such trouble as he opened his campaign with a comfortable victory over Jérémy Chardy, while Alexander Zverev was forced to come back from two sets down versus Oscar Otte. In the women’s draw, Victoria Azarenka outlasted the 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, Petra Kvitová rallied in three to beat the Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen, and Madison Keys weathered a second-set storm up against French wild card Océane Dodin.
‘I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one. We’re often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.’
In typical fashion, Osaka was tentatively describing her own mental state while serving to highlight some of the longstanding concerns around media duties and sports journalism. Post-match press conferences can sometimes be tetchy affairs, with tennis players sometimes bemoaning the short turnaround times and repetitive lines of questioning.
At the same time journalists remain part of an ecosystem which allows tennis to thrive and prosper on the world stage. As social media becomes the site of breaking news and seems to foster closer engagement with athletes, the press still has a role to play in summarising and analysing the sport, at its best forging empathy and understanding even as perceived arbiters of meaning are increasingly scorned by the wider public.
Tact and tone is often lacking, particularly when the emotions are still raw and players shorn of confidence post-match. Yet as Osaka indicated, she has always maintained a warm relationship with the press, who eagerly covered her series of tributes to the victims of racial injustice at the US Open last September.
Osaka’s statement was itself a call for change and understanding, which chafed so close to the onset of a major tournament. The Grand Slams collectively seemed more eager to placate journalists and sponsors when they issued a strongly-worded response, outlining the fines and the eventual prospect of disqualification which Osaka would face if she continued to decline her contractual obligation to meet with the press.
The men’s draw was progressing more smoothly, with the plain sailing even extending to clay court antagonist Daniil Medvedev. In four appearances, the second seed had never stretched beyond the first round of the French Open, and earlier this season in Rome even pled for disqualification owing to his perennial dislike for clay. Now Medvedev seemed to be coming to terms with the red stuff, with Zverev and Tsitsipas also making light work of the bottom half of the draw, where they were joined at the quarter-final stage by the gallant Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
With some coronavirus measures still in place across France, the French Open this year cautiously welcomed back visitors. 5,000 fans were allowed on site until the second Wednesday of the tournament, when eased restrictions saw the number rise to 13,000. In turn Court Philippe Chatrier could host 1,000 spectators until France reached phase three of lockdown easing on 9 June, with the number climbing to 5,000 as the competition reached a climax.
A few years older than his Italian compatriots Sinner and Musetti, the ninth seed Berrettini sought to capitalise on the exertions Musetti had put Djokovic through in the fourth round. Meanwhile the withdrawal of Federer had provided Berrettini with a few days of rest mid-tournament. Urged on by a partisan crowd, Berrettini took the third set against Djokovic and made a bright start to the fourth, when a revised 11 pm curfew forced organisers to clear the stands. The players returned to court after a twenty-minute delay and Djokovic regained the upper hand, breaking in the fourth to secure the victory.
Krejčíková and Sakkari met in a semi-final that suffered growing pains before emerging as an ironclad epic. Krejčíková edged ahead at the end of an era-strewn opening set, with Sakkari piling up the unforced errors while the Czech struggled with her backhand down the line. Through gritted teeth, Sakkari came back in the second and had match point in the third, only for Krejčíková to prevail with the final score reading 7-5, 4-6, 9-7. An erroneous line call on match point in the end only postponed Krejčíková’s victory, while renewing the clamour for Hawk-Eye technology even on the shifting clay of Roland Garros.
All four competitors in the women’s draw were marking their debut in a Grand Slam semi-final. Of the four, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was by far the most experienced, having made the quarter-finals of a major six times previously. Her first Grand Slam quarter-final came at Roland Garros back in 2011. Ten years later she faced off in the semis against Tamara Zidanšek, and held her nerve to come through 7-5, 6-3.
In the battle of the Greek god and the teutonic German, it was Tsitsipas who took an early lead as he raced through the opening sets. Tsitsipas was a semi-finalist in France last year, mere weeks after Zverev finished runner-up at the US Open, with the emerging faces of the men’s game edging ever closer towards a Grand Slam title.
After winning seven straight games to take the second set, Tsitsipas allowed Zverev back into the match, and the German began to dominate on serve heading into the decider. Then the momentum shifted again, as Tsitsipas saved three break points in the first game of the fifth set, eventually taking five match points to cement the 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory.
The other men’s semi was the match everyone had been anticipating since the draw was announced. In seventeen appearances at Roland Garros, Rafa Nadal had only lost twice, showing an unprecedented level of dominance on his way to thirteen French Open titles. He faced the world number one Novak Djokovic, who defeated Rafa in the quarter-finals back in 2015 only to succumb to Stan Wawrinka in the final. Djokovic was therefore looking to add to his solitary success at the French, which came in 2016 versus Andy Murray.
Nadal got off to the best possible start as he went 5-0 up in the first set, but there were chinks of light for Djokovic before Nadal called a wrap at 6-3. Djokovic proceeded to wrest control of the match in stunning fashion. In one of the classic matches on clay and in this storied rivalry between two greats of the sport, Djokovic saved numerous break points in the second set then capitalised in the tiebreak at the end of the third, strolling away in the fourth set to claim a momentous 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 victory. While the match could have turned at points in the second and third set, on the cool evening clay Nadal’s groundstrokes struggled to penetrate the seamless defence of Djokovic.
A five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles competition, Barbora Krejčíková only entered the top 100 as a singles player following the French Open last year. In March she reached the final in Dubai, then at Strasbourg in May she won her first WTA singles title. Now in the final of the French Open she faced Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, one of the most consistent players of her generation, now also on the cusp of her first major singles glory.
The experience of both players told in what proved a cagey but never particularly anxious final. After sharing the first couple of sets, it was Krejčíková who crept ahead in the decisive third after Pavlyuchenkova sought treatment for a thigh injury. After squandering two match points at 5-3, Krejčíková quickly regained her composure, wrapping things up in her next service game to win 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.
After beating Nadal, it seemed like Novak Djokovic had completed much of the hard work. Instead Stefanos Tsitsipas took the first-set tiebreak in the men’s final at Roland Garros, and rolled through the second set to briefly appear on the verge of victory. Tsitsipas showed exceptional movement over the tricky red clay, unlike Nadal hitting the ball with a lot of topspin while also stepping up to the baseline, frequently succeeding in taking time away from his opponent.
Tsitsipas meanwhile broke his duck by progressing from a major semi-final at the fourth time of asking. Greece still awaits its first Grand Slam title, but Sakkari and Tsitsipas don’t intend to hang around and will hope to build swiftly on their success in Paris.
Athletics has hit the ground running at the start of an Olympic season, and at the end of a record-breaking week some of the most competitive matchups of the year so far were scheduled for the Diamond League in Florence. The Tuscan capital was home to the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea this year, with the Stadio Olimpico in Rome gearing up to host some of the matches at Euro 2020.
Femke Bol starred in the early going, as the 21-year-old Dutch athlete scored a national record and personal best with a time of 53.44 in the 400 metre hurdles. In only her second race over the hurdles this season, the steadily improving Bol reiterated her medal prospects in Tokyo, where she will be looking to squeeze in between the American trio of Sydney McLaughlin, Dalilah Muhammad, and Shamier Little.
Meanwhile on the track the young Colombian contender Anthony Zambrano looked solid over 400 metres, while the Moroccan star Soufiane El Bakkali kicked comfortably away in his first steeplechase of the season.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn holds the world lead in the 100 metre hurdles this season, her time of 12.32 at the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida in April tying her for seventh on the all-time list. She backed that performance up once more in Florence on Thursday, as her winning time of 12.38 broke a meeting record which had stood since 1980. In the 110 metre hurdles, Omar McLeod set a new world lead after narrowly missing out in Hengelo. His victory following a quick start and clean race in 13.01 swept past the previous best of 13.07 set by Grant Holloway.
At the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo last weekend, Sifan Hassan smashed the 10,000 metre world record. Aided by Wavelight technology, which acts as a pacemaker by lighting up the inside of the track, and by the latest in shoe design in the form of the controversial Nike ZoomX Dragonfly spikes, her time of 29:06.82 knocked more than ten seconds off the mark registered by Almaz Ayana in 2016.
Yet the track in Hengelo, historically kind to distance running, doubles as the venue for the Ethiopian trials, which took place on Tuesday night. So it was that Hassan’s record lasted little more than 48 hours, as Letesenbet Gidey lapped her compatriots in the very same venue to knock another five seconds off the mark, setting a new world record with a time of 29:01.03.
Gidey already boasts the 5000 metre world record, which she set in the Nike ZoomX Dragonfly spikes last October in Valencia. Following her successful outing over the longer distance, she now hopes to become the first woman to complete 10,000 metres under 29 minutes.
Her absence from the 5000 metres at the Ethiopian trials opened up the field, an opportunity more than grabbed by Gudaf Tsegay. On Tuesday night, Tsegay kicked away from her challengers over 5000 metres to come through in a time of 14:13.32, the fifth-fastest race in history. Ejgayehu Taye and Senbere Teferi finished behind her in 14:14.09 and 14:15.24, placing them sixth and seventh on the all-time list. It was the first time ever that three women had gone under 14:20 over 5000 metres.
Arriving in Florence, Sifan Hassan could have been forgiven for feeling tired or peeved. Instead she put on the afterburners and stormed to success over 1500 metres. Hassan will probably stick to the longer disciplines in Tokyo, but in Florence she set a huge meeting record and world lead, clearing the finish line in a time of 3:53.63. That pushed the reigning Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon down into second place, even as the Kenyan set a new personal best of 3:53.91. Laura Muir, sure to be competitive in Tokyo, was left languishing in third, but her time of 3:55.59 was still her second best performance ever over the distance.
The new format in the field continued to reap slim rewards, with the winner-takes-all approach to the sixth and final round encouraging caution rather than gung-ho spectacle. Tomas Walsh snatched victory as the order was reversed in the men’s shot, his throw of 21.47 in the final round good enough for first place even though it fell short of the earlier standards set by Leonardo Fabbri and Armin Sinancevic.
It was a similar story in the highly competitive women’s long jump, although Ivana Španović proved a popular winner as the Serbian athlete cements her comeback from injury. The drama came over the first five rounds, as reigning world champion Malaika Mihambo set the benchmark with a jump of 6.82, before Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk came through in typical fashion in the fifth round, edging out Chantel Malone to secure one of the top three places. In the sixth and final round however, Bekh-Romanchuk fouled and Mihambo scraped through the sand, allowing Španović to squeak the victory.
No such qualms in the vaulting events, which continue until the horizontal bar can longer stay upright. In the men’s high jump, the reliable Russian Ilya Ivanyuk won on countback over the Australian Brandon Starc and the Italian home favourite Gianmarco Tamberi, who with his half-beard and flowing blonde locks suitably roused the few thousand fans in attendance.
Back on the track, British hopeful Dina Asher-Smith stepped up in the 200 metres. Despite a solid field featuring former world medalists Marie-Josée Ta Lou, Dafne Schippers, and Mujinga Kambundji, there was nobody to really push her as she ran away in the home straight, finishing in 22.06, within three seconds of the world lead held by Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
All eyes in the men’s 5000 metres were on Joshua Cheptegei, the Ugandan world champion and double world record holder. Cheptegei set his world record over the distance last August in Monaco, and arrived in Florence hinting at a fast time. Instead in the shock of the night, he began to fade with a couple of laps still remaining, and it was the 20-year-old Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who made up the ground to duke it out with Hagos Gebrhiwet and Mohammed Ahmed.
The young Ingebrigtsen is the great hope of European distance running, but this was the first time he looked ready to really mix things with the best. For the first time in his brief career to date, he kicked past an elite field to finish in under 13 minutes. His winning time of 12:48.45 proved a major personal best, a world lead, and a European area record. With Mohamed Katir setting a Spanish record in fourth, and Justyn Knight of Canada also registering a new personal best, Cheptegei ended the race back in sixth position.
The pattern was repeated worldwide. While there was little change in those places like Taipei and Rio de Janeiro which implemented few coronavirus restrictions, in New York and Milan nitrogen dioxide levels decreased by 30 to 40 percent during the early days of the pandemic, and in Wuhan the reduction even reached 60 percent.
Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere peaked in May, when they reached a monthly average of 419 parts per million. That represents a small increase on the figure of 417 parts per million which was recorded last year. Ralph Keeling, a geochemist at Scripps, whose father pioneered research into the rapid buildup of atmospheric carbon, said in a statement:
‘The ultimate control knob on atmospheric CO2 is fossil-fuel emissions. But we still have a long way to go to halt the rise, as each year more CO2 piles up in the atmosphere. We ultimately need cuts that are much larger and sustained longer than the COVID-related shutdowns of 2020.’
Atmospheric carbon dioxide is one of the primary greenhouse gases, which effectively serve to trap heat and increase the temperature on Earth. The highest average buildup typically occurs in May, before plants in the Northern Hemisphere begin to remove large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere. From autumn to spring, plants and soil in the Northern Hemisphere give off carbon dioxide, causing levels to rise.
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