[attach id=519698 size="medium"][/attach]
Snooker: The victory of Anthony McGill (picture, right) at the Indian Open last weekend made him the fifth first-time winner of a world ranking event within the past 16 months. McGill joins Michael White (2015 Indian Open), Joe Perry (2015 Players Championship), Kyren Wilson (2015 Shanghai Masters) and Martin Gould (2016 German Masters) in lifting a ranking event trophy for the first time. Prior to White’s win in March 2015, there had only been four first-time winners in the previous six years – Stuart Bingham (2011 Australian Open), Judd Trump (2011 China Open), Mark Allen (2012 World Open) and Barry Hawkins (2012 Australian Open).
Boxing: A jockstrap worn by boxer Joe Frazier when he defeated Muhammad Ali for the combined heavyweight title hit the auction block on Monday, along with the gloves Ali wore in that 1971 bout dubbed the “Fight of the Century.” The jockstrap – expected to sell for $10,000 – has already met its minimum bid of $5,000 bid, said Ken Goldin, owner of Goldin Auctions of Runnemede, New Jersey. No bids had yet been received for the gloves, which are expected to sell for more than $1 million, Goldin said. The auction concludes with live bidding on August 4.
Basketball: Five-times NBA champion Tim Duncan announced his retirement, bringing an end to the forward’s glittering 19-year spell at San Antonio Spurs. The 40-year-old, who was the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft, reached the play-offs in each of his 19 seasons and became the only player to have reached 1,000 wins with one team. Duncan, a two-times MVP, is just one of three NBA players along with John Stockton and Kobe Bryant to spend 19 seasons with one franchise. He retires as the Spurs’ all-time leader in scoring, rebounds and blocks.
Olympics: World champions Shawn Barber and Derek Drouin and heptathlon favourite Brianne Theisen-Eaton headline a 65-member Canadian athletics team for the Rio Olympics. Barber won the pole vault at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing and Drouin claimed the high jump title. He also won a bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Theisen-Eaton has the top heptathlon score in the world this year and is the two-time world outdoor silver medallist and 2016 world indoor champion.
Rugby League: Serbia have turned to a Yorkshireman with Eastern European roots in their bid to secure a place in the 2017 World Cup. Doncaster-born Darren Higgins has been appointed as the Serbians’ head coach and will take time out from his role of talent development manager at Castleford to prepare them for October’s final European qualifying matches against Wales and Italy. Higgins’s grandfather, Simo Tijanic, was born in Serbia.
Rio Games: Golfer Siddikur Rahman has become Bangladesh’s first athlete to qualify for an Olympics after finishing 56th in the final eligibility rankings for the Rio Games. Bangladesh has been given four wild card spots for next month’s Games so far, with swimmers Mahfizur Rahman Sagor and Sonia Akter Tumpa, archer Shyamoly Roy and shooter Abdullahel Baki set to represent their country in Rio. The International Golf Federation published the final Olympic rankings with Rahman’s position enough to qualify for Rio when golf makes it return to the Games for the first time since 1904.