[attach id=567001 size="medium"][/attach]
Athletics: Jamaican sprinter and reigning 100 metres world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (picture) announced yesterday that she is pregnant and will miss the world championships in London this August. The two-times Olympic 100m gold medallist and three-times world 100m champion said she will return to competition in 2018. “All my focus heading into training for my 2017 season was on getting healthy and putting myself in the best possible fitness to successfully defend my title in London2017.” Fraser-Pryce, 30, said on Facebook.
Cricket: The International Cricket Council has given up on squeezing an additional World Twenty20 tournament in 2018. After the success of the 2016 edition in India the possibility of revising plans to leave a four-year gap between tournaments was explored, with plenty of enthusiasm for another World T20 next year. But Press Association Sport understands that, having investigated the options, the world governing body has decided it is unworkable.
Basketball, NBA: The Boston Celtics got back to winning ways in the NBA with a 99-86 victory over the Golden State Warriors. The Celtics had lost their last two games but Isaiah Thomas’ 25-point haul helped them keep up the pressure on Eastern Conference leaders the Cleveland Cavaliers. Golden State, meanwhile, saw their two-game winning streak brought to a halt but they still top the Western Conference standings. The San Antonio Spurs made it nine straight victories with a 114-104 win over the struggling Sacramento Kings.
Tennis: Heather Watson defeated Nicole Gibbs 4-6 6-2 6-2 to set up an all British second-round clash with Johanna Konta at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. It will be a first meeting on the WTA Tour between Britain’s two leading women, whose only previous contest was at a second-tier tournament in Barnstaple in 2013 when Watson retired after losing the first four games. Konta will go into the match as a heavy favourite against Watson, now ranked almost 100 places lower than her compatriot after dropping to 108 this week.
Snooker: Ali Carter reached the semi-finals of the Ladbrokes Players Championship in Llandudno with a 5-3 victory against Neil Robertson. Carter came from behind in his encounter with Robertson, winning the last three frames to set up a last-four clash with Judd Trump. Carter made a break of 63 in the opening frame but it was not enough to take it, however a run of 94 soon levelled the match. Robertson made 57 in the fifth frame to move 3-2 up, but Carter comfortably took the sixth and a break of 84 in the next nudged the Essex potter 4-3 in front, from where he went on to seal his place in the last four.