分类： sports

For most motorsports fans, standing on the iconic Isle of Man TT course is a lifelong fantasy. For Melbourne-based rider Jodie Rogers, that dream became a tangible reality this year, after a 14-month solo expedition spanning 26,700 miles across 30 countries that tested her grit, adaptability and love of the open road.

Rogers, who only picked up off-road motorcycling in 2023 and describes herself as a non-expert rider, set out from Australia in March of last year on her trusty Honda CRF. Her route took her across sweeping deserts, jagged mountain ranges, and remote international borders, winding through Southeast Asia, China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and eventually into Europe. When winter closed in, she stored her motorcycle in Ireland, then returned five weeks ago via Japan to resume her trek, with the legendary Isle of Man TT always marked as the primary destination on her itinerary.

Along the way, Rogers faced a litany of unexpected challenges: mechanical failures that stranded her in remote regions, dangerous high-altitude passes, and forced campouts in far-from-ideal locations. One of her most memorable stops came on the Afghan-Tajik border, when floodwaters swallowed a river crossing and left her stuck between Taliban positions on one side and Tajik government forces on the other, with her bright green tent pitched squarely in the no-man’s land in between. Even amid that tension, Rogers took the incident in stride, noting that for every obstacle thrown her way, she has always found a way forward.

Far from being a lonely slog, Rogers says her journey has been filled with human connection that transformed her worldview. After going through difficult personal experiences in the past, the trip restored her faith in humanity; she rarely feels isolated on the road, meeting kind, generous people at every stop along her route. Her first major overland trip, after cutting her teeth crossing Australia’s Simpson Desert, took her to Vietnam and the Indian Himalayas — and that experience sparked a desire to keep exploring beyond her home country’s borders.

Now, after 244 days on the road before her winter break and weeks of additional travel to reach the Irish Sea island, Rogers says arriving at the TT still feels surreal. “I kind of can’t believe I’m actually here,” she said, describing the moment she stepped onto the island as a “pinch me” experience. The atmosphere at the event, she says, is nothing short of electric: the roar of superbikes screaming past, the wind tearing through your hair, the scent of fuel hanging in the air as riders shift through gears approaching tight corners is an exhilarating feeling that cannot be replicated anywhere else.

During the TT’s two-week racing schedule, Rogers is camping in Onchan and is set to take part in the event’s Legacy Lap on May 31. But even after checking the Isle of Man TT off her bucket list, her global adventure is far from over. This entire expedition is just one phase of an ambitious seven-year plan that will see her ride through the rest of Europe, across Africa, throughout North and South America, and across New Zealand before she eventually returns to Australia. When asked what she plans to do after circling the entire globe on two wheels, the intrepid rider laughed and quipped, “I might have to go to the moon or something.”

In a tense, winner-take-all Game 7 clash that went down to the final seconds, the San Antonio Spurs pulled off a thrilling 111-103 victory over the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, punching their ticket to the franchise’s first NBA Finals appearance in nearly a decade and setting up a championship rematch with the New York Knicks.

Fueled by a historic performance from 22-year-old generational talent Victor Wembanyama, the young, relatively inexperienced Spurs squad claimed the Western Conference crown 4-3 in the hard-fought best-of-seven series. The NBA Finals will tip off this Wednesday in San Antonio, where Wembanyama and his teammates will face off against a Knicks team that already got the better of them in the season’s in-season tournament.

The 7-foot-4 French standout, who earned both Western Conference Finals MVP and NBA Defensive Player of the Year honors this postseason, delivered 22 points, seven rebounds, and multiple game-changing defensive plays to anchor the win. When the final buzzer sounded, an emotional Wembanyama celebrated with teammates, describing the moment as the fulfillment of a lifelong childhood dream. “Though we’re still hungry for one more, this feeling is, I can’t explain it, it’s so powerful,” Wembanyama told reporters after the game. “We want four more wins. We’re not done. Go Spurs go.”

Role players stepped up in a major way for San Antonio, too: wing Julian Champagnie poured in 20 points, including six clutch three-pointers, while rookie guard Stephon Castle added 16 points to the winning effort. “We never knew if we were going to get this far but when you’ve got the greatest player in the world things happen,” Champagnie said of his superstar teammate, who deflected praise back to the entire roster after the win. “It doesn’t mean anything for me other than the fact we are a team,” Wembanyama said of his series MVP award. “I got this for all of us and all the fans right here.”

What makes the victory even more impressive is the context: only one Spurs player had ever appeared in a Game 7 before Saturday, while the Thunder brought defending championship experience and a deep roster into the decider. The Thunder were also missing starting forward Jalen Williams to a late hamstring injury, but still pushed the Spurs to the brink behind a 35-point masterclass from league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson highlighted his team’s grit and togetherness over experience as the key difference. “Back in October we knew we had a chance to be pretty good,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot being talked about, words like competitiveness, resolve, togetherness, execution — who gives a damn about the word experience? They had to go out and execute and they did.”

The game played out as a back-and-forth battle from the opening tip. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 11 first-half points to spark a 20-5 Thunder run that put the defending champs up 53-49, but San Antonio closed the half with a 7-0 run, capped by a Wembanyama dunk, to carry a 56-53 lead into the locker room. A 16-2 third-quarter run, fueled by 11 points from Champagnie, pushed the Spurs out to an 11-point lead, only for Gilgeous-Alexander to rally the Thunder back with a 12-0 run of his own.

Wembanyama took over in the fourth quarter: he drained two three-pointers during a 17-9 opening run to the final frame that put San Antonio up 97-86 with eight minutes to play. Just seconds later, he picked up his fifth foul and headed to the bench, giving the Thunder a window to mount a comeback. But San Antonio’s depth held: fill-in big man Luke Kornet blocked a fast-break dunk attempt from Isaiah Hartenstein, and the Spurs extended their lead to 11 points on a Castle layup and a Champagnie three-pointer with five and a half minutes remaining.

The Thunder made a late push to close the gap in the final seconds, but could never get within a single possession, and the Spurs held on to lock in their Finals spot. The upcoming series will be a rematch of this season’s NBA Cup final, where the Knicks defeated the Spurs 124-113 in Las Vegas back in December, adding an extra layer of narrative to the highly anticipated championship showdown.

In a tense, drama-filled 2025 UEFA Champions League final held at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on Saturday, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) etched their name into European football history, edging out Arsenal 4-3 on penalties to claim consecutive continental titles after 120 minutes of play ended locked at 1-1. For the Gunners, the result marks a heartbreaking second Champions League final defeat, two decades after their first loss to Barcelona in 2006.

Arsenal, the 2024-25 Premier League champions who entered the final having lifted their first English top-flight title in 22 years, got off to a dream start within the opening six minutes. Kai Havertz, the German forward who already has a Champions League final winner’s medal from his 2021 triumph with Chelsea, found an unexpected opening when Marquinhos’ misdirected clearance bounced off Leandro Trossard straight into his path. Havertz burst into space behind PSG’s backline and fired a blistering, tight-angle shot into the top of the net to put Mikel Arteta’s side ahead early.

For the majority of regular time, Arsenal’s deep, disciplined defense held firm, having conceded just six goals across their entire run to the final. The Gunners stifled PSG’s high-powered attack, limiting the French side to only inaccurate long-range attempts and shutting down dynamic winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia for most of the match, with center-back Gabriel making a crucial last-ditch tackle to deny the Georgian early on.

After halftime, PSG manager Luis Enrique adjusted his side’s tempo, urging faster ball movement to break down Arsenal’s compact rearguard. The equalizer came in the 67th minute, when a slick one-two between Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele drew a clumsy foul from Arsenal defender Cristhian Mosquera inside the penalty area. Dembele stepped up to the spot, sending Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya the wrong way with a low finish to level the score. The goal marked PSG’s 45th of the 2024-25 tournament, tying the all-time Champions League single-season scoring record.

PSG came close to snatching a late winner in regular time when Kvaratskhelia broke clear down the left flank, but his shot bounced off the goalpost. As the match wore on, Arsenal tired but held on to force extra time. The Gunners had a late penalty shout turned down when substitute Noni Madueke went down under contact from PSG’s Nuno Mendes, though replays showed minimal contact from the defender.

The final was ultimately decided by penalties, a test PSG entered with confidence: the French side had already won three trophies via shootouts this season, and carried a five-match winning streak in penalty deciders heading into the final. Arsenal faltered first, with Eberechi Eze sending his opening spot-kick wide of the post, but Raya gave the Gunners new life by saving Mendes’ attempt. Declan Rice converted to level the score at 2-2, and after Lucas Beraldo put PSG ahead 4-3, it fell to Gabriel to keep Arsenal’s hopes alive. The Arsenal defender lashed his penalty high over the crossbar, handing PSG the trophy.

The victory makes PSG only the second club in the Champions League era to win back-to-back titles, joining the iconic all-dominant Real Madrid sides that achieved the feat multiple times. It also marks the third Champions League title for manager Luis Enrique, who won his first with Barcelona back in 2015, making him only one of five head coaches in history to lift the trophy three times. The result comes one year after PSG’s first ever Champions League title, which ended a 55-year wait for the club and 14 years of investment under Qatari ownership. Now, with a second consecutive crown, PSG appear poised to begin an era of sustained European dominance.

“We are so, so proud, so happy, so grateful,” PSG winger Desire Doue told reporters post-match. “As a team, as a family, I think we deserve that… look at the fans, we are so happy.” Midfielder Fabian Ruiz added: “It was Real Madrid and now it’s us too. They defended all through the game and football is fair… today the right team won.”

For Arsenal, the bitter defeat comes just days after they secured their first Premier League title in 22 years, a milestone that was supposed to cap a dream season for Arteta’s young side. The club still plans to hold a victory parade in London on Sunday to celebrate the league title, but the event will be overshadowed by the heartbreak of a penalty defeat that fell just short of a historic double.

“It’s gutting, it’s devastating to lose the Champions League final on penalties,” Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said after the final. “Giving it absolutely everything up until this point, we took the game to penalties and it’s a lottery.”

The stage is set in Budapest’s Puskas Arena for one of the most tightly contested UEFA Champions League finals in recent memory, as defending champions Paris Saint-Germain prepare to lock horns with England’s Arsenal this Saturday, in a game widely billed as a battle that will be decided by split-second moments rather than pre-match form.

With contrasting playing styles set to collide, PSG brings an explosive, high-octane attacking line-up against an Arsenal side that has built its tournament run on rock-solid defensive organization. Ahead of the kickoff, PSG manager Luis Enrique downplayed the tag of pre-match favorite, insisting the 90-minute showdown would be decided by tiny margins. ‘There are no favorites going into this European final,’ he said. ‘The difference will be in the details.’

While bookmakers do rank the Ligue 1 title holders and defending champions as slight favorites, analysts note this final is the hardest to predict since Real Madrid’s iconic 2018 win over Liverpool. For Arsenal, the occasion carries extra weight: the club ended a 22-year wait for the English Premier League title this season, and is now chasing its first ever Champions League crown, 20 years after its last final appearance ended in a defeat to Barcelona in Paris.

Arrived in the Hungarian capital in relaxed form, the Gunners’ squad took a casual stroll through Budapest on Saturday morning to beat the summer heat, with good news on the injury front: right-back Jurrien Timber, who had been a major doubt for the clash, recovered in time to make the match day squad, named to the bench alongside striker Viktor Gyokeres. Manager Mikel Arteta opted to start Kai Havertz in the attacking line for the final. The game’s earlier kickoff time — 6pm local time, two hours earlier than recent finals — is seen as a potential advantage for PSG’s fast, physically demanding pressing style.

Arsenal’s tournament campaign has been defined by defensive resilience: the Gunners enter the final unbeaten in this season’s Champions League, having kept nine clean sheets and conceded only six goals. The widespread expectation is that Arteta’s side will drop into a deep defensive block and look to capitalize on set-piece opportunities against the French side. PSG winger and Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele acknowledged the challenge Arsenal poses, saying: ‘They’re strong pretty much everywhere, whether it’s in attack or in defence, and they’re dangerous on set-pieces as well, everybody knows that.’

PSG also got a key fitness boost ahead of kickoff: both Dembele and right-back Achraf Hakimi were named in the starting line-up after shaking off minor fitness concerns in the lead-up to the final. While Arsenal has played significantly more matches this season than PSG, winger Bukayo Saka rejected suggestions that fatigue could play a deciding role. ‘A game like this is not going to be decided on minutes, it’s going to be decided on moments,’ the England international said.

Both sides carry historic motivation to lift the trophy. For PSG, a win would secure back-to-back Champions League titles, a feat only Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid has achieved in the modern era, when the Spanish club won three consecutive titles between 2016 and 2018. It would also make PSG the first French club to win multiple Champions League trophies, marking a historic milestone for French club football.

For Arsenal, a first Champions League crown would cap a redemptive season for the club, honoring generations of Arsenal players who never reached the pinnacle of European football. Club icons have reached out to the current squad to offer support: former captain and Invincibles legend Patrick Vieira sent a personal good luck video to current skipper Martin Odegaard, who called the message a special moment. ‘This stage was one I had hoped to reach for my whole life,’ Odegaard said. ‘When I started playing football with my friends, on the little pitch next to my house, I was dreaming of this moment.’

Thierry Henry, the club’s all-time leading goalscorer and part of the 2006 final squad that lost to Barcelona, also sent a personal message to Saka on Friday. Tens of thousands of Arsenal fans have traveled to Budapest, many without match tickets, to cheer on their side, packing the city’s famous ruin bars and tourist hotspots. Henry is among the high-profile Arsenal supporters in the city for the final.

Security has been ramped up for the occasion, with almost 4,000 police officers deployed for the match — the largest security operation in Hungarian history. The build-up to the game has remained largely peaceful, apart from a minor scuffle between fans in Budapest’s seventh district on Friday night, which police are currently investigating.

A win for Arsenal would also make history for English football. After Aston Villa lifted the Europa League title and Crystal Palace won the Conference League this season, an Arsenal Champions League triumph would mark the first time a single country has won all three major UEFA men’s club trophies in the same season since 1989-90, when Italy achieved the feat with AC Milan, Juventus and Sampdoria claiming the three trophies respectively.

The 2025 French Open is heating up amid a lingering Paris heatwave, with Saturday’s third-round play producing one of the most anticipated round-of-16 matchups in recent Grand Slam history, alongside shocking upsets and breakthrough runs that have reshaped both the men’s and women’s draws.

World number one and top women’s seed Aryna Sabalenka kicked off the day’s standout results with a commanding 6-0, 7-5 victory over 53rd-ranked Daria Kasatkina, wrapping up the 76-minute contest to secure her spot in the fourth round. After blitzing through the opening set without dropping a game, Sabalenka found herself in an early break deficit in the second set, but fought back to seal the win. Speaking on court after her victory, the 28-year-old Belarusian credited her resilience through tough moments, as Roland Garros wraps up the final day of a heatwave that has blanketed Paris since the tournament kicked off.

Sabalenka’s win sets up a high-stakes fourth-round showdown with four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, a matchup between two players who have each claimed four major titles: two Australian Opens and two US Opens apiece. While Sabalenka has defeated Osaka twice already in the 2025 season, Osaka holds the edge in major meetings—she beat Sabalenka in the same round at the 2018 US Open, the first of her career Grand Slam wins.

Osaka, the tournament’s 16th seed from Japan, earned her place in the fourth round after a grueling three-set battle with 18-year-old American starlet Iva Jovic, 7-6(7/5), 6-7(3/7), 6-4. The match was defined by dominant serving from both players, with the first two sets settled entirely by tiebreaks. Osaka secured the decisive break of Jovic’s serve in the 10th game of the final set to close out the win. The result marks a career milestone for Osaka, who had never advanced past the third round at Roland Garros before this year’s tournament. “I was a lot calmer than in my first matches… In a Slam the further I get the calmer I am. It’s such an honour to be here. It’s the furthest I have ever been here,” Osaka said after her win.

In a politically charged third-round matchup, Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova lost 7-5, 6-1 to Russian opponent Diana Shnaider, after Oliynykova accused Shnaider in pre-match comments of accepting funding from a company that supports Russian war crimes and liking social media posts from pro-war propagandists.

Defending women’s champion Coco Gauff, the tournament’s fourth seed, will look to join Sabalenka and Osaka in the second week when she faces off against Austria’s Anastasia Potapova in Saturday’s later action, targeting a spot in the tournament’s fourth round.

On the men’s side of the draw, the bracket remains wide open after the shocking early exits of top seed Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. Italian 10th seed Flavio Cobolli sent a clear message to the rest of the field with an emphatic 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory over American Learner Tien on Court Philippe Chatrier, wrapping up the win in just one hour and 45 minutes. Cobolli, who is now set to face Zachary Svajda for a spot in the men’s quarter-finals, said he is focusing on one match at a time amid widespread talk of a first-time Grand Slam champion this year. “I want to think match by match. That’s the way that I want to think this week,” Cobolli said. “I know that… for sure we will have a new Grand Slam champion, but I don’t want to think about this. For sure I have now another tough match.”

American world number 85 Zachary Svajda continued his dream Grand Slam run, upsetting 25th seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 to secure his spot in the second week. The 23-year-old had never advanced past the second round of any major tournament before this year’s French Open, marking his first run into the second week of a Grand Slam.

Saturday’s closing action will see Canadian fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime face off against American 31st seed Brandon Nakashima in the night session on Court Philippe Chatrier, while 17-year-old rising French home star Moise Kouame will take on Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo on Court Suzanne Lenglen as he looks to extend his breakout run at the tournament.

One step away from writing his name into road cycling history, Team Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard delivered a dominant mountain performance to claim victory in the Giro d’Italia’s penultimate stage on Saturday, putting his first overall title at the three-week Grand Tour all but out of reach.

The 29-year-old Dane, a pre-race favorite and two-time Tour de France champion, has been a class of the field at this year’s Giro, overcoming an early-race illness to win five stages and build an insurmountable lead heading into Sunday’s ceremonial final lap around Rome. Barring an unprecedented catastrophe on the flat, largely ceremonial route through the Italian capital, Vingegaard will become just the eighth rider in cycling history to secure the sport’s triple crown: overall victories at all three of road cycling’s Grand Tours (the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España). He will join legendary figures including Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, and Italian great Vincenzo Nibali in the exclusive group.

Saturday’s decisive stage was centered on two grueling 14.5-kilometer climbs to the summit finish at Piancavallo, where Vingegaard turned a comfortable general classification lead into an unassailable advantage. When the main peloton reached the first ascent, a breakaway group had already built a four-minute advantage at the front of the race. By the start of the second climb, that gap had shrunk to just over two minutes, and Vingegaard launched his decisive attack a little more than 10 kilometers from the finish line.

He first pulled clear of the main chasing pack, then easily distanced his closest overall rival, Austria’s Felix Gall, who could not match the Dane’s power on the upper slopes of the climb. Vingegaard then surged past the remaining remnants of the early breakaway to cross the line first, extending his lead over Gall to more than five minutes in the general classification. Gall will head to Rome as the clear second-place finisher, with no realistic path to overturning that gap on the flat final stage.

In the race’s secondary classifications, Italy’s Giulio Ciccone secured the blue Mountains classification jersey with his performance on Saturday, capping a standout performance in the hills. This marks the third Grand Tour mountains classification title of Ciccone’s career, adding to his 2019 Giro mountains win and his 2021 Tour de France polka-dot jersey victory.

Beyond his imminent first Giro title, Vingegaard’s performance this week has set the stage for what is already shaping up to be one of the most anticipated battles in modern cycling at July’s Tour de France. Vingegaard is targeting a rare Giro-Tour de France double this season, a feat only a handful of riders have pulled off in modern cycling history. His top rival, Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogačar, skipped this year’s Giro to focus on the Tour, and the head-to-head between the two Grand Tour greats is expected to be one of the most fiercely contested battles in the 111-year history of the race. Vingegaard’s dominant performance at the Giro, even while recovering from early-race sickness, has cemented his status as the man to beat when the Tour gets underway in July.