There was plenty going on this weekend to keep sports fans glued to their screens.
It was another weekend packed with sporting action, from Pirates winning the MTN8 final, the Springboks beating the All Blacks, our Bok Women bowing out of the World Cup and the Proteas’ white-ball tour of England coming to an end.
There was also plenty of action at the on-going World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where our men’s sprinters came up short in the 100m final.
There were also all sorts of other big international sporting events taking place abroad. Here is our wrap-up of the best from the world of sport this last weekend.
Retief Goosen wins on senior tour
South African former two-time US Open champion, Retief Goosen won the Sanford International on Sunday for his fourth career PGA Tour Champions victory, closing with a 3-under 67 for a two-stroke margin over Bo van Pelt of the United States.
Goosen finished on a total of 13-under-par 197 at the Minnehaha Country Club.
The 56-year-old who won the 2001 and 2004 US Opens won for the first time on the senior PGA Tour since The Galleri Classic in March 2024.
Van Pelt finished with a 68.
Ernie Els (73) and Darren Clarke (68) tied for third at 8-under-par.
Boxer Ricky Hatton dies
Former boxing world champion Ricky Hatton has died aged 46, just weeks after announcing a comeback fight, sparking a flood of tributes to one of the sport’s “modern greats”.
Hatton was found dead at his home in Hyde, northwest England. Greater Manchester Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious.
Hatton, nicknamed “The Hitman”, won multiple world titles in the light-welterweight division and one at welterweight.
His aggressive style made him one of the most popular British boxers of his generation, winning 45 of his 48 professional bouts after his debut in 1997.
Hatton earned notable world title wins over Kostya Tszyu and Jose Luis Castillo before defeats by Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquaio.
He was candid about the mental health issues he faced after he retired from the ring for a second time following an ill-advised comeback attempt against Vyacheslav Senchenko in 2012.
Scheffler wins again
World number one Scottie Scheffler powered to victory in the US PGA Tour Procore Championship on Sunday, grabbing his sixth title of the year and sounding a Ryder Cup warning to Europe.
Four-time major winner Scheffler fired a five-under-par 67 to surge past US Ryder Cup teammate Ben Griffin for the victory with a 19-under par total of 269.
Griffin, a captain’s pick for his first Ryder Cup team, started the day with a one-shot lead and opened with three straight birdies but his two-under 70 wasn’t enough to hold off Scheffler.
His 18-under total of 270 put him one stroke in front of veteran Lanto Griffin, who carded a seven-under 65 and took a big leap in his bid to secure his status for next year as he continues his comeback from back surgery.
Scheffler had six birdies with just one bogey, continuing the improvement he had shown each day at Silverado Resort in Napa, California, where 10 of US captain Keegan Bradley’s 12 Ryder Cup players were in the field.
No handshakes as India beat Pakistan
India beat Pakistan by seven wickets in the Asia Cup on Sunday as the neighbours met for the first time since a military conflict between them in May, but tensions simmered after the match as India’s players left the field without shaking hands.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav defended the snub in his post-match press conference, saying that the team were “aligned with the government and Board of Control for Cricket in India” in not shaking hands with the Pakistan team.
India resisted calls to boycott the T20 match between the nations, who have not played in any bilateral Test series since deadly attacks in Mumbai in 2008 were blamed on Pakistan militants.
The hostilities in May this year left more than 70 people dead in missile, drone and artillery exchanges, before a ceasefire.
The conflict was triggered by an April 22 attack on civilians in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing – a charge Islamabad denies.
Top four into Women’s World Cup semi-finals
The top four teams in women’s rugby will feature in the World Cup semi-finals after France staged a superb second-half rally to edge out Ireland on Sunday before England thrashed Scotland.
England will now face familiar foes France in the last four in Bristol on Saturday after Les Bleus came back from 13-0 down at half-time to beat Ireland 18-13 in a thrilling quarter-final.
By contrast, world number one England, the tournament favourites and unbeaten since losing the 2022 World Cup final to New Zealand, set a new record of 31 successive Test wins with a 40-8 rout of Scotland.
Canada and New Zealand, second and third in the world rankings, will meet in Bristol on Friday for the first time since their dramatic 27-27 draw in Christchurch in May.
The Black Ferns defeated first-time quarter-finalists South Africa 46-17 on Saturday with Canada overpowering Australia 46-5.
Vuelta final stage abandoned, Vingegaard crowned champion
The final stage of the Vuelta a Espana was abandoned on Sunday because of huge pro-Palestinian protests in Madrid, with Jonas Vingegaard crowned champion for the first time.
Thousands of protestors gathered in the Spanish capital, invading the course where the race was due to pass in the centre of Madrid, AFP journalists witnessed.
On Gran Via, where cyclists needed to complete several loops, protestors knocked down barriers and marched into the road, some chanting for a boycott of Israel as green and red smoke filled the air.
Riders, around 56 kilometres from the finish of the race, came to a halt before the Vuelta was abandoned, with two-time Tour de France winner Vingegaard in the leader’s red jersey, 1min 16sec ahead of second-placed Joao Almeida at the start of the ceremonial final stage.
Organisers said there would be no podium presentation to celebrate the winners.
Seville and Jefferson-Wooden win maiden sprint titles
Oblique Seville and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden recorded their first major victories in winning the men’s and women’s 100 metres world titles on Sunday, making it honours even between sprint powerhouses Jamaica and the United States.
It was a good night in Tokyo for the Americans as two of their outstanding field athletes, Olympic champions Tara Davis-Woodhall and Valarie Allman, won the women’s long jump and discus respectively.
For Allman it filled a yawning space in her burgeoning medals cabinet — a world title.
There was a once-in-a-blue-moon ending in the men’s 10,000m as Europe got the better of the cream of African distance running — France’s Jimmy Gressier took the honours.
Seville secured Jamaica’s first men’s world 100m title in 10 years leading home a Jamaican 1-2. The onwatching Usain Bolt did the sprint double at the 2015 worlds in Beijing.
As Seville ripped his vest in celebration, teammate Kishane Thompson, who had to settle for silver as he did at the Olympics last year, embraced him. Olympic and defending world champion Noah Lyles was third.
Marc Marquez wins again
Marc Marquez is on the verge of winning his seventh MotoGP world title after triumphing in Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix and breaking the sport’s all-time record for championship points.
Ducati rider Marc Marquez is on a whopping 512 points with six race weekends remaining and needs to earn three more than his brother Alex Marquez, who finished third, at the Japan MotoGP later this month to draw level with his great rival and motorcycling icon Valentino Rossi.
It would be his first championship victory since 2019 and crown a comeback from an injury nightmare which began when he broke his right arm at the start of the 2020 season.
He claimed a career 99th GP win across MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 from fourth on the starting grid, winning a brilliant battle with Aprilia’s pole sitter Marco Bezzecchi who won Saturday’s sprint after Marc Marquez crashed while in the lead.
