The Welsh cyclist Finlay Tarling, 19 years old, a member of the NSN development team, owned by Andrés Iniesta, died this Friday in an accident while participating in the eighth stage of the Volta a Portugal, according to the race organization. The boy was the brother of fellow cyclist Joshua Tarling (Ineos), 22 years old, world track champion in 2025, and world road bronze medalist (2023).
“It is a lack of respect.” The French Clémence Beretta, a podium contender in the half marathon, did not hold back at the official press conference: the debut at the European Championships in Birmingham of the new road race walking distances will not have the most favorable setting for the athletes. A tiny urban circuit, only 1 km long, shaped like a P, through the narrow streets of central Birmingham –Waterloo Street and Colmore Row, next to Victoria Square, the start and finish of the race– are an invitation to chaos.
The departure of Ferran Torres from Barça will not be traumatic because the Valencian never really connected either on a sporting or emotional level with the culé fans despite posting decent, at times notable, numbers during his four and a half seasons at Camp Nou. The missed chances and some goal droughts have remained more in the memory of Barcelona fans than his 65 goals in his 207 matches as a blaugrana since he joined the club in January 2022.
Manchester City maintains its position in the negotiation for Rodri and has rejected the second offer presented by Barcelona, according to the British newspaper The Times. The Blaugrana club put on the table 60 million euros fixed plus five in variables, after their first proposal, of 45 million, also failed to convince the English team. City considers that neither of the two amounts comes close to their expectations and maintains its valuation around 80 million euros.
It was a matter of time and the negotiations have come to a successful conclusion. Barcelona confirmed to this newspaper that this Thursday afternoon they have reached a preliminary agreement with PSG for the sale of the Valencian forward Ferran Torres. The amount is nearly 50 million euros, in a deal that does not include variables. Ferran will sign a contract with Luis Enrique’s team for five seasons. The attacker had not rejoined work with Barcelona, with the club’s permission, to certify his departure. In this way, Ferran can now travel to Paris. The Foios native informed Barça last week that he wanted to leave. His contract with the Blaugrana was ending at the end of the next season. Barcelona, initially, was waiting for him after being the hero of the World Cup final to start negotiating his renewal in September. But Ferran made it clear that he preferred to go to Paris.
The worst fears were confirmed with Roony Bardghji. Tests have confirmed that the Swedish winger suffers a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, which will require surgery and will cause him to miss a large part of the season.
Rafa Jódar will play his first Masters 1,000 semifinal in Montreal after defeating Arthur Fils last night (7-65 and 6-3), a victory that temporarily moves him up to 11th in the world. The 19-year-old from Madrid had fallen in the quarterfinals of Madrid and Rome. His next opponent will be American Brandon Nakashima, ranked number 25, who had also never reached this far in a major.
There are swimmers who keep all the juice inside, whose talent only needs that day to come when someone or something uncorks it automatically. An emotion, a unique setting, an insurmountable challenge, or swimming alongside your idol in a European semifinal. And this last is what has happened to Luca Hoek (18 years old), the torpedo from Sitges, with a French mother and Dutch father, but born and raised by the Mediterranean Sea.
Sensational. Spectacular. In April, she couldn’t even run. A lumbar ailment had sent her to the stretcher and she couldn’t train. Excessive gym workouts had short-circuited her preparation and she was theoretically out of shape. But she is a top competitor. A wonderful athlete who inaugurated the Spanish medal tally at the European Championships in Birmingham. Marta García from León (28 years old), a trained doctor, earned her doctorate again by winning silver in the 5,000 meters final with a time of 15m39s98. Two years ago in Rome, she won bronze and this time she climbed one step higher. As in 2024, at the very top was the untouchable Italian Nadia Battocletti (15m37s84), who defended her title. “You had to believe it like in the Football World Cup and I believed it. Everything went as I wanted, I gave the maximum I could. I was always where I had planned to be during the race,” García said. Behind her, the bronze medal went to the Italian Micol Majori (15m40s65).
Triangular tournaments return to modern football, a nineties format that Barça had not experienced for 24 years and that yesterday allowed them to distribute minutes and continue fine-tuning many of their players. The test, of a higher level this time, consisted of two 45-minute matches against strong opponents. First, they defeated the revived English Nottingham Forest with a penalty caused by Fermín and converted by Raphinha. Both were the best news of the night. Afterwards, against the always competitive and host Udinese, they suffered an inconsequential defeat. The locals took the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup after having beaten Nottingham 1-0 in the first match.
