Alex Winwood has been left shocked and devastated, after his boxing quarter-final was stopped early in the second round against Zambia’s Patrick Chinyemba.
After four of the five judges awarded Winwood the first round, the Australian was floored by a right-shot from his opponent. Winwood got up moments later, but his bout was waved off despite the 25-year-old appearing stable and his eyes still.
“I find that impossible to believe, absolutely impossible to believe. That fight should not have been stopped. That’s not a stop page. That’s an outrage,” Jon Harker said in commentary for Channel 7.
Harry Garside, who took bronze during last year’s Olympics in the boxing, agreed.
“That’s heartbreaking for Alex. No way that’s a stoppage,” Garside said.
Alex Winwood reacts following defeat in the men’s 48kg-51kg (Flyweight) Quarter-Final fight at NEC Arena on August 04, 2022 in Birmingham. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
Winwood was close to tears as he wrapped up his interview, believing the fight was called off too quickly.
“It was a pretty fast call. I won the first round, and I thought I won it pretty easily,” he said.
Garside reflected the fight was called off too early, but Winwood had left the decision open as he looked away after getting up off the ground.
“He wasn’t hurt, he did turn his back which gives the referee some empathy, but you’ve got to wait for the person to get up and give them eight seconds,” he said.
“She waved it off way too soon.”
Patrick Chinyemba punches Alex Winwood on day seven of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at NEC Arena on August 04, 2022. Photo: Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images
Social media agreed, with many raising their eyebrows at the early stoppage.
Australia has suffered a historic three-goal loss to Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games, rocking their gold medal campaign in Birmingham.
The Diamonds had been expected to sail through their Pool A matches and meet the second ranked team in Pool B in the semi finals.
But they coughed up a six-goal lead heading into the final term to suffer their first ever loss to the Sunshine Girls.
A brilliant 47 goals from international superstar Jhaniele Fowler and some remarkable defensive efforts from Shamera Sterling ensured Jamaica nailed a 57-55 win.
Fox Netball’s Catherine Cox said the Diamonds “just shut up shop” in the last quarter as Jamaica ran home with the win.
“Australia couldn’t win the ball back – it was some brilliant defensive work from Jamaica. They really just lifted another level in the fourth quarter,” she said.
Questions will be asked of coach Stacey Marinkovich’s selections, with just Sunday Aryang entering for four minutes in the second term and Sarah Klau coming on to a rejigged defensive line with four minutes remaining in the match.
Gretel Bueta finished the pick of the Diamonds attack, despite being silenced in the final quarter by Sterling, with 36 goals from 39 attempts.
Steph Wood’s night ended with 19 goals at 86%.
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Australia opted to start Gretel Bueta at goal shooter, with Steph Wood and Liz Watson out in front of her. Kate Moloney got the nod at center with Ash Brazill, Jo Weston and Courtney Bruce rounding out the defensive trio.
For Jamaica, Jhaniele Fowler started at GS, with Beckford and Williams at GA and WA respectively. Nicole Dixon-Rochester was center with Super Netball trio Jodi-Ann Ward, Latanya Wilson and Shamera Sterling the starting defenders.
The world’s best shooter started the match with a bang, with five quick goals to open up the first break of the match for Jamaica.
Courtney Bruce kept her West Coast Fever teammate in Fowler as high as she could, but Shanice Beckford was brilliant around the edges to keep feeding from close range.
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Bruce and Jo Weston got early tips, but it was Jamaica who were able to convert while down the other end the connection to Gretel Bueta just fell away.
“The Diamonds are stunned here,” commentator Sue Gaudion said.
Australia scored just three goals in the opening seven minutes, before Steph Wood went from range and leveled up scores.
A Jodi-Ann Ward intercept gave Jamaica the lead once again as the long ball caught Weston’s eyes down.
“They exposed the Diamonds defense again,” Gaudion said.
A quick double play by Bueta ensured the Aussies took the lead with less than two minutes remaining in the first term.
Coach Connie Francis was left less than impressed when the Sunshine Girls threw away a brilliant Sterling intercept.
“But that is the issue – the conversion of those brilliant moments,” commentator Cath Cox said.
By the first break, it was Australia leading by one goal.
The Aussies went unchanged for the second term – the first time this tournament coach Stacey Marinkovich has opted for no changes after a break.
A big Sterling rebound gave Jamaica the first opportunity, but they couldn’t convert as Courtney Bruce’s brilliant hands over disrupted play.
“There’s plenty of feeling out there,” Cox said.
“Courtney Bruce giving the death stare to Beckford.”
The Aussies chanced their luck feeding Bueta with Sterling in hot pursuit but the move continued to pay off.
When Shanice Beckford found the top of the circle, the Sunshine Girls opted for a rare straight ball feed to Fowler.
“On the circle edge, feeding to Fowler – unbeatable,” Cox praised.
A rare mistake by Bueta saw the replay called, but once again Jamaica couldn’t convert as Khadijah Williams was penalized for footwork.
“It’s the simple things letting Jamaica down isn’t it,” Cox said.
Sunday Aryang was introduced at goal defence, joining her Fever teammates Bruce and Fowler in the goal circle.
And she almost had the immediate impact, getting a tip on a high ball to Fowler, but ultimately couldn’t stop the conversion.
Beckford had a brilliant intercept in front of Ash Brazill and suddenly the margin was back to one.
“Connie Francis willing them on,” Gaudion praised.
Wood backed her teammate Bueta when she went with the feed from the transverse, and the Firebird didn’t let her down with beautiful hands.
“The courage to let that go over the best goal keeper in the game… look at that take,” Cox praised.
By half time, it was Australia leading 30-29.
Weston returned to the court as some bad hands by Wood allowed the Sunshine Girls to draw level early in the third.
Jamaica managed to pull down another deflection but once again threw it away in the midcourt.
“That long outlet ball, if they just shortened it up and do one safety ball, I reckon they’d get themselves on the attack,” Cox said.
A rare shooter contact call on Fowler handed Australia the chance to pull away. Sterling’s cheeky pickup when Bueta put the ball down to set the penalty didn’t go unnoticed by the umpire as suddenly the lead was back out to four.
The physicality stepped up in the third, with Brazill getting under the skin of Adean Thomas and sent sprawling into the goal circle off the ball.
Once again, a Ward pick up on the circle edge ended up sailing over Fowler’s head as another turnover was wasted.
A second straight rejection from Sterling was called for obstruction as the crowd started to find their voice.
A misdirected midcourt ball ensured another turnover as the Diamonds extended the lead to six – the biggest of the match.
A strong take by Bueta over Sterling in the dying seconds pushed Australia out to a 46-40 lead at the final change.
Marinkovich went unchanged once again for the final term as Jamaican wing defender Jodi-Ann Ward came through with the deflection to help her side close within three.
Williams’ return at WA lifted the Sunshine Girls’ attack in the final term as they looked to find their rhythm to Fowler once more.
And when Wood couldn’t regather the short ball, and got done for replay, Jhaniele Fowler made the Aussies pay seconds later to close within one goal.
Liz Watson overcooked the lob to Bueta, and remarkably the Sunshine Girls took the lead with eight minutes to play.
“We haven’t seen that this game – that is the pressure. Mistakes like that have been few and far between for the Diamonds,” Cox said.
Despite Jamaican assistant coach Rob Wright pleading with his defenders to shut down Wood’s influence, it was Bueta they silenced as Wood had to step up.
And the Lightning star was up to the challenge with three successive mid-range shots.
Another Diamonds turnover, this time from Weston to her Vixens’ teammate Watson, gave Jamaica a two-goal buffer as injury time was called.
Weston headed to the bench, Bruce pushed out to GD and Sarah Klau was introduced for her first minutes of the night.
When Shamera Sterling came up with the big rejection and regather, Jamaica pushed out the lead with just a minute to play.
And in remarkable scenes, the Sunshine Girls held on in the thrilling final seconds with Shanice Beckford landing the final goal of the match.
In the end, it was Jamaica who claimed the win 57-55.
Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has left the door open for a Daniel Ricciardo to return with uncertainty surrounding his future, and that of Oscar Piastri.
Having lost Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin for 2023, Alpine announced that Australia’s Piastri would take the Spaniard’s spot next year.
But in a major bombshell to shake the F1 paddock, Piastri denied on social media that a deal had been made, and emphatically declared: “I will not be driving for Alpine next year.”
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That has sent the rumor mill into overdrive about whether Piastri has a deal secured elsewhere already — possibly at McLaren to replace the struggling Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo has a third year to run on his McLaren contract but has been under pressure, while Piastri’s manager, Mark Webber, is understood to have aggressively lobbied the team to snap up Piastri prior to Alonso’s shock departure.
Should a McLaren move materialize for Piastri, it would leave Ricciardo without a seat for 2023.
One option for Ricciardo could be an awkward return to Alpine (formerly Renault), who was disappointed in 2020 by quitting after just two seasons.
Nonetheless, the team has since undergone a change of management, while Szafnauer sees no reason why Ricciardo can’t be a potential option.
Szafnauer confirmed to motorsport.com.au that the team has already fielded numerous calls from other drivers.
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Asked about the possibility of Ricciardo returning, he pointed to the example of Alonso, whose F1 career has included two stints at McLaren, and three at Alpine-Renault.
“I mean, if you look at Fernando, for example, he comes and goes, and I think that happens to other drivers too,” he told the publication.
“And I don’t think that’s an issue at all. I think what we need to focus on is, like I say, the plans that we have for the next 89-88 races.
“We’ve got to make sure that we complement that plan with the best driver that we can, and there are some options out there for us. And we put the best driver in next to Esteban [Ocon]so that we can move forward towards what we’ve been planning.”
Nonetheless, Alpine hopes to hold onto Piastri, saying: “We believe we are legally correct in our statement (about his signing).”
Szafnauer told the publication — albeit before Piastri’s statement — that there is no reason a healthy working partnership can’t be maintained with the Australian should the team get its wish.
Footage of an American anti-abortion preacher being told to “shut up” by passengers on a packed Sydney train has gone viral online.
The three-minute clip, originally filmed in 2019, resurfaced again on Reddit this week where it has racked up tens of thousands of views.
Phillip Blair from Torch of Christ Ministries boarded the busy train at Martin Place on a Monday morning and began reading bemused commuters in the crammed space.
“Hello Sydney, allow me three minutes of your time if you don’t mind – I’m not here to offend anyone, I’m here to give you hope,” he says.
“We care more about saving the whales than we care about saving our unborn children.”
An argument is sparked when a man sitting nearby reading his book interrupts Mr Blair asking him to stop.
“Thanks, mate – thank you,” the man says.
“No, I’m not going to stop because I love you that much,” Mr Blair replies.
“You have no more right than anyone else on this bus [sic]just shut up,” the man says.
“Yeah, shut up,” another man standing up says.
Mr Blair continues preaching about Jesus Christ, before the man sitting down yells at him again.
“If you asked for our time we have the right to say no, we’re not giving it to you,” he says. “Why won’t you just shut up?”
“Because I love you that much,” Mr Blair replies. “Suddenly Sydney for your sin. Suddenly before it’s too late. There is power in the name of Jesus to save your life.”
The man tells the preacher, “I’m not forcing my opinion on everyone in this train, so why don’t you just take your opinion and keep it to yourself?”
“It’s not an opinion it’s the truth,” Mr Blair says.
He continues ranting to the passengers about sin.
Asked why he won’t keep his opinion to himself, Mr Blair replies, “Because I care about your soul. I love you.”
“I don’t care if you love me! I don’t know you,” the man replies.
“It’s a selfish world and you need to repent,” Mr Blair says.
“Who’s the selfish one here mate?” the passenger says.
“Who’s the one who won’t shut up with their opinion? How selfish is that? You’re the selfish one because you won’t shut up. Can you not see that? You’re forcing your opinion on everyone in this train. We are asking you to shut the f**k up.”
The train then erupts with cheers.
A woman chimes in towards the end of the video, “Shut up, you sound like such ad***head.”
In the video intro, Mr Blair wrote, “I always do my best to show godly love. Hearts in Australia have become hardened in a way I’ve never seen. My soul was very grieved by what happened on this train.”
The preacher received a similarly frosty reception from Sydneysiders in other videos filmed around the CBD.
Malcolm Frawley, the passenger dubbed “book man”, later spoke to The Project to reveal why he felt the need to stand up to Mr Blair.
“I think the trigger for me was hearing this loud voice start to talk about our unborn children,” Mr Frawley said.
“And I wondered whether there might be some women in that carriage who might not be interested in a conversation about unborn children that was being conducted by a man. But for me faith is a personal, maybe even private thing. If you or I wanted to sit down over a coffee or beer and discuss our beliefs that might be fine but I don’t want them inflicted on me, in public, when I’m trying to read a book.”
According to his YouTube channel, Mr Blair has since returned to the US.
In a recent video, Mr Blair says he has received a court attendance notice for preaching in Times Square, New York.
World reacts to footage of Aussies confronting US preacher
Viewers were quick to condemn the preacher for his actions as the footage went viral on the hugely popular ‘PublicFreakout’ Reddit thread this week.
“An American preaching to Aussies how to live a good life in a society that is 1000x fairer, safer, happier and better than any American society,” observed one man.
“Aussies don’t call themselves Christians but they happen to live by Christian principles of charity, compassion and acceptance. The complete opposite of most American Christians.”
“He knows that on the street people can decide whether or not they can listen to his crap. On the train they don’t have a choice – they are basically his hostages,” added another.
“He’s dripping with American exceptionalism. The entitlement of thinking you can go to foreign lands and preach to a captive audience. All while ignoring local customs.” he wrote a third.
Others praised the commuter reading a book for his no-nonsense response to the preacher, affectionately dubbing him “Australian George Lucas.”
An American woman living in Sydney has divided the internet after claiming that she did not use a handbrake on her car.
The woman, known as Brit, claimed in a now viral TikTok post that there was no need to use the handbrake except in certain circumstances because cars weren’t “rolling away”.
“If you’re American, do you use the parking brake when you drive?” she said in the video which has been viewed nearly 500,000 times and attracted over 2000 comments.
“Because I’ve never used one in my entire life but I think everyone uses them in Australia.
“And my boyfriend asks me to drive and I have to look at it and say ‘Is it on? I don’t know’.”
In a later video, Brit, who describes herself as a “Midwest girl living in Sydney”, clarified that there was only one circumstance in which she used the parking brake.
“I don’t know if the cars are built differently or something. A few people have commented and said that American cars have some sort of anti-roll s*** that Australian cars don’t,” she said.
“But the cars aren’t just f***ing rolling away guys. When you put it in park you can lean on it, you can push, it doesn’t just roll anywhere.
“We don’t need to put the parking brake on unless you’re on a really steep hill, that’s what we’re taught.”
Her post split the comments section in half, with some questioning how she was able to drive safely’.
“Que?!?! I’m American and I use them EVERYTIME! How did y’all pass your exam?,” one user said.
“This is why we see so many videos of parked cars rolling into traffic in the US,” another added.
Another user added: “Using the park break not only is a failsafe it’s to take away stress and strain from your gearbox/transmission.”
However some users from the US said that Brit was correct.
“These comments are killing me… we only use them on hills. IDK if our cars are different or what but I would never just use it,” one said.
Another added: “ONLY when i’m parked in an incline. idk why people just use them to use them. it’s not necessary.”
Qantas is battling to deal with nightmare queues at Melbourne Airport this morning after a nationwide computer outage grounded flights on Sunday evening.
Travelers looking to jet from the Victorian capital to Sydney today were met with huge lines snaking all the way to the international terminal as the airline struggled to deal with the “domino effect” caused by the IT glitch.
“(The queue) snakes all the way back pretty much to the international terminal,” Today reporter Christine Ahern said.
“On top of this, there’s a fairly long queue for the service desk as well because there are three canceled flights to Sydney. So, people are trying to be rebooked on other flights.”
According to the carrier, the issues began at 2.30pm on Sunday, with at least a dozen flights affected.
By Monday morning, several people had taken to Twitter to share angry messages about their flights being cancelled.
The latest issue to hit the embattled airline has also led to renewed calls for CEO Alan Joyce to stand down.
Hello @Qantas. Again flight cancellation W*F. ‘We are sorry we had to cancel your flight QF417 from Sydney at 06:45 on Mon 1 Aug’. Alan Joyce please resign,” wrote a Twitter user.
Qantas forced to increase costs
Recently, Qantas was also forced to cut several flights from their schedule, while hiking up the price of domestic flights due to higher fuel costs.
On Thursday, the airline said they had been pushed to “rebalance capacity and fares,” so they could increase the number of passengers flying on the remaining flights.
Prices saw an increase of up to 2.6 per cent, adding around an extra $10 per ticket. This comes as jet fuel has seen increases of 28 per cent throughout 2022, soaring at prices of around A$208 a barrel.
Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said that flights would be reduced over July and August and apologized to customers.
“We are the national carrier, people have high expectations of us, we have high expectations of ourselves and clearly over the last few months we have not been delivering what we did pre-COVID,” he said.
“We have reduced some of our flying this month and we’re planning to do the same next month, recognizing the operation pressures we have.”
