1) Autumn Finney, a senior at Decatur High School in Texas, comes up with the amateur volleyball play of the year, featuring a superhuman dive. And here it is from another angle. And here’s the full video, including a slowmotion shot which captures the full ridiculousness of it all.
2) The Rugby League World Cup kicks off on Friday, so here’s a look back at some memorable moments from the past: first, Great Britain beating France in 1954 in the very first World Cup staged in either code. In the 1972 final (in front of a tiny crowd of 4,000 in Lyon), Graeme ‘Changa’ Langlands scored the greatest try that never was after the referee disallowed his legitimate effort because he simply didn’t believe it could have been achieved legally – his leaping catch is astonishing. It would be the last World Cup final Australia lost for 36 years as they claimed six consecutive titles … until New Zealand came along in 2008 for the biggest upset in the sport (incidentally, the tournament featured plenty of slightly troubling biff). Did it mark a sea change in the game? Nope, Australia won it again in 2013.
3) Goalkeepers: never celebrate a penalty miss unless you’re certain, and particularly not to settle shootouts that have gone to 19-19. It’s not like there haven’t been warnings in the past. While we’re on the subject of penalties, these old chestnuts are always worth revisiting: this one is just passing Jupiter, this one is nearer Saturn, this is an amusing dummy, and this one is too clever for its own good.
4) When you score a three-pointer in the dying seconds of the game … only for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins’s buzzer beater to knock the wind out of your sails.
5) The leading group at the Venice marathon make the mistake of thinking that the motorbike in front of them knows where it is going.
6) And here’s a piece of training ground mastery by Borussia Dortmund’s Raphaël Guerreiro, enhanced by the bird’s-eye view.
1) Ballboy casually plucks Virat Kohli six out of the sky. One-handed.
2) A goal-mouth scramble for the ages.
3) Fake referee runs onto pitch, bench-clearing, pitch-wide brawl ensues. Meanwhile, dummy quarter-back: always a winner.
4) Unlikely crowd-trouble at the snooker, unlikely denouement.
5) And finally the trailer to BASE, the documentary about the base jumper Alexander Polli, who died in 2016, looks terrifying and fascinating in equal measure. Read more about it here.
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