Sport shorts: Sturgeon slams Rangers fans over title celebrations

1. Sturgeon: mass gatherings were infuriating and disgraceful

Football

It was party time for the blue half of Glasgow last night after Rangers were confirmed as Scottish champions for the first time in ten years. Despite Covid restrictions, supporters gathered outside the club’s Ibrox stadium and in the city’s George Square to hail Steven Gerrard’s title winners.

The mass gathering of fans was condemned by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who warned that the celebrations could jeopardise plans to ease coronavirus measures, The Guardian reports.

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Urging the club to tell fans to go home, she tweeted: “I share folks’ anger at this. Everyone has made so many sacrifices in the past year and seeing a minority risk our progress is infuriating and disgraceful. It is deeply unfair to the entire country, and the police have a hard enough job already. Please ask fans to go home Rangers FC.”

2. A bad weekend for Man City and Liverpool

Football

South of the border there was not much to celebrate for Manchester City and Liverpool fans. Champions-elect City saw their 21-match winning run come to a halt after losing at home in the Manchester derby against rivals United. Bruno Fernandes and Luke Shaw were on target in Man Utd’s impressive 2-0 win at the Etihad. While on Merseyside defending champions Liverpool lost for the sixth successive home game - this time 1-0 against Fulham.

Liverpool are a “club in crisis” said Perry Groves on talkSPORT and he warned that Anfield boss Jurgen Klopp could walk away if he doesn’t feel he has the backing of the fanbase. “If he hasn’t then it’s up to him to decide if he goes or not,” said Groves. “If Liverpool fans do start turning against him, he’s the sort of manager that will go ‘if you’re not behind me, I’ll go.’”

3. Prize money: cricket takes ‘biggest strides’ to narrow gender gap

Cricket

A BBC Sport study has found that the “overwhelming majority” of sports now offer equal winning prize money to men and women at the top level. In the study of 48 sports, the biggest gaps in prize money are in football, golf and basketball while cricket has “taken the biggest strides to narrow the gap”, the broadcaster reports.

Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston said: “Women’s sport continues to go from strength to strength. It’s absolutely right that the rewards match that success and we have seen a significant levelling up in the prize money on offer in recent years. We must continue to push for greater participation, employment, commercial opportunities and visibility in the media for women’s sport, to keep up this momentum.”

4. Hodgkinson, 19, wins 800m gold at Euro indoors

Athletics

Teenager Keely Hodgkinson won gold in the 800m as Britain matched their record medal haul at the European Indoor Athletics Championships. After winning 12 medals in Glasgow two years ago, Team GB repeated the feat with seven medals on the final day in Toruń, Poland.

Hodgkinson, who turned 19 last Wednesday, won the 800m in a time of 2min 03.88sec. After the race she said: “I’ve always thought it doesn’t matter how old you are, as long as you’re healthy and doing things right you can be capable of anything. You’ve just got to believe in yourself and not be intimidated by the older girls.”

5. DeChambeau leads FedExCup standings after Bay Hill victory

Golf

There was a thrilling end to the Arnold Palmer Invitational as Bryson DeChambeau beat Lee Westwood by one shot to claim the title at Bay Hill. American golfer DeChambeau now leads the FedExCup standings after his second PGA Tour victory of the season.

“It’s beyond my wildest dreams [to win] Mr Palmer’s event,” said DeChambeau. “I came here as an amateur, he gave me an invitation, and I loved this golf course the minute I arrived. I love the atmosphere and I love the fans. I loved what Mr Palmer did with this place and what he’s done and his legacy he’s left here. It’s quite amazing.”