OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (AP) — Gout Gout is 17, he’s being compared with Usain Bolt and he has lowered his national record in his first professional race in Europe.

The Australian high school senior improved his own national record when he won the 200 meters at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava in 20.02 seconds. It’s not the fastest he’s ever run over the half-lap sprint, but it’s gaining him more attention.

Gout posted two wind-assisted times under 20 seconds, clocking 19.84 and 19.98 at the national championship at Perth in April, but neither was considered legal because the wind was above allowable threshholds.

Even without those two sub-20 times, he’s still in the top seven all-time for Under-20s, a list that includes Bolt, the great Jamaica sprinter who dominated the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.

At age 16 last December, Gout ran 20.04 seconds to win the 200 at the national high school championships and break a 56-year-old national record over that distance set by 1968 Olympic silver medalist Peter Norman.

Running in Lane 6 at Ostrava on Tuesday — the timing made it perfect for Wednesday morning TV news shows back in Australia — Gout finished powerfully to surge past Cuba’s Reynier Mena on his inside over the last 30 meters.

“Another national record! Pretty happy with that. It’s not a bad first-up in Europe,” he said. “I’ve felt stronger in training these last couple of months and I’ve felt good since I got to Europe last Thursday.”

Gout was born in Ipswich, near Brisbane, in Queensland state. His parents are South Sudanese immigrants who moved to Australia in 2005.

Gout will race again in Europe next month before returning to Australia for some school work and preparation for the world championships in Tokyo in September.

___

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

The Cotuit Kettleers (2-7) ended a six-game losing streak with a 6-2 win over the Brewster Whitecaps on Tuesday.

The Whitecaps (6-3), who started the season with six victories in a row, have dropped their last three outings.

The Kettleers overturned a one-run deficit on the top of the third inning on a wild pitch that helped score two runs. The Whitecaps had four errors in the game, as P.J. Moutzouridis (California) also scored on a throwing error in the seventh.

Nebraska’s Case Sanderson and Stanford’s Luke Lavin, who went 2-for-4 with a run scored and a RBI, both pushed insurance runs across in the ninth inning to make it a 6-2 game.

Leadoff man Jarren Advincula (California) and Moutzouridis both tallied a pair of hits and scored twice. Anderson French (Virginia Tech) also had a multi-hit game (2-for-4) and scored a run.

Stetson’s James Hays had a strong start for Cotuit. He pitched 4 2/3 innings, gave up three hits, two runs (one earned) and recorded seven strikeouts. Arizona State’s Cole Carlon (2 1/3 innings, one hit and two strikeouts) secured his first win, while Tyler Albanese (San Jose State), who pitched two hitless and scoreless innings, picked up the save.

The Whitecaps scored lone runs in the second and fifth innings, including on a Wake Forest’s Dalton Wentz (2-for-3 and one RBI) single. Manny Marin (Tennessee) drove in a run and reached on a fielding error.

Tyler Schmitt (Illinois) lasted three innings in the loss, where he gave up three hits, two runs (both earned), three walks and recorded two strikeouts.

In other Cape Cod Baseball League action:

Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox 13, Wareham Gatemen 7

The Red Sox (6-2-1) used a three-run and pair of four-run innings to pull away from the Gatemen (4-5).

Southern California’s Brayden Dowd (3-for-4, three runs scored and one RBI) set the tone with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. The Red Sox then overturned a 3-2 deficit with two homers in the bottom of the fourth inning off the bats of Cody Miller (East Tennessee) and AJ Soldra (UCONN).

The Gatemen fought back with a three-run fifth inning that saw them take a 6-5 lead after Caden McDonald (Florida) hit a two-run blast and Chris McHugh (North Carolina State) added a solo shot.

That would be the Gatemen’s last lead.

Georgia Tech’s Alex Hernandez (three RBIs) and Miller both drove in runs before Yomar Carreras (Rutgers) singled to add two more to give Yarmouth-Dennis a 9-6 advantage in the bottom of the fifth inning.

A Ty Dalley (Mercer) single put Wareham within 9-7, but the Red Sox pulled away with four runs in the eighth inning.

Maryland’s Chris Hacopian finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a RBI for Cotuit, while Miller had two hits, scored twice and recorded three RBIs. Carreras was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

Cody New (California Baptist) picked up the win on the mound to improve to 1-1 on the season. He pitched 2 1/3 innings, gave up five hits, including two homers, four runs (all earned) and struck out three.

McDonald was on the losing end of the decision after he allowed four hits and four runs (all earned) in just one inning of work.

Dalley went 4-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored for the Gatemen, who were 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and they left eight on base.

Allen Gunn covers high school sports for the Cape Cod Times. You can contact him at agunn@gannett.com and follow him on X at @allentgunn.

Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Cape Cod Times subscription. Here are our subscription plans.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod Baseball League scores and highlights from June 24.

Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano is hoping that Lionel Messi’s memories of his unhappy time at Paris Saint-Germain will fire him up for Sunday’s clash between the two teams in the Club World Cup.

Miami were surprise qualifiers from Group A after beating Porto and drawing with Palmeiras and Al Ahly and now face the daunting task of playing the recently crowned European champions.

Messi joined Miami after two seasons in the French capital and made clear he had not enjoyed his time with PSG.

“It’s clear that it would better for us if he was angry, because he’s one of those players who, when he has something in mind, gives a bit extra,” Mascherano told ESPN.

The Argentine coach was clear though that the emotions will be less than if Messi were up against PSG on European soil rather than facing his old team in Atlanta.

“I think that’s in the past now, it’s another story. Also, the fact that it’s here in the United States, I don’t think the atmosphere will be the same, but what we will try to do is play a great game. We know that in order to have a chance, we have to play a perfect game, and well, we’ll go for it,” he said.

After joining Miami in Major League Soccer, Messi reflected on his time in Paris saying it had been “difficult”.

“I spent two years that I didn’t enjoy. I wasn’t happy on a day-to-day basis, with the training sessions, the games, I found it hard to adapt to all that,” he said.

The eight-times Ballon d’Or winner will face a very different PGS to the one that he left with the club having been transformed under Spanish coach Luis Enrique.

Luis Enrique is a familiar face for several of the Miami team who played under him at Barcelona.

– ‘He’s the best’ –

Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Messi and Mascherano all featured for Enrique’s Barca, winning the treble under him in 2015.

“I’ve said it infinite times: For me, he’s the best – I think not just as a coach, but also how he manages the group,” said Alba, who also worked with Luis Enrique with the Spanish national team.

“He’s a phenomenon. I’m excited to see him, as well as his entire staff. I’ll give him a hug but when the ref blows the opening whistle, try to beat him. Which is what all of us here are trying to do” added the left-back.

Suarez, who scored in the 2-2 draw with Palmeiras on Monday, was also full of praise for the Spanish coach.

“For me, along with Maestro (Oscar) Tabarez of the (Uruguay) national team, he was the most important coach of my career, for what they taught me, for what I learned in the day-to-day with them,” he said.

“He’s a coach who influenced me greatly. I already had a competitive DNA, but he injected even more into me. He taught me how to move within a space where I had to play a role I wasn’t used to, not touching the ball a lot … Not to mention on a personal level, a relationship of great respect and admiration for what he generated for us as players.”

Mascherano, in his first club coaching job, said he remains a personal friend of the PSG coach and his family.

“That is the beautiful thing about football sometimes. You face these kind of things and, well, in my opinion, I do not deserve this as a coach just yet. But yes, it will be a very beautiful opportunity. I always wish him all the best; that won’t be the case for Sunday. I hope luck will be on our side on Sunday. But yes, I have a very good relationship with him. I appreciate him a lot,” he said.

sev/rcw

The Golden State Warriors have had over 600 players don the more than 60 jersey numbers used by their players over the more than 75 years of existence the team has enjoyed in its rich and storied history.

Founded in 1946 during the Basketball Association of America (BAA — a precursor league of the NBA) era, the team has called home the cities of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, and even San Diego.

 To commemorate the players who wore those numbers, Warriors Wire is covering the entire history of jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. For this article, we begin with the 22nd of 27 players who wore the No. 15 jersey for the Warriors.

That player would be Golden State forward alum Bill Curley. After ending his college career at Boston College, was picked up with the 22nd overall selection of the 1994 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs.

The Boston, Massachusetts native would play the first season of his pro career with the Detroit Pistons instead however, traded there a few weeks after the draft. He would also have stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets before he signed with the Dubs late in 1999 for his first of two stints, separated by five games with the Dallas Mavericks.

The second lasted just 15 games, his last in the NBA. During his time suiting up for the Warriors, Curley wore only jersey Nos. 15 and 30 and put up 3.2 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Warriors Wire: Warriors jersey history – No. 15 – Bill Curley (1999)

The Boston Celtics are in the middle of one of their busiest weeks in modern memory in terms of team building, trading away core pieces of their 2024 title team while trying to remain contenders in the near-term future and also getting cheap enough to slide under the second apron. Did we mention the 2025 NBA draft is also almost upon us?

Boston’s front office has a host of stuff going on to set the team up for the chase for Banner 19, theoretically capable of starting as soon as late next season if the best-case scenario for Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury plays out. But even as unlikely as that is, it is clear that the Celtics plan to thread the needle these goals call for, and have done much of the work by dealing away Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis. In this week’s show, “Havlicek Stole the Pod” has Daniel Donabedian of ClutchPoints joining hosts Alex Goldberg and Justin Quinn to break down how these moves impact Boston’s future, as well as what we would do at the 2025 draft if we were in charge of the Celtics.

There was also a ton of news to reflect on, from Lakers sales and the 2025 NBA Finals among many other things, so tune into this busy and important episode of the show.

This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: On Jrue, Porzingis trades, what we’d do in the draft with Daniel Donabedian

The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the “New Jersey Americans”.

Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today.

To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise’s jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team. The 21st of those 52 different numbers is jersey No. 20, which has has had a total of 28 players wear the number in the history of the team.

The seventh of those players wearing No. 20 played in the (then) New York/New Jersey (now, Brooklyn) Nets era, forward Jan van Breda Kolff. After ending his college career at Vanderbilt, van Breda Kolff was picked up with the 20th overall selection of the 1974 NBA draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Palos Verdes, California native would play the first season of his pro career with the Denver Nuggets instead, then in the ABA. He also played for the (defunct) Virginia Squires and (also defunct) Kentucky Colonels before he was drafted by New York in the Colonels dispersal draft in 1976.

His stay with the team would span seven seasons, his last in the NBA. During his time suiting up for the Nets, van Breda Kolff wore only jersey Nos. 20 and 22 and put up 6.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets jersey history No. 20 – Jan van Breda Kolff (1978-82)

Dodgers’ Trade Idea Adds Rays’ 2.15 ERA Reliever Pete Fairbanks originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

With the MLB trade deadline just over a month away, it’s the season of trade proposals. The Los Angeles Dodgers, as usual, are one of the top teams in MLB and are expected to be busy ahead of the deadline.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan recently listed Tampa Bay Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks as a potential trade target for the Dodgers.

If there was a trade that made too much sense, this may be it. The Dodgers’ bullpen has not been good this season. It ranks in the bottom half of MLB, despite its five best arms averaging about a 3.50 ERA.

Fairbanks is having a very strong season behind a 2.15 ERA and a 1.159 WHIP with 13 saves. His addition to the Dodgers’ bullpen would immediately give them their best arm and potentially a closer battle with Tanner Scott.

Pete Fairbanks fired up😤

Rays win the series opener pic.twitter.com/oN7ISJLYvq

— Jake (@TBRaysCentral) May 24, 2025

The only caveat: Would the Rays be willing to give up Fairbanks, and what would the price be?

The Rays currently sit at 43-35, just two games back from the New York Yankees in the NL East. Tampa Bay is currently the top wild-card team and would make the playoffs if they started today.

Fairbanks is the Rays’ closer and a veteran reliever on a team that looks primed for a run in October. However, the Rays have proven to be one of the best teams in the league at finding diamond-in-the-rough pitchers, developing young guys into lights-out arms.

Despite Fairbanks’ impressive numbers this season, he’s the third-best reliever – ERA-wise – the Rays have. Eric Orze holds a 1.97 ERA across 32 innings, and Manual Rodríguez has a 2.08 ERA across 30.1 innings.

Fairbanks is due about $3.8 million in 2025, with a club option of $8 million in 2026. The Rays’ closer fits the Dodgers’ pitching style with his 97 mph fastball and 85 mph slider with a changeup mixed in.

The Rays are well within the playoff hunt, but Tampa Bay has demonstrated the willingness to let key arms go and rely on young, up and coming young arms to take over. The Rays could send Fairbanks to the Dodgers and receive a young prospect in return.

Fairbanks would add a huge strength to the Dodgers’ bullpen and position Los Angeles in the perfect spot for another World Series run.

Related: MLB Writer Pitches Interesting Dodgers Trade Deadline Strategy

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 24, 2025, where it first appeared.

Red Sox Reportedly Looking to Make Major Trade Deadline Move After Rafael Devers Decision originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

After the Boston Red Sox decided to move on from Rafael Devers in a blockbuster deal with the San Francisco Giants, it only makes sense if they sell at the deadline, right?

Well, that doesn’t sound like it’ll be the case. According to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, things are trending towards the Red Sox acquiring a big bat, adding that Boston is also going to be on the lookout for a starter and bullpen help.

“The trade of Devers could make the Red Sox appear as though they’re in sell-off mode, but given how the club has performed of late, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them pursue another big bat for the lineup to attempt to replace Devers,” McCaffrey wrote. ” It’s still too early for the Red Sox to proclaim themselves as buyers or sellers.

“A nosedive in the wake of the Devers trade over the next few weeks would surely push them toward selling, but at this juncture, it’s very much trending toward the Red Sox being buyers. In addition to a bat, starting pitching depth and bullpen help will be priorities.”

The Red Sox have been one of the more disappointing teams in Major League Baseball, but have played decently recently. It’s tough to get a good feel for them, considering they moved on from Devers, but they’re 6-4 in their last 10.

If things continue to go this way for Boston, which many expected it to go into the year, the Red Sox should have a chance to make the postseason at least.

Related: Red Sox Trade Idea Swaps Gold Glove Winner in Package for Brewers’ All-Star

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 24, 2025, where it first appeared.