Ireland’s Sarah McCormack and Scotland’s Andrew Douglas are among those racing at the Snowdon International Mountain Race

A selection of the world’s best athletes will head to the Castell Howell Snowdon International Mountain Race on Saturday.

The 44th edition of the famous mountain race will host the fourth round in the 2019 WMRA Mountain Running World Cup that started in Annecy and will culminate in Ljubljana this October.

The 10-mile race scales the highest mountain in Wales before returning to finish in Padarn Park in Llanberis.

This year’s race will host teams from England, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Northern Ireland, RAF, Scotland and Wales. There will also be international athletes looking to claim valuable WMRA World Cup points.

The 2018 women’s race saw a first Welsh winner in nearly 30 years with Bronwen Jenkinson storming to victory ahead of Miranda Grant but Jenkinson is absent this time.

Sarah McCormack has won the Snowdon race on two occasions and will lead the team from the Republic of Ireland on Saturday. Her recent form includes a top 20 placing at the European Mountain Running Championships earlier this month. McCormack is also the current leader in the WMRA World Cup following the third race in Heiligenblut, Austria, last weekend.

Elisa Sortini is the sole Italian athlete in the women’s race but knows the mountain well thanks to a fourth place finish in 2015. Sortini will be riding a wave following a fifth spot at the European Championships that saw her lead her team to victory.

Hatti Archer is a former international on the track and at cross country and is now an accomplished mountain runner. She will be joined in the England team by Kelli Roberts and 2015 third-placer Katie Walshaw. Youngster Jemima Elgood completes the England team line-up.

Emma Clayton is a high-profile English athlete that will not be in their team but is likely to feature during a comeback where she looks to recapture the fitness that saw her claim a bronze medal at the 2015 WMRA World Championships in neighbouring county Conwy.

Grant will hope to improve on her runner-up spot from 12 months ago whilst leading the Scottish team. Katie Beecher, Elliw Haf and Gemma Moore will race for the hosts Wales.

Lucy Wambui of Kenya is a big name in mountain running and will be a huge race favourite on Saturday. The reigning WMRA champion and 2017 winner also claimed victory at the season opener in the French Alps earlier this summer.

Lucie Marsanova of the Czech Republic and Claire Chatterton of New Zealand will add further international flavour in the women’s contest.

Italy have been a dominant force at the event in recent years and will be led by twins Bernard and Martin Dematteisin in the men’s race. Both secured gold team medals at the 2015 WMRA World Mountain Running Championships at Betws Y Coed with Bernard also claiming individual silver.

England will be represented by the relatively unknown quartet of Dan Haworth, Michael Cayton, Billy Cartwright and Joe Baxter. Zak Hanna leads the Irish challenge, hoping to improve on a previous best performance in seventh.

Scotland’s Andrew Douglas is the current leader of the WMRA World Cup and the outright winner in the second round at the Broken Arrow Skyrace in Olympic Valley, California. The Caithness man was one of five Scottish athletes in the great Britain and Northern Ireland team in Switzerland and a member of the winning team in the senior men’s race.

Mark Hopkinson will lead the Welsh team following a win at the iconic Cader Idris race in May. Russell Bentley is a notable member of the Welsh team and is a twice winner at the nearby Snowdonia Marathon Eryri.

Open race interest here sits with Kenya’s Robert Panini, Australian Etinenne Blumstein Jones, Szabo Sandor of Hungary and American duo Joseph Gray and Sam Sahli.

Sahli was the second athlete home at the Broken Arrow race with Szabo ninth in the Californian Mountains.

Sprinter is determined to build on his European title with success on the world stage

Zharnel Hughes says last summer, which featured a European 100m title win and a PB of 9.91, was just “the tip of the iceberg” and has left him hungry for more.

The 24-year-old clocked 9.95 in Berlin to secure the first major individual gold of his senior career and he is now dreaming of a double in Doha as he looks to add world and then Olympic success to his continental triumph.

“Getting that gold medal was a surreal feeling, it was something that I’ve always dreamt about,” said Hughes, who also formed part of the winning GB and England 4x100m teams at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games in 2018.

“It can only get better. It makes me more hungry to achieve world championships golds and Olympic golds and to see what that feels like.

“Last season was just the tip of the iceberg,” adds the Jamaica-based sprinter, whose 100m best places him joint second behind Linford Christie on the UK all-time list. “It makes me more hungry but I try not to dwell too much on the past. This season is a whole different ball game.”

The game continues in London this weekend as Hughes forms part of a Diamond League 100m line-up also featuring the likes of Jamaica’s 2011 world champion Yohan Blake, South Africa’s Commonwealth champion Akani Simbine and Canada’s triple Olympic medallist Andre De Grasse, plus Hughes’ fellow Brits Adam Gemili, CJ Ujah, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Ojie Edoburun, Richard Kilty, Andrew Robertson, Oliver Bromby and James Ellington, who races for the first time since August 2016 following a motorbike crash in Tenerife in January 2017  (see the July 18 issue of AW for an in-depth interview with Ellington).

“I’m just trying my best to stay focused and get my execution done, that’s the main focus going into the race this weekend,” says Hughes ahead of the Müller Anniversary Games. “It’s not really about times, it’s not really about winning the race. Once you execute, things will come together and I’ll get the victory.

“I’m always excited to run in the London Stadium. It’s iconic. Each time you step out there, it’s sensational the feeling you get from the crowd.”

With his season’s best of 9.97 putting him joint top of this summer’s UK rankings so far, and with that European title and 9.91 PB to his name, Hughes knows he’s a target when it comes to domestic battles and is considering running both the 100m and the 200m at the British Championships in Birmingham next month as he aims to contest both events at the World Championships.

“The times I have been running so far, it’s definitely not where I want to be,” he says. “I know I’m ahead of that, it’s just that I’ve been messing up my execution a bit.

“I do know that the guys are looking at me because I won the European Championships last season and I’m running consistent nine seconds, so I’ve definitely become a target.

“The focus is to better my time leading up toward the championships. Once I get that done it gives me more confidence than I already have. Once I get through trials and all goes well, I’m healthy – I get to Doha and I just need to do what I need to do.”

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. – Despite the tremendous efforts of the Orange County Fair Speedway crew, the Super DIRTcar Series Battle of the Midway 100 has been rained out.

Rains unpredictably persisted throughout the afternoon and evening.

Super DIRTcar Series officials and Orange County Fair Speedway officials are working on a rain date, but there no future date set at this time.

Next up, the Super DIRTcar Series heads north to Quebec on Monday, July 22 at Autodrome Drummond. Then on Tuesday, July 23 the series goes to Autodrome Drummond.

SEATTLE -- Ron Francis has all kinds of eye-popping statistics attached to his Hall of Fame career. He averaged more than point a game, is second in NHL history in assists behind Wayne Gretzky and is fifth in career points.

When CEO Tod Leiweke and the ownership group of the Seattle NHL expansion team looked at his playing résumé, though, they were most impressed by another statistic: Francis was voted captain by three teams for 14 of his 23 years, first earning the role at age 21.

That leadership ability spurred them to hire Francis on Thursday as general manager of the yet-to-be-named team -- well ahead of their schedule.

"Ownership made an incredible commitment ... in supporting this idea of let's do this a year early," Leiweke said. "If we're really here working for our fans, let's reward their belief. They said we're willing to make this commitment a year early. We're willing to bring on a general manager earlier than any other expansion team in the history of the NHL and that gift of an additional year will serve us well and give us a chance to scout and build and plan. But we had to find the right person."

They believe the 56-year-old Francis is that person, announcing his hiring at a news conference that was attended by the mayor and a state senator. He'll have complete control of building the organization under Leiweke. Francis said he already has drawn up an organizational chart that will guide hiring as the team prepares to open play in 2021 as the NHL's 32nd franchise.

And he already has started daydreaming about how his team will look.

"I think if you look at my past experience, it's a team that's fast," Francis said. "I think it's a team that needs to have skill and hockey sense. I like a team that's extremely competitive. And for me I think you need a team that has character. It's easy to be a good person when things are going well. When things get a little bit tough, that's when character rises to the top and pulls you through those tough times."

Character defined Francis' playing career. Jaromir Jagr, his teammate on the 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins, called Francis perhaps the most underrated player in NHL history. After starting his career as the No. 4 overall pick in the 1981 draft for the Hartford Whalers, he played for the Penguins and the Toronto Maple Leafs before returning to the Whalers in 1998 after they moved to Carolina.

He guided that team to the Stanley Cup Final before retiring. He joined the Hurricanes' front office and worked through a number of jobs under Hall of Fame GM Jim Rutherford, including assistant GM and associate head coach. He was promoted to GM in 2014 when Rutherford left for Pittsburgh and held that position until an ownership change in 2018, a year before Carolina played in the finals.

Francis said he was depressed after leaving the Hurricanes, but found his drive again while working at the Spengler Cup and with Hockey Canada during last year's world championships.

"Getting around the NHL players again, the NHL coaches and stuff, the passion started burning again and I thought, 'OK this is really where I want to be,'" Francis said. "And when Tod called, I looked at the opportunity and said, 'What a great chance.' We get to build it from the ground up. We get to establish our culture and how we want to do it. I think it's a unique opportunity. It doesn't happen every day."

PERTH, Australia -- Manchester United legend Bryan Robson has told Paul Pogba he should not let super-agent Mino Raiola push him out of the door at Old Trafford -- and teammate Andreas Pereira said he is prepared to steal the Frenchman's phone to stop him talking to others clubs.

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Raiola has publicly declared Pogba wants to leave United this summer amid interest from Real Madrid and Juventus.

The midfielder is with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's squad for the preseason tour of Australia and the Far East and, speaking in Perth, Robson -- who spent 13 years as a player at the club -- has told Pogba to be his own man.

"He would be in my team all the time," Robson said. "One thing fans should realise is sometimes agents get involved and say things that don't come from the player.

"Players should concentrate on their own careers and make their own decisions rather than rely on agents. It's your career -- you do what you think is right. That's how I see players today. Get on and play how you want to play.

"He's a great player. He should concentrate on that. He's contracted to Manchester United and he should concentrate on playing for Manchester United."

Pereira is one of Pogba's closest friends in the squad having both come through the academy. The Brazilian is keen for him to stay and joked that he is prepared to take extreme measures to make sure they are teammates again next season.

"I might steal his phone so he don't speak to no one!" laughed Pereira. "Just in the group he is a great person. It will be very important if he stays with us, he is a very good player and top class as a person as well.

"I learn from him every day, he is one of my closest friends, have been here with him since 16, so he is like family to me."

Pereira has already seen midfielders Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera leave the club in the past six months. Another one, Fred, did not travel with the rest of the squad to Australia after being granted time off to get married. He is set to join up in Singapore or Shanghai.

It is Herrera's departure to Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer that has caused the most concern among fans. Sources have told ESPN FC United are interested in Sean Longstaff, Bruno Fernandes and Saul Niguez but Solskjaer has also suggested he has a ready-made replacement in Pereira.

"That is what I'm aiming to do," Pereira said. "With the confidence from the manager, the staff, the board with the new contract, that is what I'm aiming to do and get games.

"I feel strong. I feel that I can step up. I feel that I have to take my chance now and I will be ready to take it this season."

After the 4-0 win over Leeds United at Optus Stadium on Wednesday, the players had a recovery session at the WACA on Thursday morning before flying to Singapore in the afternoon ahead of the game with Inter Milan on Saturday.

The club have already taken steps to ensure the pitch on their next stop in Shanghai is up to scratch after the Manchester derby at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium was called off in 2016.

Staff have visited the Hongkou Stadium four times since November and have also received weekly reports from ICC organisers, Relevent.

United groundsman Dave Lindop is also set to fly to China ahead of the team to check on the pitch with rain forecast in Shanghai around the game.