Colombia claim mixed title
By HOWARD HARDING – Squash Mad International Correspondent

After success in the women’s singles in the XVIII Pan American Games in Peru, USA added two further squash gold medals to its Lima haul after title triumphs in both the Men’s and Women’s Doubles events.

US women’s No.1 Amanda Sobhy added to her personal gold collection by partnering her younger sister Sabrina Sobhy to a straight games victory in the women’s doubles final at the Villa Deportiva Nacional Videna in the Peruvian capital.

The top-seeded Sobhy siblings successfully retained the title won four years ago in Toronto by Amanda and former world No.1 Natalie Grainger when they beat Canadian pair Samantha Cornett and Danielle Letourneau 11-10, 11-8 in 24 minutes.

Sobhy senior later told her Twitter followers: “Gold medal with the sis in the women’s doubles! Bringing this one home to the Sobhy household!”

USA then struck gold in the Men’s Doubles when Chris Hanson and Todd Harrity recovered from a game down to overcome Canadians Shawn Delierre and Nick Sachvie 6-11, 11-5, 11-8 in 46 minutes.

The 3/4 seeded US pair made their breakthrough in the semi-finals where they despatched the second-seeded hosts’ Diego Elias & Alonso Escudero in straight games.

“Yesterday was historic for Team USA squash doubles,” said Paul Assaiante, the Ganek Family US Squash Head National Coach. “It brought us goosebumps to see our men and women on top of the podium over the likes of Canada, Mexico and Peru.

“Amanda and Sabrina had to come back from 6-1 in the first game of the final and the second game was tight point by point, but they were able to pull out another doubles gold for the U.S,” Assaiante said.

“The men were another story. Do you believe in miracles? Canada jumped all over Todd and Chris in the first game. There simply didn’t seem to be any holes in their armour, but Todd and Chris picked up the pace and effectively took away their shot-making.”

Colombia claimed their first squash gold medal of the 2019 Games when Catalina Pelaez and Miguel Rodriguez justified their top-seeding in the Mixed Doubles by seeing off Diana Garcia and Alfredo Avila 11-10, 11-4 in the final.

The unseeded Mexican pairing claimed their surprise place in the final with successive victories over the No.2 seeds from Argentina and US duo Olivia Blatchford Clyne and Andrew Douglas, one of the 3/4 seeds, in the semi-finals. 

XVIII Pan American Games Squash Championship, Lima, Peru.

Men’s Doubles Semi-Finals:
[5/8] Shawn Delierre & Nick Sachvie (CAN) bt [1] Arturo Salazar & Cesar Salazar (MEX) 9-11, 11-7, 11-5 (55m)
[3/4] Chris Hanson & Todd Harrity (USA) bt [2] Diego Elias & Alonso Escudero (PER) 11-8, 11-8 (37m)
Final:
[3/4] Chris Hanson & Todd Harrity (USA) bt [5/8] Shawn Delierre & Nick Sachvie (CAN) 6-11, 11-5, 11-8 (46m)

Women’s Doubles Semi-Finals:
[1] Amanda Sobhy & Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt [3/4] Giselle Delgado & Anita Pinto (CHI) 11-5, 11-3 (13m)
[3/4] Samantha Cornett & Danielle Letourneau (CAN) bt [2] Laura Tovar & Maria Tovar (COL)
Final:
[1] Amanda Sobhy & Sabrina Sobhy (USA) bt [3/4] Samantha Cornett & Danielle Letourneau (CAN) 11-10, 11-8 (24m)

Mixed Doubles Semi-Finals:
[1] Catalina Pelaez & Miguel Rodriguez (COL) bt [3/4] Hollie Naughton & Andrew Schnell (CAN) 11-10, 11-5 (28m)
Diana Garcia & Alfredo Avila (MEX) bt [3/4] Olivia Blatchford Clyne & Andrew Douglas (USA) 11-6, 11-5 (19m)
Final:
[1] Catalina Pelaez & Miguel Rodriguez (COL) bt Diana Garcia & Alfredo Avila (MEX) 11-10, 11-4 (35m) 

Pictures courtesy of  WSF

England flanker Brad Shields will be out for up to six weeks, meaning he may not play again before the squad depart for the World Cup in Japan.

The Wasps forward, 28, returned home early from a training camp in Italy last week after injuring a foot.

He now faces a race to prove his fitness before England's World Cup opener against Tonga on 22 September.

"Brad has got a tear in the lower foot," said assistant coach John Mitchell.

"It's always a little bit niggly - and it's four to six weeks for him - but we will continue to appraise his recovery and see where he gets to."

Head coach Eddie Jones will name his 31-man World Cup squad on 12 August - the day after England's first warm-up match against Wales at Twickenham.

Jones' side then face Wales in Cardiff, with games against Ireland and Italy completing their preparations.

With experienced former captain Chris Robshaw omitted, a fully fit Shields would appear to be a near certainty for selection.

"Obviously we have got a deadline, and that is important," said Mitchell. "But there is plenty of time to go."

Defence coach Mitchell, meanwhile, played down concerns about the fitness of winger Jack Nowell, who flew back from Italy for a medical assessment on his ankle problem.

But he said he had "no idea" when the Exeter back would be available for selection, with a "clearer view" expected "once he is out of his surgical review".

"Jack is going really well," said Mitchell, who added Nowell's return home was "in his programme" and "happens with all surgical situations".

Mitchell also said lock George Kruis was back training after his ankle operation, with England running drills this week against Italy's national side in extreme humidity in Treviso.

"The heat isn't so bad, but the variance in the humidity means it takes a while to adapt," he said. "We have had some humidity ranging between 75 and 90% which makes you sweat.

"Italy were in on Monday, which was invaluable. It is always nice at some point in your preparation to train against an organised opposition you are not familiar with on a day-by-day basis."

Mitchell said there were strict parameters in place to avoid a repeat of England's training session against Georgia earlier in the year, when brawls erupted between the two sets of forwards.

"There were rules around the contact constraints, so there was no bone on bone or live contact," he said.

"It was really constructive and unemotional, which often isn't the case when forwards are up against forwards. Both countries got a lot out of it."

STATESVILLE, N.C. – Jordan Anderson Racing and Niece Motorsports have partnered to field an entry for sprint car racer Mark Smith in the Eldora Dirt Derby this week at Eldora Speedway.

“When the opportunity presented itself to put Mark Smith in a truck, it was a no brainer,” said Jordan Anderson Racing’s Jordan Anderson. “His success on the dirt has been proven over the years and it’s going to be an honor to see him get an opportunity in NASCAR on the dirt. Incredibly grateful to everyone in the shop that put in the extra hours and helped make this happen. From Mark’s partners at Selinsgrove Speedway, and NRG Controls North, to Rolando Arroyo from Traction Marketing Group, it’s been a complete team effort to make this dream a reality.”

The 48-year-old Smith, from Sunbury, Pa., is a veteran sprint car driver and co-owner of Mach 1 Chassis. This year he has earned seven sprint car victories driving his own Mach 1 Chassis house car.

Smith will drive the No. 38 Chevrolet Silverado with sponsorship from Selinsgrove Speedway and NRG Controls North.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to compete at the NASCAR level,” said Smith. “These types of opportunities typically don’t present themselves at 48 years old. I’m looking forward to strapping into the No. 38 Chevy Silverado and compete at a track that I’m very familiar with. The entire team has done a great job preparing a truck I feel confident in, and I’m hoping that we can bring home a finish that everyone will be proud of.”

CARMEL, Ind. – Kart racer Lane Vacala has joined Dreyer & Reinbold Racing for the remainder of the ARX Rallycross season and the full 2020 ARX campaign.

Vacala will drive the No. 55 DRR/Tyler Lane Construction ARX2 car beginning this weekend in the ARX of Canada doubleheader event at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec.

Vacala, 22, makes his ARX2 debut at Trois-Rivieres while continuing his successful karting career, including as a member of the Factory Compkart racing team in the J3 Competition. Lane has been a top nationally-ranked karting racer for the past five years and won the Great Lakes Sprint Series Championship in 2014.

In addition to the ARX2 action with DRR in 2019, Vacala also plans to compete in the Rotax International Trophy Race in LeMans, France and FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy events in France and the season-finale in South Africa this November.

Vacala recently tested the DRR ARX2 cars with the team and showed outstanding speed in preparing for the ARX of Canada weekend.

“We are very pleased to bring in a young driver like Lane with his past racing credentials,” said Dennis Reinbold, team owner of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. “We have been very successful bringing in karting racers in the past and Lane’s testing was impressive in our ARX2 cars. We’re anxious to see him compete this weekend at Trois-Rivieres. I think he has a great future in ARX and with our race team.”

Vacala has been a regular on the winner’s podium in karting including at the Rotax All-Stars Finals, Texas Prokart Championship, WKA Mid-Season Shootout and the USPKS Chicagoland Grand Prix. Lane has also tested the Dodge SRT Hellcat with DRR ARX Technical Director Buddy Rice.

“To be joining a team with so much knowledge and history is a dream come true,” said Vacala. “It’s an honor to be racing for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing in ARX. Coming from the karting world and having never raced on dirt before, this will be a whole new experience. I’ve been doing a lot of training and preparation for this season, and I’m excited to finally race.”

Vacala will be joined in the DRR four-car lineup this weekend at the ARX of Canada at Trois-Rivieres by other young racers Cole Keatts, 18, in the No. 53 Black Rifle Coffee Company ARX2 car and female driver Gray Leadbetter, 14,  in the No. 28 Oil2Soil machine. A future announcement will be made regarding the WIX Filters DRR ARX2 machine this coming week.

ROSSBURG, Ohio – NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series competitor Spencer Boyd will sit out Thursday’s Eldora Dirt Derby at Eldora Speedway because of a back injury.

Landon Huffman will drive the No. 20 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado in the Eldora Dirt Derby while Boyd recovers. It will be Huffman’s fourth series start.

Boyd confirmed in a tweet Tuesday that the injury happened prior to the race last week at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. He said he raced at Pocono against his doctor’s recommendations.

“For the last week I’ve had back pain that I’ve been fighting through,” Boyd said. “I went against my doctor’s advice and raced at Pocono. I’ll be taking his advice this time and sitting out Eldora and perhaps more races to heal properly.”

Thanks for the support guys. #boyd20 pic.twitter.com/ya8zEt0EnA

— Spencer Boyd (@SpencerBoyd) July 30, 2019

Boyd, in his first full season in the Truck Series, earned a best finish of fourth earlier this year in the season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway.

SOUTHLAKE, Texas – Two NASCAR veterans well known for road racing accomplishments – Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Boris Said – have filed entries for SVRA Vintage Race of Champions Charity Pro-Am at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The VROC Pro-Am race, coming this Saturday, is part of the sixth SVRA Brickyard Invitational.

“Wally and Boris are great friends to SVRA,” said SVRA President and CEO Tony Parella. “Look for them to run up front. Boris was the overall winner at our charity pro-am last September at Virginia International Raceway (VIR).”

Said amassed myriad accomplishments beginning at the onset of his career when he won SCCA Rookie-of-the-Year in 1987. He was national runoffs champion three times, in 1989, ’90, and ’91. It wasn’t long before he asserted his prominence in sports car racing with GT class wins in the Rolex 24 in 1997 and ’98, as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring, also in ’98.

In 2004 he was crowned the Rolex Sports Car Series GT champion and followed that up by becoming the first American to score a 24 Hours of Nurburgring victory in 2005. His prowess as a road racer attracted the attention of NASCAR teams and by 1995 he began racing in the Truck series where he scored a victory at Sonoma in 1998.

He raced in all three major NASCAR series, scoring eight top-10s and two poles in Cup competition, a win in the 2010 Montreal round of the Xfinity series, along with nine top 10s and three poles in Trucks, to go along with his Sonoma win. A versatile talent, Said has also competed in the Australian V8 Supercar series and even the X Games in 2007 and 2015.

Dallenbach launched his professional racing career in the Trans-Am series in 1984. He was immediately successful, winning the Rookie of the Year title. The following year he won the championship for Jack Roush’s Mercury Capri team to make him, at 22, the series’ youngest champion. He repeated as champion again in 1986 for the Protofab Camaro team.

These championships earned him an invitation to the elite IROC invitational series in 1987. Other outstanding accomplishments include four class wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Dallenbach began an eleven-year NASCAR Cup career in 1991; scoring 23 top 10s – two coming in the Daytona 500 – in 226 races.

In addition to NASCAR Cup and Trans-Am, the versatile Dallenbach has competed in NASCAR Truck, Xfinity, IndyCar, IMSA Camel GT, and a win in the open wheel division at the Pikes Peak Int’l Hill Climb. He extended his career by becoming a motorsports commentator for TNT and NBC. Dallenbach has also served as a chief steward with the Trans-Am Series Presented by Pirelli.

In addition to Dallenbach, there are seven other drivers in the VROC field with IROC on their resumes. These include Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Labonte, Geoff Brabham, Davy Jones, Roberto Guerrero, Johnny Benson, and Mark Dismore.

The VROC Charity Pro-Am presented by Chopard Watch is a Saturday feature event at the Brickyard Invitational. The cars are 1963 to 1972 vintage Corvettes, Camaros, and Mustangs of SVRA Group 6 A and B Production.  The professionals will be paired with amateur drivers. Amateurs will start the race and be required to drive a maximum of seven laps.

Forward Chris Kunitz, a four-time Stanley Cup winner, has retired after 15 NHL seasons and is joining the Chicago Blackhawks' coaching staff, the team announced Tuesday.

Kunitz spent the 2018-19 season with the Blackhawks, posting five goals and five assists in 56 games.

The 39-year-old won titles with Anaheim Ducks (2007) and Pittsburgh Penguins (2009, '16, '17) and also played for the Atlanta Thrashers and Tampa Bay Lightning. His 1,022 career games ranked 23rd among active players at the end of last season.

"I feel very fortunate to have been a part of four amazing organizations over the last 15 years," Kunitz said in a statement. "First and foremost, I'd like to sincerely thank the Anaheim Ducks, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks. Every one of these organizations was the ultimate example, not only to me, but to my children, on what true professionalism should be."

Kunitz will work in the Blackhawks' hockey operations department as a player-development adviser.

"Chris had an outstanding professional career. His four Stanley Cups and Olympic gold medal speak for themselves," Blackhawks coach Jeremy Colliton said in a statement. "While coaching him last year, I recognized what an asset he would be for our staff and the organization. I'm very pleased to have him a part of our coaching group and, also, use him as a development resource for our young players in Rockford."

When Daniel Carcillo debuted in the NHL back in 2006-07, the clichés were still intact. The fourth-line goons patrolling the ice for a few minutes per game. The ridiculous and reductive staged brawls for the coliseum crowds. All of those dusty "I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out!" jokes were still grounded in reality: 384 games featured at least one fighting major that season, or 31.2% of all games.

That NHL doesn't exist anymore when it comes to fisticuffs. In the 2018-19 season, the NHL had fewer than 200 games with a fighting major, marking the first time in the modern era that the total dipped that low. Today, the fourth-liners are cost-efficient skill players instead of goons, and staged fights are a rarity without those pugilists on the rosters.

In just more than a decade, the league that saw Carcillo amass 324 penalty minutes with 19 regular-season fights as a rookie has seen an incremental decline in fighting in every full season of the past 10. Many are saying there's no going back.

"I believe this is the new normal," said Carcillo, who had 103 career bouts and is now a leading voice for player health awareness, "and I think the game is better off without fighting, no doubt."

The final fighting tallies for the 2018-19 season were new lows across the board for the NHL in the nearly two decades of stats compiled by HockeyFights.com (with the 2018-19 season's numbers tabulated by ESPN Stats & Information). Given that the NHL didn't exactly have a pacifist streak before 2000, it's safe to assume we're seeing fighting at its nadir:

• In 1,271 regular-season games in 2018-19, there were 224 fights in which at least one player received a fighting major. That's down from 280 fights in 2017-18. The number of fights in a full season has dropped every season since 2008-09, when there were 734 fights. In 2001-02, that number was 803. From the 2000-01 season to 2009-10, the NHL averaged 669 fights per season.

• The rate for 2018-19 was 0.18 fights per game, which marks the first time that the average fights per game has dropped below 0.20. From 2000-01 to 2009-10, there were seven seasons in which the NHL had a fights-per-game average of more than 0.50.

• As stated earlier, this was the first time that the NHL had fewer than 200 games with a fighting major. From 2008 to '12, the NHL averaged 471 games with a fighting major per season.

• In 2018-19, 15.3% of regular-season games had a fight. In 2008-09, that number was 41.4%.

• Does it seem like we're seeing fewer brawl-filled games than ever? That perception is reality: Just 24 games last season had more than one fight. That's down from 41 games in 2017-18, which had been the previous low for the past two decades, at a minimum.

• Finally, 245 players engaged in a fight during the 2018-19 season. That's down from 265 players in 2017-18. This number has been declining since a recent peak of 348 players in 2010-11, which matched the totals from the fight-happy days of 2001-02.

Matthew Barnaby was one of those brawlers back in the early aughts. From 1999 to 2002, Barnaby had 59 fights while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning.

Like Carcillo, he doesn't think fighting is ever going to boomerang back into the zeitgeist for the NHL.

"No, I don't ever see it reversing," said Barnaby, who retired in 2007 and is now a cohost of The Instigators on WGR in Buffalo. "It's the way teams are being built. And having coached junior, it's not a part of that culture anymore, with all the rules in place."

Barnaby is correct that there's a confluence of factors at play. The NHL has changed dramatically since the 2005 lockout, as rule changes pushed the game into an offensive era with an emphasis on skill and skating, pushing out less skilled (and perhaps more fight-inclined) players.

"Assuming the cap system remains intact and the league retains something like the current rules scheme -- one that tends to foster a faster brand of hockey -- I am fairly confident that fighting will have a relatively marginalized existence in the game long into the future," said Stu Grimson, one of the most feared brawlers of his era (1988-2002) who is now an NHL Network analyst.

"Roster space is precious today. Managers are seeing the value of having an effective bottom six. So as managers attempt to populate the deeper parts of their rosters with players who can contribute in meaningful ways, they are probably acquiring players who may not have that [fighting] element in their skill set."

Meanwhile, lower leagues have instituted rules to discourage fighting. The Ontario Hockey League famously followed its "10-fight rule" -- in which a player could be suspended for fights above that threshold -- by dropping that bar to three fights, with incremental increases on the suspensions. Fights dropped by 48% in the OHL in 2016-17, the season following that change.

"The purpose of that was to eliminate the serial fighter, that one-dimensional player. An unexpected byproduct of the rule was a significant decrease in the overall fighting in our league," OHL vice president Ted Baker said at the time.

All of this is happening in an era of unprecedented awareness of player safety and health concerns, specifically when it comes to concussions, CTE and the effects of a physical and injurious game on a player's life well after retirement. Although there have been skeptics about fighting's link to the concussion epidemic -- NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wrote in a 2016 letter to the Committee on Energy and Commerce that "only two percent of video-analyzed concussions resulted from fighting" in the previous season -- Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation sees the downward trend as being tied to that awareness.

"As the hockey community continues to appreciate that head impacts can have significant long-term consequences, I would expect the number of fights to continue to decline," he told ESPN this week. "That said, if the NHL perceives a ratings decline caused by lack of fights, they may push for fighting to make a comeback."

The NHL declined comment for this story.

Nostalgia can be quite the enchantment, and Barnaby said the fist-filled days of yore still have their appeal.

"I loved the era that I played in and miss the rivalries that were formed," he said. "There were a lot of afternoon naps that were filled with sweaty palms, but the game has never been better and safer. Some fans are always going to miss the way it was, but I'll take watching unreal skill over the fights."

Carcillo agrees.

"Rivalries have less importance, and the NHL can no longer actively sell hate and violence and get away with it. I don't see this trend reversing, and it's a good thing that young men don't have to play hockey with a pre-requirement being that you may have to bare-knuckle box," he said.

Even in its diminished state, a ban on fighting is something for which many continue to advocate. "A fighting ban is still an appropriate goal," Nowinski said, "but based on the choices they have made, I suspect the NHL would prefer to continue to have the threat of fighting as a way to appeal to a subset of fans."

In concert with that entertainment value, Grimson believes there is a place for fighting in the modern game from a tactical perspective.

"I continue to believe that fighting in the following context is still one of the more exciting moments you'll witness in a game," he said. "If my team is flat or trailing in a game and I go out and get into a scrape with my counterpart on the other side, more often than not, I can turn momentum. From the players on the bench to the coach to the thousands in the stands ... that moment can be electrifying because the game will often turn. And no longer are you watching a match where one team is dominating. You usually end up with a closer, more exciting spectacle.

"We don't see that enough in today's game, in my estimation. And the two -- fast, skilled hockey and physical hockey -- are not mutually exclusive."

Yet in today's NHL, we're seeing one increase -- for only the second time since 1996, teams averaged more than 3.00 goals per game in 2018-19 -- while the other continues its decade-long slide into historic lows.