Dynamic New Athletics (DNA) makes its debut, with Bogdan Bondarenko and Pavel Maslák among the biggest names on show in Minsk

Using the new “DNA” (Dynamic New Athletics) format which traditionalists will either love or loathe, athletics forms part of the second edition of the multi-sport European Games, to which British Athletics has chosen not to send a team.

The 24 countries’ mixed-gender line-ups at the event in Minsk, Belarus, which features athletics action from June 23 to 28, will face each other in six-way knockout matches over four rounds, including the final.

Each match is composed of nine events – men’s 100m, women’s long jump, women’s javelin, women’s 100m, mixed 4x400m relay, men’s 110m hurdles, men’s high jump, women’s 100m hurdles and the hunt (mixed medley relay).

Within each match, the winner scores 12 points for the win, 10 points for second, eight points for third and so on.

After eight events, these points will determine the starting positions in the final event, the hunt. This handicap medley relay runs as 800m (men), 600m (women), 400m (men), 200m (women). The team in the lead after eight events will start first and subsequent teams will then be set off at intervals afterwards, with each point representing approximately 0.333 seconds.

Gold, silver and bronze will be awarded for the best teams in the final. Individual medals for each discipline will be awarded based on the best performances in the qualification matches held on day one.

The semi-finals are on June 26 and the final is on June 28. A schedule can be found here.

The participating nations, including Germany, Poland, France, Spain and Ireland, have sent what are in many cases far from their top teams.

World indoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak of Czech Republic, European 100m hurdles champion Elvia Herman of Belarus and European 100m bronze medallist Jak Ali Harvey are among the biggest names on show.

Former European 400m hurdles champion Sara Slott Petersen lines up for Denmark, while Ireland’s team includes sprinter Luke Lennon-Ford and hurdler Paul Byrne.

Bogdan Bondarenko competes for Ukraine and speaking with European Athletics about the new DNA format the 2013 world high jump champion said: “I appreciate all the efforts of global and European Athletics to bring our sport to the new level and make it much more attractive for spectators.

“Athletics should continue to develop in a modern fashion. That is why I’m really excited to try a new and very interesting format of our event as part of DNA in Minsk.

“I’m wondering how the high jump duels will run as we will have only three attempts. I always liked such tactical games so much. It’s how I have competed for many years.”

Wales are set to play two Tests in New Zealand in July 2020.

The trip to his home country will be new coach Wayne Pivac's first tour in charge of Wales, after he takes over from fellow Kiwi Warren Gatland following the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew has confirmed the All Blacks will host Wales twice and Scotland once in July.

Dates and venues are still to be confirmed.

New Zealand will also have a new coach in charge, as Steve Hansen - himself a former Wales head coach - will also step down from his role after the World Cup.

Wales have never won a Test in New Zealand and have not beaten them since 1953, with the All Blacks having won 31 games and Wales just three between the two nations.

Out-of-contract Scotland scrum-half Sam Hidalgo-Clyne has joined French Top 14 side Racing 92 to provide injury cover.

The 25-year-old, capped 12 times, left Scarlets by mutual consent last week after a year in Llanelli.

He has signed for Racing as a medical joker, easing the burden on the squad during the Rugby World Cup period.

The club are set to be without first-choice scrum-half Maxime Machenaud, who is likely to be in the France squad for the global showpiece in Japan.

A former Pro12 young player of the year, Hidalgo-Clyne spent the latter part of last season on loan at Harlequins in the English Premiership, after joining Scarlets from Edinburgh a year ago.

Last capped in June 2018, he will link up with Scotland fly-half Finn Russell at his new club in Paris.

He is not part of Gregor Townsend's World Cup training squad, and will join his new team-mates on 1 July.

Racing finished fourth in last term's Top 14 before being knocked out of the play-offs by La Rochelle, and reached the European Champions Cup quarter-finals, where they suffered a narrow defeat by Toulouse.

SONOMA, Calif. – After Denny Hamlin won his second Daytona 500 in February, his sponsor FedEx offered Hamlin the opportunity to design his throwback paint scheme for the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

FedEx asked Hamlin to design two schemes and have Joe Gibbs Racing employees vote on which one would hit the track for the Southern 500. Hamlin chose to honor Darrell Waltrip, who announced recently he was retiring from his role as a commentator on FOX Sports NASCAR broadcasts.

The shop voted in early June for a car similar to the one Waltrip drove to his final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win – at Darlington Raceway – in 1992.

“When FedEx asked me to design my Darlington scheme, it was right around the time that Darrell announced his retirement, so it was an easy decision for me,” Hamlin said. “Darrell carried the banner for the No. 11 car for so many years, and I’ll be proud to drive this throwback scheme in his honor in September.”

“This was one of my favorite cars.  We had a lot of good days in it,” said Waltrip. “That No. 11 is special as it is one of the winningest numbers in NASCAR.  Can’t thank Denny and FedEx enough and I look forward to seeing it in victory circle.”

DENVER, N.C. – Ryan Repko may have had an unorthodox way of breaking into the national spotlight, but he made his journey pay off last weekend with an appearance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports.

Repko, a 19-year-old who recently wrapped up his freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, made two rather-stratospheric leaps to reach the point he’s at now in his racing career.

He began racing in quarter midgets, like most of his peers, but made the jump straight from quarter midgets up into limited late models and late models during his teenage years – bypassing the traditional stop-gap step of Bandoleros and Legend cars that many others have used to foster short-track success.

From there, Repko hung in among the best in late-model racing before making his ARCA Menards Series debut with Mason Mitchell Motorsports in the summer of 2017 – a leap from late models straight into national, full-sized stock cars which skipped the NASCAR K&N Pro Series or similar developmental levels.

Fast forward to last Sunday, and Repko found himself at the wheel of Johnny Davis’ iconic No. 01 Chevrolet Camaro, making his debut start in the Xfinity Series at Iowa Speedway.

“I don’t necessarily recommend doing the whole racing thing how we did it, but at least in our case, it’s worked out OK,” said Repko. “I recommend doing the Legend car step, at least, between quarter midgets and late models. I remember, our first limited (late model) race I went out thinking I had this, and we went out and ran 10th or so after winning a bunch in quarter midgets. It was a culture shock.

“A lot of that comes down to funding, and that’s a place that’s obviously vital in this sport, but we’ve certainly made the best of the opportunities we’ve had and I’m thankful we’ve now been able to make it to this kind of a stage where I can show a bit more of what I’m capable of.”

Though Repko finished five laps behind the leaders in 22nd, he was second among the four JD Motorsports cars entered in the 250-lap event, behind only teammate Tyler Matthews in 20th.

A sold result didn’t mean there wasn’t anxiety beforehand, however.

“I had extreme nerves all weekend, because I’m an overthinker,” Repko admitted. “I was more or less scared out of my mind. In my head, there were all these different mistakes that I could have made, but I feel like I did a pretty good job of not being noticed for mistakes.

“At the first yellow, though, I couldn’t help but think, ‘We’re here. We did it.’”

Repko had a steep learning curve throughout the weekend, mostly because the majority of Xfinity Series practice was rained out, but kept his car in one piece and brought it home with hardly a scratch on it.

“When I was getting ready for qualifying … you want to drive it as hard as you can, but then you start thinking, ‘well, what if it doesn’t stick?’” noted Repko. “Luckily, we didn’t have that happen, but we didn’t qualify where we wanted to – mostly because I only had 20 laps of practice due to the rain. I got enough laps to think about overnight, and that was about it.

“As far as the race went, I feel like I learned a lot. The cars drive a little bit like the ARCA cars, but you don’t feel them roll quite as much,” Repko explained. “Other than Daytona (for a test session), that was the biggest track I had ever been on, so I had a lot to learn. I feel like we did alright, though.”

Of all his memorable moments from the weekend, however, there was one that stood out for Repko – perhaps because it was just as unorthodox as the rest of his journey to this point.

“I almost fell out of the truck when they were starting the ride-around (lap) after driver intros,” Repko laughed. “That was called not paying attention, and not realizing that they take off that fast. I was just taking it all in, and then it’s like, ‘whoa, we’re moving!’ They put handles on those things for a reason.

“It was a rookie mistake, but it’s something we can laugh about now, for sure.”

Repko isn’t sure when his next Xfinity Series start with JD Motorsports will be at this juncture, but his focus is more set on the big picture than the individual pieces of the puzzle.

“We’re going to run multiple races with JD, but I’m looking long-term,” Repko said. “I don’t want to have any sort of bad reputation in the sport and I don’t want to go anywhere. Hopefully, this is just the first step to even more great things.

“We have to assess how I did over the weekend and what I need to improve on before we nail down the next step more specifically, but we’ll be back before too long.”

SONOMA, Calif. – After securing the pole for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in each of the last two years, Kyle Larson is hoping to break through for his first win at the California road course.

He got that mission off to a fast start on Friday afternoon, turning the fastest lap across a pair of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practices at the 2.52-mile, 12-turn track.

Larson posted a time of one minute, 35.026 seconds (95.469 mph) with his No. 42 Credit One Chevrolet during final practice, more than half a second clear of anyone else in that 80-minute session and nearly a tenth and a half better than the second-best lap of the day.

The Elk Grove, Calif., native is still seeking his first Cup Series win of the season and a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.

Behind Larson, the next four fastest laps overall were all turned during the opening practice round on Friday.

Martin Truex Jr., the 2017 Cup Series champion and defending Sonoma race winner, was second-quick overall and fastest in first practice with the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota at 1:35.168 (95.326 mph).

Truex is seeking his fourth win of the year and is tied with Kyle Busch among active drivers for the most Cup Series victories at Sonoma Raceway.

Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney ended the day third overall with a time of 1:35.299 (95.195 mph) in his No. 12 PPG Ford, followed by Chris Buescher’s No. 37 Hellmann’s Chevrolet at 1:35.454 (95.041 mph) in fourth.

Completing the top five was another past Sonoma winner in seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, whose No. 48 Ally Chevrolet turned a best lap of 1:35.460 (95.035 mph).

Johnson won at Sonoma in 2010.

Sixth through 10th on the overall speed charts were Kurt Busch, Michael McDowell, Alex Bowman, Clint Bowyer and Aric Almirola.

Friday marked the first time since 1997 that NASCAR has utilized the full-course layout at Sonoma, featuring an extra half-mile of distance between turns four and seven.

Kyle Busch was 11th-fastest on the day (1:36.170/94.333) after missing the carousel and spinning during final practice, while an impressive effort was turned in by Gaunt Brothers Racing’s Parker Kligerman, who posted the sixth-quickest lap of final practice and was 13th-best overall in the No. 96 TRD 40th Anniversary Toyota.

Qualifying for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is set for 3 p.m. ET on Saturday.

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Alexander Rossi believes that when a race car is at its best, driving at high speeds around the 4.014-mile, 14-turn Road America road course can be “a blast.”

But even in the best conditions, it can be a long lap around one of the longest road courses on the NTT IndyCar Series schedule.

“It’s a big lap,” Rossi said. “If things are going well, it’s fun. If the car is not quite where you want it, it’s a long time out there struggling, so … it can go either way.
“In general driving an Indy car at Road of America is pretty awesome.”

Rossi was awesome for Andretti Autosport on Friday, as the NTT IndyCar Series star was the fastest in Friday’s combined practice sessions with a fast time at 1:43.1206 (140.131 mph).

Rossi’s laps were fast and sometimes highly aggressive, showing that sometimes, smooth is not fast.

“I think we gave up a lot of time in turn six and turn 13 on that lap,” Rossi said of one of his faster trips around Road America on Friday. “We should be a bit better than what we were.

“It’s always interesting, though. We come to these tracks where not a lot theoretically has changed, but the car that you had pretty good performance with and balance with the previous year doesn’t necessarily translate the same the next year. It’s something we all have to stay on top of and continue chasing.

“I’m not too happy with the car right now. I mean, I’m pleased obviously there’s pace in it, but it’s a handful to drive. Hopefully we can make that a bit better for tomorrow. The race running is pretty substantially different. The tires seem the alternate tires definitely do have a falloff. We’re all trying to understand what that is and what that looks like come Sunday.”

Rossi has yet to win at Road America in his three previous attempts. It’s a track that often favors the leader of the race, so qualifications will be very important on Saturday afternoon.

“I think we’ve been strong here, pace-wise,” Rossi said. “The end result has never been really great on Sundays for one reason or another, but I think in general, the team has been pretty strong here.

“We came here obviously looking to make this one of our tracks that we’ve had good results at, hopefully after this weekend. I think the team is doing a good job. I think all cars are working in a positive direction.
“We’ll just have to stay on top of the track as it evolves, which is always key on these weekends with ever-changing track conditions.”

Team Penske driver Will Power was second in a Chevrolet at 1:43.4089 (139.740 mph). Power’s Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden was third at 1:43.4758 (139.650 mph), while rookie Colton Herta was fourth in a Honda at 1:43.7415 (139.292 mph).

Another rookie in Felix Rosenqvist rounded out the top five at 1:43.7464 (139.286 mph).

“It’s a great track,” Rossi continued. “It’s always a privilege to come here. It’s nice to be able to stretch our legs a bit in terms of the lap distance. The only other track we have similar is COTA. It was a great race for us.

“I think all the drivers are of the same kind of opinion: we love driving here. The fan turnout is always amazing. The autograph session today was fantastic. It’s a real privilege.”