Sport

Japan are hosting the Rugby World Cup tournament 2019, across many different stadiums and cities throughout September and October with the final being on 2nd November 2019.

Have you ever wondered, when your watching the games, who are the heaviest players on the rugby pitch?

Well here’s the top ten players who weigh between 127kg (19.9 Stone) up to an almighty 153kg, which is approximately 24 stone!

Top of the list is Ben Tameifuna the tight head prop from Tonga who weighs in at 153kg (approx 24 stone).

In second place is Taniela Topou, another tight head prop this time from Australia.  He weighs 135kg (approx 21 stone).

The next few players are relatively the same weight:-

• Michael Alaatoa, a prop for Samoa, weighs 132kg (approx 20.7 stone);
• Eroni Mawi, a prop for Fiji, weighs 131kg (approx 20.6 stone);
• Tomas Francis, a tight head prop for Wales, weighs 130kg (approx 20.4 stone);
• Leroy Atalifo, another prop for Fiji, weighs 130kg (approx 20.4 stone);
• Ofa Tuungafasi is a prop for New Zealand and weighs 129kg (approx 20.3 stone);
• Atu Moli is a prop for New Zealand and weighs 127kg (approx 19.9 stone);

Finally there is Billy Vunipola, who plays No.8 for England and he also weighs 127kg (approx 19.9 stone).

Of course, there are many others who come close to those weights, including players like Alun Wyn Jones, who is a second row and captain of Wales, Simon Berghan, a tight head prop for Scotland and Sébastien Vahaamahina, a lock for France, whom all weigh in at a hefty 126kg (19.8 stone).

The first Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Women’s World Cup occurred in November 1991, sixty-one years after the men’s first World Cup.

It was held in China with matches taking place in Guangzhou, Foshan, Jiangmen, and Zhongshan.

During the inaugural tournament there were only 12 teams involved – these were Nigeria, China PR, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Brazil, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the USA. The USA defeated Norway in the final match, with Sweden coming in third place.

The following FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1995 was also held in China and involved the same 12 teams. However, the teams keep on expanding going from 16 teams in 1999 upto 24 teams in 2015 and 2019.

The 1999 and 2003 Women’s World Cups were both held in the United States. Although initially in 2003 China were to hold the event, the tournament had to be relocated to the USA due to an outbreak of SARS.

As compensation, FIFA awarded China its automatic qualification as they should have been the host nation, and they were also automatically chosen to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2007.

Germany hosted the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2011, followed by Canada in 2015.

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is to take place in France.

The matches will be played over nine host cities across the country and these include Grenoble, Le Havre, Lyon, Montpelier, Nice, Paris, Reims, Rennes, Valenciennes.

The opening match of 2019 will take place on Friday 7 June at the Parc des Princes, Paris, while the honour of hosting the semi-finals and final will be played at the Stade de Lyon, Lyon.

During the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, two players made a record of appearing in six World Cups, something that has not been achieved by either female or male players.

One is a Brazilian footballer known as Formiga. She was born Miraildes Maciel Mota on 3 March 1978. She is a Brazilian midfielder and currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain. She holds many international records as a member of Brazil women’s national football team.

She is the only player who has been present in all Olympic Games Women’s Football tournaments since their first inclusion in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Homare Sawa of Japan was born on 6th September 1978 in Fuchū, Tokyo and she is the other player who has played in all six World Cup tournaments. At the tender age of 15, Sawa made her Japanese international debut. She scored four goals during her first match against the Philippines on 6th December 1993.

She captained the national team of Japan that won gold during the 2011 World Cup and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2012, Homare was named 2011 FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year.

Christie Rampone, was born 24th June 1975 and is an American defender who at the age 40 years old became the oldest player in Women’s World Cup history back in the 2015 tournament. She’s the former captain of the United States women’s national football team.

Rampone is a 3-time Olympic gold medallist, and also a 2-time FIFA Women’s World Cup Champion. She has played in five FIFA Women’s World Cup finals and four Olympics women’s football tournaments.

The United States is the only country to win the competition three times in 1991, 1999, 2015. In 2011, Japan was the first Asian team to win a FIFA World Cup.

In 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup was played on artificial turf for the first time and also featured the youngest coach in World Cup history. Her name was Vanessa Arauz, from Ecuador, and she was only 26 years old. She is still the current head coach for Ecuador’s women’s national football team.

Michelle Akers of the USA became the player who scored the most goals during one game. She scored 5 goals in a game between the USA and Taiwan in 1991.

In 2015, Carli Lloyd from the USA national team was the first woman to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.

The fastest goal in Women’s World Cup history took place during a match between Sweden and Japan in 1991. Lena Videkull, from Sweden, opened the scoring with a goal just 30 seconds into the game.

Taiwan, Thailand and Equatorial Guinea are three countries that have qualified to play in the FIFA women’s World Cup, which is something the men’s teams have never done.

In 1999 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, the FIFA Women’s World Cup final had the most spectators in attendance, there were 90,185 fans at the match between the USA and China. China lost 5-4 on penalties to the USA.

During the 2015 Women’s World Cup tournament in Canada there were 764 million viewers. The USA stated that there were 23 million viewers watching the final between the United States and Japan in the final, which is the most-watched football match in USA’s history.

The Official Women’s World Cup trophy includes a plate at the base bearing the engraved year and name of each FIFA Women’s World Cup champion.

Hand-crafted by Milanese specialists Sawaya & Moroni, designed by William Sawaya for the 1999 tournament.

The trophy features a spiral band, which has a football enclosed at the top. The trophy symbolises the athleticism, dynamism and elegance of women’s international football.

The Official Trophy is about 18 inches tall and made of sterling silver clad in 23-karat yellow and white gold. In 2015, it was estimated to be worth approximately $30,000.

This is in stark contrast to the men’s World Cup trophy which is fabricated in 18-karat gold and has an estimated value of $150,000.

However, every winner of the Women’s Champions, has a new trophy constructed for them to take home, while there is only one original men’s trophy.

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup was won by reigning champions the United States, whom beat the Netherlands 2-0 at Lyon in the Final.

The USA team coach, Jill Ellis, became the first manager to win two Women’s World Cup titles, after guiding the side to victory in 2015 and 2019.

The first ever Grand National was held at Aintree Race Course in Liverpool, England in 1839. The Aintree Racecourse’s name derives from an ancient Viking settlement, where all the trees but one fell down.

The first Grand National in 1839 also saw the slowest time for a horse to win the race. The aptly named Lottery, ridden by Jem Mason, who was 5-1 favourite, completed the race in 14m 53s.

In 1883, just 10 racers faced the starter, making it the smallest field to partake in a Grand National race. However 66 horses lined up in 1929, which is the most the Grand National has seen.

The smallest number of horses to finish the Grand National was in 1928 when the 100-1 outsider, Tipperary Tim, was the first of two horses left in the race to pass the post.

In 1984, the greatest number of horses finished the race. There were 23 horses that completed the race and the winner was “Hallo Dandy” who was ridden by the Welsh jockey Neal Doughty.

The horse named Mr Frisk, was the fastest ever time to win the Grand National, in just 8 minutes 47.8 seconds in 1990.

It is said to be one of the most challenging steeplechase races with 16 tough fences to jump. Some of the early races included a stone wall jump, which has since been replaced with the water jump.

Another jump, the Becher’s Brook was named after a top jockey, Captain Martin Becher, after he fell from his horse and took shelter in the brook from the other riders and horses as they passed.

The jump known as The Chair is the broadest and the tallest fence and stands at 5ft 2ins. This fence was named as in the early days of the Grand National, the jump was situated alongside the seat used by the distance judge.

All the fences are made up from spruce coming from the Lake District. The building work costs are high, reaching tens of thousands of pounds and will normally take about 4 weeks to complete.

The most successful and well known horse to win the Grand National was Red Rum. He won it three times in 1973, 1974 and 1977. When Red Rum died on 18th October 1995, his remains were buried at the winning post at the Aintree Racecourse.

The oldest winning horse was Peter Simple in 1853 and he was aged 15. There were also quite a few young horses all aged 5 and these were Alcibiade in 1865, Regal in 1876, Austerlitz in 1877, Empress in 1880, and Lutteur III in 1909.

Golden Miller was the only horse to complete both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand National in 1934.

In one of the strangest Grand National wins, Moiffa won it in 1904. It was odd because in 1903 during a trip to Liverpool from New Zealand, the horses ship was wrecked and Moiffa was presumed lost at sea. Shortly after the wreck, Moiffa turned up on some outcrop in the south of Ireland and went on to win the Grand National the following year.

The most successful jockey in the Grand National’s history is George Stevens who won the race five times. They were on Freetrader in 1856, Emblem in 1863, Emblematic in 1864 and The Colonel in 1869 and 1870.

In 1938, the youngest jockey to win the Grand National was 17 year old Bruce Hobbs, who rode Battleship to victory. Battleship is currently the only horse to have won both the Grand National and the American Grand National.

Whereas, the late Dick Saunders is the oldest winner, at 48 years old, to win the Grand National and he partnered Grittar to triumph in 1982.

Peter Scudamore officially competed in 12 Grand National without winning. He technically lined up for thirteen Grand Nationals, but the race in 1993 was void.

The reason the Grand National was cancelled in 1993 was because 30 of the 39 riders hadn’t realised a false start had been called. They continued to complete both laps of the hard 30 obstacle course before they knew what had happened, and so it was declared to be a void race.

Richard Johnson has now beaten that record, this year The Grand National 2019, will be the champion jockey’s 21st attempt at the Grand National without a win.

The first female jockey to participate in the Grand National was Charlotte Brew in 1977, partnering her horse Barony Fort. She almost finished the race, but she fell at the fourth-to-last fence making it impossible complete the race.

This female participation however, paved the way for female jockeys to continue to compete in the Grand National and the first woman to complete the Grand National was Geraldine Rees in 1982. She finished in 8th place on her horse named Cheers.

In 2012 Katie Walsh achieved the best placing by a woman to date, with a 3rd place position on Seabass.

Rosemary Henderson finished fifth when aged 51 on her own 100/1 shot Fiddlers Pike in 1994. She subsequently wrote a book, ‘Road To The National’, about her exploits.

The 2019 Grand National steeplechase race will take part of 6th April, the field will hold a maximum of 40 Grand National runners, with 4 reserves.

The first official title match was held back in 1886 in the United States between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort.

The first five games were played in New York City, followed by the next four being played in St. Louis and the final eleven in New Orleans.

The winner was to be the first player to gain ten wins. Wilhelm Steinitz finally won the match 10–5, after winning his tenth game during the twentieth match and there were also five draws.

However in 1946 following the death of Alexander Alekhine, FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) the world chess association had the opportunity to bring the contest under their control.

They organised a tournament in 1948 featuring five of the world’s top players and it was won by the Soviet star Mikhail Botvinnik.

Following on from this, FIDE organised a title match every three years, with a series of qualifying tournaments and matches being used to determine who would become the official challenger.

A drawn match would favour the reigning champion, who would retain his title. A defeated champion was given the right to a return match one year later, but this was abandoned in 1963.

Players from the Soviet Union dominated the title matches from 1951-1972.

America’s Bobby Fischer ended the long run of Soviet victories in 1972 when he beat Spassky, but then Fischer did not play again for 20 years.

Meanwhile Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov went on to dominate the title for the next 25 years.

In 1993, Garry Kasparov and his new challenger England’s Nigel Short, decided to break away from FIDE and played their match under the auspices of the Professional Chess Association.

FIDE held a rival match in the same year, which saw Karpov beat Jan Timman of the Netherlands.

The split in the chess world led to a confusing situation with two people claiming to be the reigning champion of the world.

Additional confusion was created by the astonishing return of Bobby Fischer in 1992, when he played a second match with Boris Spassky, 20 years after their epic 1972 clash.

Fischer also claimed to be world champion, as he had not been beaten since 1972, but nobody really took his claim seriously and Fischer never played chess again.

The split in the chess world was finally repaired in 2006 when Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Vladimir Kramnik played a unification match, which was won by Kramnik.

Viswanathan Anand then became the undisputed champion by winning a tournament for the title in 2007, followed by victories against Kramnik (2008) and Topalov (2010).

Since those messy times, title matches have been back on schedule.

The world chess champion for 2018 is Norwegian Magnus Carlsen who has retained the title since 2013.

Over a three week period Magnus Carlsen played against the American Fabiano Caruana and for 20 days the world’s two best grandmasters sat in a studio in central London.

Finally, after 15 games, 773 moves and 51 hours, Carlsen yet again beat Caruana.

The first Welshman to win one of the cycling worlds toughest challenges is a 32 year old cyclist named Geraint Thomas from Birchgrove in Cardiff, Wales. He won the Tour De France in 2018.

Geraint started cycling at the age of 10 at the Maindy Flyers velodrome and was soon noticed by Rod Ellingworth, performance director at Team Sky around three years later.

When Geraint Thomas was 14 years old his coaches realised that he could go very fast around the speed track.

Geraint had some competitive success in under 14’s & 16’s events, which including National Championships. In 2004 he won his first notable success when he won a silver medal in the points race at the 2004 UEC European Track Championships.

Geraint Thomas was the youngest member to join the British pursuit team during the world championships in 2006. In 2008 and 2012 alongside Bradley Wiggins, he won Olympic gold medals. Geraint Thomas decided to leave track cycling and focus more on road racing.

In 2007, Thomas made his Tour de France debut becoming the youngest rider in the race as Barloworld picked up one of the three wildcard spots allocated for the race.

Before Geraint Thomas, the last Welshman to compete in this race was Colin Lewis in 1967. In this year, Thomas completed his first Tour de France, finishing 140th out of 141 finishers.

Geraint opted not to take part in the 2008 Tour de France and trained in Britain instead for the Olympics in Beijing.

Great Britain’s team of Thomas, Paul Manning, Ed Clancy and Bradley Wiggins, broke and set new world record times in the semi-final and claimed gold in the final. They were more than two seconds ahead of second-placed New Zealand.

Also in 2008, Thomas was part of Great Britain’s gold-winning team pursuit squad at the Track World Championships.

However, in 2009 Geraint suffered a terrible crash during the time trial stage at Tirreno–Adriatico in Macerata, Italy. He misjudged a corner and crashed into a safety barrier breaking his pelvis and fracturing his nose in the fall.

After recovering from his injuries, 2010 saw Thomas join the newly-formed Team Sky and helped them make a winning debut at the Tour of Qatar.

He was one of six riders confirmed at the founding of the team, alongside Steve Cummings, Chris Froome, Russell Downing, Ian Stannard and Peter Kennaugh. More riders soon joined, which including Bradley Wiggins.

Thomas went on to win the British National Road Race Championships and earned his best ever finish at the Tour de France, coming 67th.

He went several better in the Tour De France of 2011, finishing 31st overall and earning a new three-year contract with Team Sky. He was also performing brilliantly at the Tour of Britain, until a crash ended his chances of victory.

In 2017 Geraint Thomas won the first stage of the Tour de France, so not only was he the first Welshman, but he was only the eighth cyclist from the United Kingdom, to wear the yellow jersey.

Unfortunately, during Stage 9 of that same year he crashed out on a slippery wet hill descent which left him with a broken collarbone.

Thomas was named as joint leader with Chris Froome in the 2018 Tour de France for Team Sky. But Froome had a crash at stage 1 and lost time to Thomas. Thomas with Team Sky finished second behind BMC Racing Team in the team time trial on Stage 2, and remained in second place when they started the Alps races at Stage 10.

At Stage 11, Thomas attacked in the final kilometre to take the stage win and the race leader’s Yellow Jersey. The following day, Thomas again won Stage 12 with a sprint finish at Alpe d’Huez ahead of Dumoulin and Froome.

Thomas became the first rider to win a Tour de France stage on Alpe d’Huez in the Yellow Jersey and the first British winner on Alpe d’Huez in the Tour de France.

Thomas kept on extending his lead throughout the three Pyrenean stages, being placed third behind stage winner Nairo Quintana and consolidated his position in the yellow jersey by picking up six bonus seconds in the sprint, extending his lead over Dumoulin to 2 minutes, 5 seconds.

The penultimate stage was a 31 km time trial, which Dumoulin won. Thomas survived a scare when his back wheel locked, but without injury or accident he completed the time trial successfully, finishing fourteen seconds behind Dumoulin, which still meant Thomas lead by 1 min 51s into the final stage.

Thomas held on to his lead all the way to Paris. He became only the third ever British, first British-born and first Welsh cyclist to win the Tour de France.

In September 2018, the Wales National Velodrome in Newport was officially renamed the Geraint Thomas National Velodrome.

Thomas attended the renaming ceremony after he completed the first stage of the 2018 Tour of Britain which finished in the city.

In December 2018, Thomas won the BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year for the second time

He also won the main BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award that same year and was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to cycling.

An interesting fun fact is that he attended the same school, Whitchurch High School, as Wales and Real Madrid footballer Gareth Bale and Welsh Rugby international Sam Warburton.