Melanie Troxel is the world's fastest female drag racer, needing just more than four seconds to reach 533kph.
On Monday, she slowed down enough to accept the Women's Sports Foundation's individual sportswoman of the year award. Pro beach volleyball players Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh were selected in the team category.
Inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame were: Diana Nyad (long-distance swimming) and Shane Gould (swimming), Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer (basketball) and Nawal El Moutawakel (track).
PHOTO: AP
Tennis great Billie Jean King participated in a breakfast ahead of Monday night's annual gala. Sheryl Crow is to perform at the event featuring more than 100 athletes.
The Women's Sports Foundation, founded by King, is marking its 32nd anniversary. The awards dinner raises more than US$1 million annually for education and grant programs for girls and women in sports.
Troxel held the NHRA top fuel points lead through the first 12 events of the season and is fourth in the standings behind leader Doug Kalitta. Shirley Muldowney was the last woman to win the title in 1982, and Troxel is trying to reach that goal.
The 33-year-old Troxel hit the highest speed for a woman in May at Atlanta. In February, she became the sixth woman in NHRA history to capture a Top Fuel event by winning the season-opening NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California.
Nineteen wickets fell yesterday on an opening day of carnage in the first Ashes Test, with England’s attack led by skipper Ben Stokes bowling them into a position of strength after Australia dismissed the tourists for 172. A rampaging Mitchell Starc took 7-58 to put England on the back foot after Stokes won the toss on a fine day at a packed Perth Stadium and chose to bat. Harry Brook (52) and Ollie Pope (46) offered the only resistance as they crumbled after lunch, but England’s elite fast bowlers, led by an exceptional Stokes with 5-23, fought back to reduce the hosts
Houston’s Calen Bullock on Thursday intercepted reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Josh Allen twice and the league’s top defensive unit powered the Texans over Buffalo 23-19. Allen was sacked eight times, his most in any game, for 70 lost yards and Bullock’s final pickoff killed the Bills’ last desperate drive with 18 seconds remaining. The Texans, who have allowed the NFL’s fewest points and fewest yards a game this season, shut down Allen, who produced six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay just four days earlier. “The defense stayed disciplined,” Houston’s Danielle Hunter said. “We had a game plan to keep him
Paul Pogba on Saturday described his emotional Monaco debut as a moment of relief and gratitude, after the French midfielder returned to the pitch for the first time in more than two years following a doping ban. The former Juventus and Manchester United player, who joined the French Ligue 1 side on a free transfer in June, had not played a competitive match since September 2023. Pogba received a four-year ban in February last year after testing positive for banned substance DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), which boosts testosterone levels. The suspension was cut to 18 months after an appeal at the Court
FINAL STRETCH: After the McLaren drivers’ disqualifications, Verstappen’s chances of a fifth successive title would depend on another big slip-up from Norris and his team Formula One world champion Max Verstappen on Saturday produced a masterful drive to win the Las Vegas Grand Prix and his title hopes were boosted further with the McLarens of championship leader Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri being disqualified. Norris finished the race in second with Piastri fourth, but the skid blocks on both cars were found after the race to be less than the minimum depth. The disqualifications mean that with two race weekends remaining, four-time defending champion Verstappen is level on points with Piastri in the title race, just 24 points behind Norris. However, Verstappen’s chances of a