A police investigation is underway following the death of a man in his 50s in the stable yard at Kempton racecourse during a race meeting on Saturday night.
Surrey Police yesterday confirmed that it is investigating a sudden death that prompted the abandonment of the last two races on Saturday.
“Surrey Police were called to Kempton Park racecourse in Sunbury-on-Thames following a report of a sudden death around 9:20pm on Saturday,” a force spokeswoman said. “A man in his 50s was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. The death is currently being treated as unexplained and inquiries remain ongoing.”
Jockey Martin Dwyer, who was riding at Kempton on Saturday, told Racing UK: “There was a very somber mood and nobody really knew what was going on, and then we found out. As I was leaving, there were blue lights everywhere and it was a bit of a shock.”
“It highlights what a dangerous sport this is and makes you think of the stupid things we worry about: making the weight, will I ride this horse or that. Then something like this happens and the whole industry takes a breath,” he said.
“Unfortunately, horses do kick out and I believe that’s what happened. They have metal shoes on and if you get a kick from a horse it can be very serious,” he added. “Horses don’t mean to do it. If they feel frightened or threatened, if they feel someone is too close or something, they do kick out, but fortunately it is very rare. It is very sad.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed