SportsNews
Dakar 2025, Stage 9: Al-Attiyah fastest as Al-Rajhi grabs overall lead
Nasser Al-Attiyah bounced back from a difficult showing on Monday to claim victory on Stage 9 of the Dakar Rally, while a puncture for Toyota driver Henk Lategan promoted Yazeed Al-Rajhi to the overall lead.
Dacia’s Al-Attiyah and Ford rival Mattias Ekstrom initially duelled for victory in the 357km test between Riyadh and Haradh, with the two trading the lead in the first part of the day.
Qatar driver Al-Attiyah held the early advantage in his Dacia Sandrider before Ekstrom flexed his muscle to jump to the front 81km into the stage.
The five-time Dakar winner retook the lead at the following checkpoint and began to stretch his advantage in the second half of the day, pulling out a lead of over a minute with less than 100km to run.
As Ekstrom dropped further back, Al-Attiyah continued to chip away from his rivals, eventually reaching the finish line with a 2m47s margin over X-raid Mini’s Guillaume de Mevius, who moved up to second.
The Belgian stood third for much of the all-gravel stage on Tuesday, but leapfrogged Ekstrom at the 217km mark to secure his best finish of 2025 since his victory on Stage 6.
Meanwhile, Overdrive’s Al-Rajhi put in a solid performance in a customer Toyota to take third, demoting Ekstrom’s Ford to fourth place.
Al-Rajhi team-mate’s Rokas Backiuska rounded off the top five, ahead of the other Ford of debutant Mitch Guthrie Jr.

#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk
© Autosport.com
#201 Overdrive Racing Toyota: Yazeed Al Rajhi, Timo Gottschalk
Photo by: A.S.O.
No factory Toyotas finished inside the top 10, as Guy Botterill crashed out at the 272km mark and Lategan suffered an early puncture that cost him seven minutes to fix.
The South African haemorrhaged more time later in the stage, eventually finishing 16 minutes back in 11th place – just a day after he had taken victory on Stage 8.
His troubles allowed Al-Rajhi to snatch the lead in the Ultimate class with just three stages remaining, the Saudi driver moving 7m09s clear at the top of the standings.
Ekstrom continues to hold third place on Ford’s maiden factory outing, with Al-Attiyah now less than a minute behind in the last-remaining Dacia.
Guthrie Jr sits half an hour adrift in fifth place, while Matthieu Serradori has strengthened his grip on sixth position despite a low-key outing on Tuesday.
Dakar 2025 – Results after Stage 9 (Top 10)
| Pos | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
| 1 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi | Toyota | 33h43m58s |
| 2 | Henk Lategan | Toyota | 7m09s |
| 3 | Mattias Ekstrom | Ford | 24m50s |
| 4 | Nasser Al-Attiyah | Dacia | 25m21s |
| 5 | Mitch Guthrie Jr | Ford | 56m28s |
| 6 | Matthieu Serradori | Century | 1h06m52s |
| 7 | Juan Cruz Yacopini | Toyota | 1h44m41s |
| 8 | Seth Quintero | Toyota | 1h46m07s |
| 9 | Joao Ferreira | Mini | 2h11m02s |
| 10 | Brian Baragwanath | Century | 2h31m14s |
SportsNews
EPL: Fulham must move on from defeat to Manchester City — Iwobi
Alex Iwobi says Fulham must stay positive despite their 5-4 defeat to Manchester City at Craven Cottage on Tuesday.
Marco Silva’s side put up a spirited display in the encounter, and were unlucky not to get at least one point.
Iwobi started the fight back by scoring the second goal for Fulham early in the second half.
The versatile midfielder’s compatriot, Samuel Chukwueze then rose from the bench to score two more goals for the Cottagers.
Manchester City, however, held on to go home with maximum points.
Iwobi stated that they deserved more from the game.
“I feel disappointed because we didn’t get anything out of the fighting spirit that we showed, but I think we have to take the positivity from the game,” Iwobi told the club’s official website.
Fulham will be away to Crystal Palace in their next Premier League game on Sunday.
SportsNews
EPL: Guardiola names team that impresses him everyday
Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola has named the Premier League club that has impressed him so much this season.
The Spaniard said that Enzo Maresca’s side have really impressed him with the improvement they make everyday.
Speaking after Manchester City beat Fulham 5-4 in the Premier League on Tuesday night, Guardiola pointed out that a team must remain consistent to win the title.
Pep Guardiola’s side closed the gap at the top of the Premier League to just two points behind Arsenal with the victory over Fulham, but the Gunners could maintain their five points lead with a win over Brentford on Wednesday night.
“Chelsea impresses me more and more every day with Enzo [Maresca], but it’s long,” he told reporters after the win.
“Premier League is so long, many things will happen. We won six Premier Leagues, four or five when we in December, January or February we were behind.
“The team who wins the Premier League is the team who grows during the months and this is what we try to do. No injuries, it’s so long.
“But at the same time, if we push, we will be better and push ourselves and control the situations better, the emotions and we will see what happens.”
SportsNews
Outrage As ‘Biological Male’ Wins World’s Strongest Woman Event in Texas (Photos)
The 2025 World’s Strongest Woman final has sparked outrage after an alleged transgender athlete won gold.
American Jammie Booker, who is accused of being a biological male, beat Great Britain’s Andrea Thompson to victory at the event in Arlington, Texas.
According to Mail Online, Thompson walked off the podium, appearing to say ‘this is bulls***,’ while Booker celebrated. The Brit has since been crowned the ‘true World’s Strongest Woman’ by her coach and some of her peers.

Rebecca Roberts, a three-time winner of World’s Strongest Woman, has sensationally claimed that no one – not even the organizers – knew about Booker’s background.
Details on the American are not clear, but the publication sighted a YouTube video – uploaded to what appears to be Booker’s YouTube channel in September 2017, with Booker saying: ‘Everyone is dying to tell their own story and I am obviously no exception to that.
‘I’m 21-year-old trans woman with a history of abuse, struggling to stay true to herself while under the rule of her religious parents.’
On Monday night, Roberts posted a picture on Instagram that read ‘Protect Women’s Sports.’ She wrote alongside the picture: ‘I hold no hate toward transgender people. Everyone deserves dignity, respect, and the freedom to live their truth.

But I cannot stay silent about something that threatens the fairness and future of women’s strength sports. Transgender women, people born male, should not be competing in the women’s category.
This isn’t about identity. It isn’t about politics. It’s about the undeniable physical differences that exist in strength-based sports… differences that don’t disappear, and that matter more here than almost anywhere else. Women’s categories were created for a reason, and if we lose that, we lose the foundation of our sport.
‘What happened this weekend wasn’t transparent. None of us knew. Not even the organisers knew. And when fairness is taken by surprise, trust in the sport begins to crack.
‘My message is simple. Trans people belong in sport, but women’s divisions must remain biologically born female-only.
‘I love this sport. I have given my life to it. And I won’t ignore something that could quietly change it forever. Congratulations to @andreathompson_strongwoman… the true World’s Strongest Woman 2025’
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