SPRINTING STAND-OFF...
Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin are back in action, but not against one another. The sprinters will race in the final round of the Diamond League in Brussels on Friday (Eurosport, 7pm) in the 200m and 100m respectively. They will doubtless be the big draw but the best match-up will be in the women’s 200m, where Dafne Schippers, who won gold at the world championships in Bejing, will face the Olympic champion Allyson Felix, who won the 400m at the worlds.
NFL KICK-OFF ...
The season opens on Thursday with a tasty encounter when the champions New England host Pittsburgh. The Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, has spent the close season in a legal battle with the League over Deflategate. A judge nullified Brady’s four-match suspension meaning the four-times Super Bowl winner can play. The game is live on SS1 (12 midnight) and this season Sky have a monopoly on live NFL, bar the London games and the Super Bowl, after they beat Channel 4 to the rights for the late Sunday matches. When the NFL play at Wembley this means they will be covering four live games consecutively. But next Sunday viewers will have to make do with three – Chicago v Green Bay Packers, Denver v Baltimore Ravens and Dallas v New York Giants.
MAJOR PREPARATION...
The fifth and final major of the women’s Tour, the Evian Championship, begins on Thursday (Sky Sports 4, 10am) in France and is the last opportunity for Europe and USA’s women to tune their game before the Solheim Cup which takes place in Germany next week. All the members of both team’s will be playing at the tournament and it is a chance to judge their form going into the competition, where Europe defend the cup after a resounding victory in Colorado in 2013, their first victory in America.
