SPEEDWAY: Josh Pickering top-scored with 14+2 points as Sheffield came from behind to draw 45-45 at Ipswich in the second leg of the Premiership Knockout Cup final and seal a 100-80 aggregate win. The south Yorkshire team had also claimed the Premiership title a week ago. Thursday’s other racing saw Max Fricke bag a perfect 18 points as league runners-up Leicester ended the regular season by holding off King’s Lynn 48-42.

WOMEN’S CRICKET: Ireland face England in the first leg of their three-match one-day series at Stormont tomorrow. The English team will be missing Nat Sciver-Brunt, the world’s highest ranked 50-over batter, and Sophie Ecclestone, who tops the international one-day bowler ratings. England sit second behind Australia in the ICC’s Women’s Championship, eight places above the Irish who earned a 2-1 series win over Sri Lanka in August.

ICE HOCKEY: Killian Mottet scored twice as Switzerland’s Fribourg-Gotteron came from two down to beat British champions Sheffield 4-3 in Thursday’s Champions Hockey League fixture. That result continues the record of British clubs never having won in Switzerland. The Steelers, who are making their first appearance in Europe’s elite tournament for eight years, continue their campaign on Saturday against Sweden’s Vaxjo Lakers.

ATHLETICS: Great Britain’s Ben Sandilands set a new world record to claim Paralympic gold in the men’s T20 1500m in Paris today. The 21-year-old Scottish runner, who won world gold in the French capital last year, crossed the line in three minutes and 45.40 seconds. His time shaved 0.1 secs off the previous global best, held by American Michael Brannigan since 2017.