Olympic24: Golds for Jones and Sansum, silver for Christie

Olympic champion Jade Jones and Damon Sansum top the podium at the Dutch Open and Elise Christie collects 500m silver at the World Championships in Moscow. Here’s our review of the past 24 hours.

Jade Jones is showing no signs of slowing down ahead of Rio 2016 after clinching the Dutch Open to remain unbeaten this year.

Jones, who won Great Britain’s first-ever Olympic taekwondo gold at London 2012, was joined by Damon Sansum at the top of the podium on a successful Saturday in the Netherlands.

She clinched -57kg gold at the expense of Iran’s Alizadeh Zenoorin in a 4-3 victory, while Sansum helped his own cause on the road to Rio after triumphing over Alexey Denisenko 3-2 in the 80kg final.

In January Elise Christie was celebrating her first European crown but there was no repeat on the world stage as she took silver in Moscow.

Christie won a bronze in 2013’s World Championships but was targeting gold in the 500m and 1500m races.

However she endured a difficult time in the 1500m semi final after she crashed out meaning her only chance for glory was in the 500m.

But China’s Kexin Fan stood in her way and held Christie at bay to steal the gold.

However, the 24-year-old admits she was happy to come away with silver.

"I had a bit of a bad start to the day when I fell in the semi finals – I was disappointed but it's just one of those things unfortunately and there was nothing I could do about it," she said.

"I knew that it was a totally different race though (the 500m) and I still had chance to medal so I was ready for it.

"I finished top in both my quarter and semi finals but found the final a bit more challenging. Under the circumstances, I'm really pleased with silver, but I believe that I could have got more out of it if my head was in a different place."

Eve Muirhead insists it is good to be back after she opened her and Scotland's 2015 World Women's Curling Championship with victory over Denmark.

The last time Muirhead played in this event was in 2013 when she won the title in Latvia after Olympic duties meant she missed out on last year’s tournament.

And she announced herself back in winning fashion in Sapporo, Japan as Scotland won the right to have last stone advantage in the first end and opened the scoring with a single point.

The teams then swapped singles in the next three ends, but the Scottish breakthrough came in the fifth end when, after her team had split the house early in the end, Muirhead had  a straightforward draw with her second stone to score two for  a half-time 4-2 lead.

The Scots moved further ahead in the seventh, when Muirhead played a hit and managed to keep her stone in the house to score two more points for a 6-3 lead.

Denmark scored one point in the eighth and then stole another single point in the ninth, when Muirhead’s final effort came up short.

But the Scots claimed their victory when, in the tenth end, Neilson jammed a Scottish stone on its way out of the house for a 7-5 win.

"We're really pleased with that, we played well," Muirhead said. "We knew the game was going to go all the way – all these games this week will, so we knew we had to be patient.

"We had lots of good ends in that game but to get the two in the fifth was great.

"We're really pleased to be back at the Worlds, last time we were allowed to play, we won it.

"This time we've got a slightly different line up with Sarah (Reid, new lead player) and she's fitted in really well. This is where our team belongs."

Geraint Thomas sits fourth and 38 second behind the lead after he finished 13th on stage six of Paris-Nice.

Frenchman Tony Gallopin led the way and takes the yellow jersey with a total time of 28 hours 49 minutes 42 seconds.

Porte is second overall with Thomas a second behind him after the duo were one minute behind the French rider.

The race concludes with a 9.5km time trial on Sunday where Sir Bradley Wiggins could come into his own and is expected to be among the contenders for the stage victory.

Jack Laugher narrowly missed out on a 3m bronze medal in the World Diving Series in Beijing after finishing in an agonising fourth place.

The 20-year-old showed consistency in his diving and finished on a total of 511.25  after all his six attempts registered 80-plus.

In the end however it wasn’t enough as Germany’s Patrick Hausding snuck ahead and finished with 520.

The top two spots were both taken by home divers as He Chong took gold with 551.5 and Cao Yuan claimed silver with 542.7.

Andy Murray remains on target in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells after easing into the third round with a comfortable victory over Canadian Vasek Pospisil.

The World No.4 hardly broke sweat as he wrapped up a 6-1 6-3 victory in one hour and 19 minutes.

Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber now awaits Murray, who admits it took time to adjust being back on court under different circumstances after Great Britain’s stunning win over America in the Davis Cup  last weekend.

“I thought I did quite well,” said the British No.1. “He didn’t serve so well and I thought I played quite solid.

“It’s extremely different to what it was like in Davis Cup. I tried to give myself some positive energy – that helped a little bit, but it was tough.”

© Sportsbeat 2015