Elise Christie rounds out a promising weekend with 1000m World Cup silver in Toronto while Andy Murray loses to Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters final. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Elise Christie completed a successful weekend at the speed skating World Cup event in Toronto as she claimed a silver medal in the 1000m on Sunday.
Having won her maiden 500m World Cup gold on Saturday, Christie maintained her good form 24 hours later to finish second in the final of her favoured event behind triple Olympic medallist Shim Suk-hee of South Korea.
The two-time Olympian won her quarter-final and finished second in her semi-final to qualify for the showpiece, where her time of 1:34.028 minutes wasn’t quite enough to overhaul Shim.
But a second World Cup medal in as many days signalled a complete return to fitness for 25-year-old Christie after she needed intensive treatment on her ankle over the summer following a collision with a team-mate in pre-season training in August.
Andy Murray insists he will not stop working to close the gap on Novak Djokovic after losing in straight sets to the world No.1 in the Paris Masters final.
The Brit was guilty of making too many unforced errors against the in-form Djokovic and the Serb wrapped up a 6-2, 6-4 victory in just over 90 minutes.
It means Djokovic, who has lost just five matches all season, has beaten Murray in six out of their seven encounters this year and 21 times out of 30 overall.
But Murray, who now turns his attention towards the ATP World Tour Finals and Great Britain’s Davis Cup final later this month, refused to be too downbeat.
“It’s been a great week, it's the first time for me past the quarter-finals here,” he said. “It’s progress and we’ll try again next year to go one better.
“Congratulations to Novak on another fantastic week. It’s been a great year again for him and he fully deserves the number one spot.
“Hopefully I can get a little bit closer next year but it’s been an incredible year for him and his team.”
European Championship bronze medallist Ruebyn Richards has announced his retirement from taekwondo due to injury.
The 22-year-old, who joined the GB Academy through the UK Sport Fighting Chance initiative in 2011, fought across the -80kg, -74kg and -68kg weight categories during his career.
He enjoyed particular success in the latter, winning both the Luxor and Fujairah Opens in 2014 while he also won bronze at the European Championships in the same year.
However injuries also regularly plagued the Nottingham-born fighter, with two major ankle ligament injuries and then a broken foot suffered this year hampering his progress.
And Richards, who appeared in two World Championships, conceded his dream of reaching next year's Olympics in Rio had slowly slipped away.
“I know it is sad to let everything go but it feels like the right decision,” said Richards, who will now focus on completing his sports management degree at Manchester Metropolitan University.
“Rio was always the big aim for me and over the past two years I have struggled to do any fighting to get points towards qualification.
“I knew I would graduate the year after Rio anyway so I would probably have made this decision then.
“I will miss the camaraderie of my team mates. There was such a great atmosphere and that will be the main thing I miss.”
Sportsbeat 2015