Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow and Adam Lyth hit centuries to deflate Hampshire

• Yorkshire 270-5 v Hampshire

Jonny Bairstow, as Wisden recently noted, was a man for a crisis in 2015 and on the opening day of Yorkshire’s bid for a hat‑trick of County Championship titles he proved it once more as his unbeaten 107, along with 111 from the opener Adam Lyth, deflated Hampshire’s early optimism.

Arriving at the middle with the score 41 for three in the 21st over, after icy conditions and a wet outfield caused a 30-minute delay first thing, Bairstow would assert himself on Hampshire, putting on 205 with Lyth for the fourth wicket for what was the bulk of Yorkshire’s 270 for five by the time bad light brought an early close at 5.35pm.

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Leicester’s Freddie Burns could face citing after Harry Mallinder incident

• Burns appears to rake hooked fingers over Mallinder’s eye
• Incident occurred after Burns scored Leicester’s third try

Freddie Burns could find himself with a disciplinary case to answer this week, if rugby’s authorities decide to act on images circulating on social media that appear to show the Leicester fly-half making contact with the eye area of Northampton’s Harry Mallinder.

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Siobhan O’Connor claims third gold at British Championships

• 20-year-old adds 100m breaststroke title in Glasgow
• James Guy misses out on British record in mens’ 200m freestyle

Siobhan O’Connor spent her third straight night on top of the podium as the Bath swimmer rounded off the British Championships in Glasgow with another gold.

The World Championships bronze medallist had already claimed victory in both the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley at the championships which doubles as Team GB’s Olympic trials.

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Enrico Gasparotto dedicates Amstel Gold win to Antoine Demoitié

• Gasparotto claims first win since same race in 2012
• Fabio Felline fractures skull before race starts

The Italian rider Enrico Gasparotto easily prevailed in a two-man sprint on Sunday to claim a first win in four years and a second victory in the Amstel Gold Race.

The 34-year-old Italian had not tasted victory since his previous title in the spring classic in 2012. Gasparotto’s win was the first this season for the Team Wanty‑Gobert, who last month mourned the death of the Belgian rider Antoine Demoitié after a fall during the Gent-Wevelgem.

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Paul Nicholls plots final week’s onslaught to retain trainers’ title

• Nicholls increases lead on Willie Mullins with four winners
• Trainer denies friction: ‘There is no animosity whatsoever’

There can rarely have been a more satisfying birthday in the life of Paul Nicholls, who won with all four runners at his local track on the day after sensationally reclaiming the lead in the race to be champion jumps trainer. The prize money he bagged on this low-key card, totalling just over £10,000, seems unlikely to be the decisive factor in his battle with Willie Mullins but the day’s events certainly added to the sense that his nearby Ditcheat yard is in almost unstoppable form as the jumps season enters its final week.

Nicholls has had 10 winners from 18 runners over the past three days, the most important having been Vicente, his only runner in Saturday’s Scottish Grand National, a victory worth £119,000. The trainer, newly 54, recalled here that he had been telling Ian Fogg, owner of Vicente, since the middle of last month that the horse would have to win the Ayr race if Mullins was to be prevented from seizing the crown.

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Leicester’s Claudio Ranieri hails comeback but Vardy sweats over extended ban

• Manager says striker did not dive in clash with West Ham’s Angelo Ogbonna
• ‘This is more important than one point. Psychologically it says, “we are there”’

Claudio Ranieri hailed a draw that he claimed was “more important than one point” to Leicester City after a hugely controversial game that saw Jamie Vardy sent off and Jonathan Moss, the referee, award two contentious penalties.

Vardy will be suspended for Sunday’s home match against Swansea City and there is the possibility that his ban could be extended if Moss, who endured a difficult afternoon, claims in his report that the striker was verbally abusive before leaving the pitch.

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Arsène Wenger: I am not in the mood to dream of Arsenal winning Premier League

• Manager writes off title hopes and looks to repair damage of Crystal Palace draw
• ‘You sometimes have to win 1-0 and this was one of those days’

Arsène Wenger has written off Arsenal’s hopes of winning the title and admitted that they are looking over their shoulders in the race to qualify for the Champions League after drawing 1-1 with Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal trail Leicester City by 13 points with five games left after they were denied by Yannick Bolasie’s late equaliser, and Wenger has lowered his sights. They are fourth after falling below Manchester City on goal difference and lead Manchester United by four points.

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Newcastle cling on to leave London Irish tumbling towards relegation

• Newcastle 13-6 London Irish
• Exiles seven points from safety with two games to play

London Irish’s 20-year stay in the top flight is all but over after defeat to the only club they can overtake. They are now seven points behind Newcastle with two matches to go and, as one is at Wasps, they are clinging on to their Premiership status by a cracked fingernail.

Only a side as low on confidence and self-belief could have lost a match they dominated. They had 68% of the territory in the second-half as they looked to overhaul a 10-6 interval deficit, having presented Newcastle with their try when Greig Tonks’s ambitious, misdirected pass was scooped up by Marcus Watson just inside his own half and there was no one to stop the wing.

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Leicester supporters ride emotional roller coaster with title in sight

Claudio Ranieri’s perfect run in has been disrupted with Jamie Vardy’s sending off, and now he needs Riyad Mahrez to rediscover the form that made him favourite to be the PFA player of the year

First came the boos, then came the roar. Jonathan Moss, the referee and the man at the centre of the drama, disappeared down the tunnel after being escorted from the pitch and the mood was mutinous. What followed seconds later made it feel like a switch had been flicked as applause broke out around all four sides of the ground, accompanied by a defiant rendition of “We shall not be moved” as Leicester City fans rose to salute the players who had salvaged an improbable point.

Kasper Schmeichel was one of the last to leave the pitch, the Leicester keeper unable to contain his emotions as he punched the air time and again, his face a mixture of anger and jubilation as he made his way around the stands, turning up the volume every time he clenched his fists.

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Shinji Okazaki finds value in the small details to paint Leicester’s big picture | Michael Cox

The forward made a selfless run for the first goal against West Ham and Leicester were weaker when he was taken off

Leicester City’s outstanding counter-attacking first goal against West Ham featured three PFA Player of the Year nominees linking, with Riyad Mahrez poking a pass through to N’Golo Kanté, who fed the goalscorer Jamie Vardy. But there was also a crucial, unseen contribution from another impressive performer: Shinji Okazaki.

Related: Leonardo Ulloa steals in at last to earn Leicester draw against West Ham

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Barcelona v Valencia: La Liga – live!

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Caster Semenya’s comeback puts her on course for Rio gold

Since the South African runner emerged in 2009 sports law has adjusted and now she is posting remarkable times with the Olympics four months away

Caster Semenya took to the track three times on Saturday and with every stride suggested she was hurtling back towards the extraordinary. First she won the South African 400m title in 50.78 seconds, not only the fastest time in the world this year but a personal best by nearly two seconds. Then, after a 50‑minute rest, she coasted to the 800m title in 1:58.45, another world’s best in 2016. Finally, for good measure, she romped home in the 1500m.

It was the first time anyone had won three South African titles in a day but it was the manner of their achievement which left the deepest impression. Semenya barely broke sweat in each race until the home straight. As the TV commentator in the 800m, which she won by seven seconds, put it: “My word this is something special. She is jogging!” As the renowned South African sports scientist Ross Tucker put it: “It’s impossible to know how quickly she could have run but it looked so easy. She looked capable of running in the low 49-seconds for 400m and the 800m in 1:55 or faster.”

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Yannick Bolasie’s late strike earns Crystal Palace a point at Arsenal

In a season in which Chelsea have imploded, Manchester City have been erratic, Manchester United have laboured and Liverpool have been in transition, Arsenal remain determined to finish in fourth. This was a microcosm of the club’s perennial frustrations – a game that they largely controlled and would reasonably have expected to win but somehow found a way to squander.

Arsène Wenger had called for a flawless final six matches from his Arsenal players in an attempt to keep alive their slim Premier League title hopes but, after last Saturday’s skittish 3-3 draw at West Ham United, they once again fell short. The weeks ahead are now likely to feature anxious looks over their shoulders as they seek to confirm a Champions League finish ahead of Manchester United. And little else.

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Newmarket mayor aghast at horse racing community drug claims

Writer’s competition-winning article highlighting Suffolk town’s undercurrent of vice dismissed as ‘drivel’

An article highlighting “the murky undercurrent of vice” in Newmarket has caused ructions in the horse racing world, with the mayor dismissing as drivel the notion that the Suffolk town is awash with drugs.

Written by 26-year-old Chris Humpleby, More to Newmarket Than Meets the Eye won a Martin Wills award, a competition for young people writing on horse racing themes. Humpleby, a racing secretary to the trainer Roger Varian, discussed the temptations of betting and drinking in Newmarket among young hopefuls in the racing world during long lunches and afternoons. The article was printed in Sunday’s Racing Post.

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Widnes find relief in easy Challenge Cup win over Rochdale Hornets

• Rochdale Hornets 6-62 Widnes

With four defeats in a row and Oldham’s shock victory against Hull KR 24 hours earlier alerting Super League sides to the dangers of the Challenge Cup this year, this had all the hallmarks of a difficult afternoon for Widnes – but in the end it was a rather serene passage into the last 16 for Denis Betts’ side.

Oldham’s performance on Saturday had suggested that the gap between full-time and part-time sides was narrowing, but this was a firm illustration from the Vikings that Super League sides still hold a high level of superiority over their lower league counterparts.

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Arsenal 1-1 Crystal Palace: five talking points | Jacob Steinberg

Arsène Wenger’s men were flat in this latest exhibition of casual wastefulness even after Alexis Sánchez’s opener

They are not out of it yet. They still have hope. But even the most optimistic Arsenal fans will know the likelihood of their side reeling in Leicester City is almost nonexistent after the latest exhibition of casual wastefulness came in this 1-1 draw with lowly Crystal Palace. Arsenal should have torn into Palace after Leicester had earlier dropped two points against West Ham United but Arsène Wenger’s men were flat even after Alexis Sánchez’s opener. Punished when Petr Cech let Yannick Bolasie’s shot squirm past him in the 81st minute, Arsenal find themselves fourth, behind Manchester City on goal difference and three points clear of Manchester United. They need to be careful now. There is still a chance they could be overhauled and miss out on the Champions League for the first time under Wenger. That is a staggering thought given that they were top in January.

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Lady Luck keeps turning a blind eye to Lewis Hamilton’s advances

Formula One’s reigning champion now trails Nico Rosberg by 36 points in defence of his crown but still finds something to smile about

Lewis Hamilton continues to flutter his eyelashes flirtatiously in the direction of Lady Luck but still she scorns him. All week he had been praised for the dogged quality of his positivity, his persevering good cheer in the face of adversity; like Hamlet he would have been perfectly entitled to bang on about the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but he chose not to, displaying an almost inappropriate felicity instead.

Late on Sunday afternoon, however, as a gloaming began to close on Shanghai’s International Circuit, and he was forced to consider the consequences of Nico Rosberg’s third successive win in the Chinese Grand Prix, and the fact that he was suddenly 36 points behind in the world championship, it seemed that there was a real danger of a forlornness infiltrating his soul.

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Warriors star Steph Curry 'questionable' for game two against Houston

Golden State coach Steve Kerr says Curry is a doubt after rolling his ankle on Saturday, but NBA MVP says ‘I don’t see a scenario where I’ll be out’

The Warriors made an impressive start to their postseason quest for a second straight NBA championship, but Steph Curry is “questionable” for Monday night’s match-up against the Rockets, according to coach Steve Kerr.

Curry scored 24 points and dazzled from long range as Golden State beat Houston 104-78 on Saturday, but rolled his ankle just before half-time and Kerr said Curry is a doubt for game two.

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F1: Nico Rosberg wins dramatic Chinese Grand Prix to extend championship lead

• Rosberg takes sixth consecutive Grand Prix with Sebastian Vettel second
• Daniil Kvyat third with Lewis Hamilton seventh after action-packed race

Nico Rosberg extended his championship lead over Lewis Hamilton with a thumping victory in the Chinese Grand Prix. Hamilton, who started from last after his engine expired in qualifying, stopped five times in a race brimming with drama, and eventually crossed the line in seventh place.

Related: Sebastian Vettel points finger at Daniil Kvyat after F1 Chinese GP collision

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Horse racing tips: Monday 18 April

• Tuscan Gold (3.40 Pontefract) is the nap selection
• Nicholascopernicus (6.10 Huntingdon) is the next best

2.00 Very First Time 2.30 Mumgos Debut 3.00 Conquer Gold 3.30 Manballandall 4.00 Flaming Thistle 4.35 Wicklow Lad 5.10 Shy

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