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ITF Women’s 60k and 100k events highlights of Performance Competitions Calendar for Autumn and Winter 2022

ITF Women’s 60k and 100k events highlights of Performance Competitions Calendar for Autumn and Winter 2022

We have today confirmed dates for its Performance Competition Calendar for the remainder of the 2022 season. A comprehensive programme of tournaments until December has been announced for both adults and juniors in all categories.

Highlights include Great Britain hosting ITF World Tennis Tour (WTT) Women’s $100K and $60K events, both on indoor hard courts, in Shrewsbury and Glasgow, respectively.

There are further ITF World Tennis Tour (WTT) Men’s $25K events taking place in Sheffield, Sunderland and Glasgow in October and a Women’s $25K event in Loughborough the same month. Abingdon will host an ITF Wheelchair Tennis Tour Futures event in October, with the Wheelchair Tennis National Finals to take place at the start of December.

Professional event calendar

  • M25 Sheffield – w/c 3 October
  • M25 Sunderland – w/c 10 October
  • W60 Glasgow – w/c 17 October
  • M25 Glasgow – w/c 17 October
  • ITF Futures – w/c 17 October
  • W25 Loughborough – w/c 24 October
  • W100 Shrewsbury – w/c 31 October
  • Wheelchair Tennis National Finals – w/c 28 November

Check out the full calendar here

The 14U calendar features the new Junior Home Nations event in the week commencing 26 September, as well as in Nottingham the week commencing 24 October followed by the season-ending Tennis Europe Junior Tour category 3 event in Liverpool the week commencing 7 November.

For 12 and under players there will be Junior Home Nations events and Nationals (at Bolton and Corby) in the same weeks as the 14U events. There will also be a Tennis Europe Category 1 event in Bath the week commencing 31 October.

Finally, for 10U players there will be a National Tour event in the autumn in Sunderland and the 9U players will have National Tour events at either the National Tennis Centre or Loughborough University.

The Performance Competitions Calendar is designed to provide significantly enhanced opportunities for British players at each age and stage of the player pathway. Once the season concludes in December, we will have staged a total of 98 international events for age groups from 10U to pro-players on British soil (excluding traditional grass court season events) throughout 2022. This is a percentage increase in tournaments of 139% since 2019.

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Kiwi skiers and snowboarders star as Winter Games NZ freeride events begin

Kiwi skiers and snowboarders star as Winter Games NZ freeride events begin
Gustav Legnavsky during final training for the men's freeski halfpipe at the Winter Games at Cardrona on Monday. In the end competition was called off, with Legnavksy declared the winner from earlier qualifying.

Neil Kerr/winter Games NZ

Gustav Legnavsky during final training for the men’s freeski halfpipe at the Winter Games at Cardrona on Monday. In the end competition was called off, with Legnavksy declared the winner from earlier qualifying.

Ronan Thompson and Jessie Violet led the way for New Zealand as the first of the freeride events at the Winter Games NZ began at The Remarkables skifield in Queenstown on Monday.

New Zealand skiers and snowboarders landed six of the 12 podium places in the North Face Frontier 2-star event, held in icy underfoot conditions with snow showers throughout the day

Thompson led an all-Kiwi podium in the men’s snowboard, which he won in 2020. He impressed the judges with fast riding and a huge 360. Scott Beacom finished second and Max King third.

“That was tough out there,” he said. “I just wanted to do the 360, that was my goal for the day. It was a real fast run out with not great snow but I’ve done that before, so I thought I’ll go with what I know.”

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It was a Kiwi one-two in the women’s ski field with Violet beating Elke Marshall. Violet, 19, has made the podium at junior freeride events, but proved that she is ready to make her mark on a bigger stage, incorporating a huge air into her run. “The bottom half of the course is fun, but the top half is really challenging. Conditions were really icy but I thought my run was ok and I liked that bottom air.”

Ronan Thompson in action during the North Face Frontier 2-star event at The Remarkables.

Ross Mackay/Winter Games NZ

Ronan Thompson in action during the North Face Frontier 2-star event at The Remarkables.

Kiwi Lach Powell picked up a second place finish behind Japan’s Tenra Katsuno in the men’s ski, while Canada’s Jaimie Figueira won the women’s snowboard.

The 4-star event will be held on Thursday.

High winds and low visibility meant that finals for some other disciplines on Monday had to be halted, with the leaders in those events on Thursday and Saturday declared the winners.

Jessie Violet flies during the The North Face Frontier 2-star event.

Sean Beale/Winter Games NZ

Jessie Violet flies during the The North Face Frontier 2-star event.

Cardrona local and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympian 16-year-old Gustav Legnavsky won the men’s freeski halfpipe category with an impressive run that included three double corks, scoring 94.33.

He was disappointed that the finals were cancelled, but nonetheless was stoked to take the overall win.

“Since the Olympics I’ve been getting fired up wanting to have those better results. It definitely feels a lot better and I have been more consistent.

“I am pretty excited, it’s great to get another gold back at my home mountain.”

Fellow Kiwi Ben Harrington, who had an ugly crash when trying to qualify for the Olympics final in February, finished in second place, right behind Legnavsky, with a score of 93 flat.

Eighteen-year-old Kiwi Campbell Melville finished third in the men’s snowboard halfpike, won by Chaeun Lee of Japan, while Gaon Choi of Korea won the women’s event.

Ruby Andrews of Queenstown salutes after her win in the freeski slopestyle, flanked by Yuna Koga, left, who was second and third-placed Madeleine Disbrowe.

Neil Kerr/Winter Games NZ

Ruby Andrews of Queenstown salutes after her win in the freeski slopestyle, flanked by Yuna Koga, left, who was second and third-placed Madeleine Disbrowe.

Ruby Andrews of Queenstown and Luca Harrington of Wānaka topped the women’s and men’s freeski slopestyle, with results from qualification on Saturday used as the final results.

Andrews was in second place after the first run and knew she had to do something special to secure the top spot – and pulled out a switch misty 900 down, which she had not done before.

“I am stoked, over the moon – this is my home mountain and coming away with a result like today, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” she said.

Freeski judge Kat Alexander was impressed with Harrington’s win.

“Luca’s first run was unreal, his right double cork 1260 tail grab was perfection and then he got massive amplitude on his switch right double cork 1260 on the final jump, that just blew us out of the water.”

Harrington said: “It definitely was challenging with the weather; qualification day was the best day we had so I just tried to put something down that was clean and turned out that it worked out in my favour, so I am pretty happy.”

Wānaka athletes Lucia Georgalli and Ava Beer finished in second and third in the women’s snowboard slopestyle behind Mari Fukada of Japan, while Jesse Parkinson was a standout winner of the men’s event.

Eighteen-year-old Campbell Melville finished third in the men’s snowboard halfpike, won by Chaeun Lee of Japan, while Gaon Choi of Korea won the women’s event.

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2026 Winter Olympics add eight events, cut Alpine skiing team event

2026 Winter Olympics

Eight events have been added to the program for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Ski mountaineering, a new sport added to the 2026 program last year, will have a men’s sprint, women’s sprint and a mixed-gender relay.

New events in existing sports include men’s and women’s dual moguls in freestyle skiing, breaking up the open luge doubles event (where only men have competed) into men’s doubles and women’s doubles, a mixed-gender skeleton team event and a women’s large hill event in ski jumping to match the men’s ski jumping program.

The Alpine skiing team event, which debuted at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, has been cut. Also in Alpine skiing, the combined events are being included provisionally on the 2026 program and are subject to further review with a final decision no later than April.

On the Alpine World Cup, there were no combined events either of the last two seasons and there are none planned this upcoming season. The combined is still on the biennial world championships program.

The IOC said that Nordic combined is in a “very concerning situation” for staying on the Olympic program beyond 2026.

The IOC said Nordic combined “had by far the lowest audience numbers” over the last three Olympics. It noted that the 27 medals won in the sport among 2014, 2018 and 2022 were spread across “only” four nations.

Its inclusion in the 2030 Winter Olympics depends on significant developments in global participation and audience.

Nordic combined is the lone Olympic sport without female representation.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) began holding women’s Nordic combined World Cups in December 2020. A women’s event debuted at the world championships in February 2021. FIS hoped it would help lead to 2026 Winter Olympic inclusion.

The IOC chose not to add a women’s event for 2026, citing having “only one world championship to date” that had 10 nations represented and the medals won by one nation (Norway). Karl Stoss, chair of the IOC Olympic program commission, said those numbers do not meet universality criteria.

Nordic combined officials believed that their sport was in danger of being dropped from the Olympic program if the IOC opted against adding a women’s event.

The decisive argument for keeping men’s Nordic combined on the 2026 program without a women’s event was the proximity — male athletes are already preparing for the Games.

Men’s events in Nordic combined, which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing, have been on the program since the first Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

The IOC said the overall event changes will make 2026 the most gender-balanced Winter Games in history, upping female participation from 45.4 percent in 2022 to 47 percent.

Due to event quota changes, the overall number of athletes is expected to remain around 2,900.

ON HER TURF: Women’s Nordic combined shut out of 2026

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Winter conditions in Regina push back outdoor sporting event start dates – Regina | Globalnews.ca

Winter conditions in Regina push back outdoor sporting event start dates - Regina | Globalnews.ca

Little athletes eager to start playing spring sports will have to wait a little longer this year. While the beginning of the baseball and soccer seasons is around the corner, continued wintry weather has forced start dates to be pushed back.

The City of Regina confirmed in an email statement that outdoor field bookings usually begin May 1, but with the recent weather, the City’s fields have not fully dried out leaving them susceptible to damage if used.

Read more:

Southeastern Sask. to be hit with another major spring snow storm

“The City continues to monitor field conditions and will advise user groups when outdoor play can begin,” the statement reads. “The status of athletic fields is updated daily starting May 1 on Regina.ca.”

Sporting organizations had to break the news of yet another season stall to their teams.

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Gerry Krismer from Kiwanis Little League said due to COVID-19, they had to cancel the 2020 season and in 2021, they had a shortened season.

“This year, we were planning on having a full season with our usual start date the first of May,” said Krismer. “Due to the recent weather, we have had to push our start date to May 7 and we fully expect we will be up and running on that date and get a full season of baseball in for 2022.”

Read more:

North Regina Little League making baseball accessible with $40,000 Blue Jays grant

Savanna Matthies, director of North Regina Little League, said they always like to start the season before May 1. The announcement of delayed start times for outdoor sports brought disappointment, especially for little athletes who have been eager to play ball.

“The kids are disappointed. They just want to be outside and play,” said Matthies. “Teams are ready for practice and people are using indoor facilities (to practice).”

Athletes and sporting organizations are advised to check the City of Regina’s website to know when exactly the outdoor facilities are deemed ready for use.


Click to play video: 'Regina cleaning up after spring snowstorm dumps snow on the Queen City'







Regina cleaning up after spring snowstorm dumps snow on the Queen City


Regina cleaning up after spring snowstorm dumps snow on the Queen City – Apr 15, 2022

© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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Gearing up for a vast array of winter events as Festival of Voices tickets go on sale

Gearing up for a vast array of winter events as Festival of Voices tickets go on sale

16 April 2022

Nic Street,

Minister for Hospitality and Events







The Tasmanian Liberal Government has always invested in events that are seasonally and regionally diverse, with more than $11 million having been invested into 31 events that will take place in the coming six months alone.

From AFL football in the north and south, the Australian Musical Theatre Festival in Launceston, Dark Mofo in Hobart and the new AgriCULTURED festival in the north, the variety ensures there is something for everyone.

I’m pleased to confirm that tickets for the Festival of Voices have gone on sale for the coming festival that will take place from 1 July through to 10 July 2022 and I would encourage Tasmanians to snap up a ticket.

A long-time anchor of our winter events program, the Festival of Voices began in 2005 and forged the way for Tasmanians and mainlanders to get out and celebrate our state when it was traditionally quiet. Events have repositioned our state through this part of the year and fundamentally changed people’s perception of how to spend the longer nights.

This year’s festival will have a strong focus on encouraging participation from Tasmania’s regional communities, with activations and programmed events scheduled to occur on Tasmania’s East Coast, North West Coast and Derwent Valley areas, as well as in our major cities.

Highlight performances of this year’s event include Australian singer-songwriter Lior, Monica Trapaga and The Pocket Trio, and cabaret style band The Loveys as well as the iconic Big Sing event retuning to Macquarie Point.

The Tasmanian Government is committed to assisting our thriving events sector rebuild and recover. As part of this commitment, the Government, through Events Tasmania provides funding opportunities to a variety of events that attract people to our state and encourage regional dispersal of these visitors.

Tickets for the Festival of Voices are on sale now at www.festivalofvoices.com, and a full events calendar can be found at www.discovertasmania.com.au

More Media Releases from Nic Street

More Media Releases from the Minister for Hospitality and Events

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Comox BIA looking ahead to summer, winter events – Comox Valley Record

Comox BIA looking ahead to summer, winter events - Comox Valley Record

Despite a weekly seasonal market proposed for Comox not going ahead, the Comox Business in Action is gearing up for their Downtown Summerfest, amongst other events.

In an update for Comox council at the April 6 council meeting, executive director Haeley Dewhirst said they are preparing for the one-day festival on June 25 and asked council for permission for a road closure around Comox Avenue and Port Augusta Street from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Dewhirst noted plans are also in the works for a Halloween and Christmas light-up event.

Additionally, the BIA asked council about the implementation of a permanent market business licence.

Following an inquiry from Coun. Alex Bissinger, Jordan Wall, the town’s chief administrative officer said the licences could be something the municipality could do fairly easily.

“We have a policy in place for a market permit; we would need to look to see if that market permit would encompass all of the business licenses underneath it. If a change is required, it wouldn’t be a major change.”

Wall added the town and the BIA still needs to work with BC Transit for street closures.



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Royal Manitoba Winter Fair cancels pig and calf scrambles after animal protection group speaks out

Royal Manitoba Winter Fair cancels pig and calf scrambles after animal protection group speaks out


The Royal Manitoba Winter Fair is doing away with hog and calf scrambles at its event next week after animal welfare organizations said such events violate federal and provincial animal cruelty laws.


The fair is set to run March 29 to April 2 in Brandon, Man.


“The health and welfare of our animals is important to us and has always been a top priority,” Provincial Exhibition President Kathy Cleaver said in a statement posted online.


“We are excited about having the fair back this year and can’t wait to welcome everyone back to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.”


This comes after the Winnipeg Humane Society (WHS) and national animal law organization Animal Justice put out a call last week for the public to contact fair organizers to have the scrambles cancelled.


“This decision is a step in the right direction, and we feel that it positively reflects the values and the opinions of many Manitobans who no longer tolerate animal scramble events,” said Brittany Semeniuk, an animal welfare consultant with the Winnipeg Humane Society.


According to the WHS and Animal Justice, pig scrambles, also known as “pig wrestling” typically involve kids chasing and trying to grab and hold pigs to stop them from breaking free. The calf scrambles involve teens chasing and grabbing calves to remove a halter from their neck.


Kaitlyn Mitchell, staff lawyer with Animal Justice, said the practice could be seen as illegal because it causes distress and suffering to animals.


“So that means not only physical injuries, although there is certainly a risk of physical injuries here when you have children chasing and tackling animals, but it’s also illegal to cause extreme anxiety and distress to animals. And that’s really at their core what these events do,” Mithchell said.


“You release these baby animals into a ring, and you encourage youth to chase them around and tackle them, and there’s no good reason for it. On top of that, this is just for entertainment.”


Mitchell said after issuing a call to the public to contact organizers to have the events cancelled, about 640 people took action through Animal Justice’s alert. The WHS also put out an alert and created an online petition that was signed by over 600 people.

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Minot High Cheer sweeps winter championships team events

Minot High Cheer sweeps winter championships team events

MINOT, N.D. – The Minot High cheer team completed a clean sweep of all three team events at the North Dakota State Winter Championships Saturday.

The event featured 222 athletes from 18 teams from Class A and Class B schools at the Minot Auditorium.

Minot led the way in the “Game Day,” “Time Out” and “Cheer/Dance” Class A categories. It’s the first time since 2008 the team won the “Cheer/Dance” competition.

Lely Rivera, who won the Triple Crown at the Best of the Midwest showcase in January, finished 2nd in the All-Around Cheerleader Challenge.

Senior Bella Howard was awarded the $500 North Dakota Cheerleading Coaches Association college scholarship.

Three of Minot High’s sport-specific cheer teams won Team Scholar Awards.

Copyright 2022 KFYR. All rights reserved.

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Pac-12 LGBTQIA+ Winter Inclusion Week celebrated across campuses and events

Pac-12 LGBTQIA+ Winter Inclusion Week celebrated across campuses and events

Across all activations for Pac-12 LGBTQIA+ Winter Inclusion Week, the “Gymnasts for Peace, Action, and Change” (G-PAC) group was instrumental in working together to encourage gymnastics teams to support their LGBTQIA+ communities, and are in the process of creating a PSA to be featured in upcoming event opportunities.

The G-PAC’s mission statement reads: “G-PAC facilitates an environment where diversity and inclusion is both welcomed and encouraged. Strives to ignite lasting change by sharing experiences, providing others with education and outside resources, and creating an authentic safe space for fellow student-athletes. Inspires others to thrive at the edge of their comfort zone furthering the journey to true equality.”

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Weather Journal: Imperfect scales for rating weather events and basketball teams

Weather Journal: Imperfect scales for rating weather events and basketball teams

Many basketball fans have been caught up in power rankings and now NCAA Tournament seedings, scratching their heads at how their favorite team can be rated so low.

I’m similarly perplexed at how this winter ranks so low on an intensity scale that I created.

It all underscores the inherent imperfections and inevitable subjectiveness of multifactor scales, be it for weather or sports or something else entirely.

Back in November, I rated the first 21 winters of the 21st century to date in the Roanoke area according to a formula I developed to assess each season’s severity based on several factors.

A sleigh ride down memory lane, with a new index to rank the 21 Roanoke-area winters of the 21st century.

Those factors included total snowfall in inches, the number of days of measurable snowfall, the lowest temperature of the season subtracted from the freezing mark of 32, and the number of days with highs 60 or above subtracted from the days with lows at or below 20, all based on Roanoke official weather statistics.

Using that scale, which I didn’t publicly name but have toyed with calling RAWSI (Roanoke Area Winter Severity Index), the constantly cold and deeply snowy 2009-10 winter rates as the most severe winter of the 21st century to date with 84 points, quite unsurprisingly, while the very mild 2011-12 winter and minimal-snow 2019-20 winter are tied for last place with two points.

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Based on this formula, the 2021-22 winter ranks 15th most severe of the now 22 winters in the century to date with a score of 26. It rates seven points behind its predecessor in 2020-21.

That strikes me as odd, even illogical. There is no way I would consider last winter to be more severe than this one.

Last winter had lots of borderline wintry precipitation events but nothing really lasting or all that impactful, at least in the immediate Roanoke area. This winter, by contrast, had a thick icy snowpack that lasted two to three weeks for many, 11 straight days officially, Roanoke’s longest lasting snowpack in seven years.

I heard from people who were stuck in their homes for several days by the unrelenting, difficult-to-remove icy snow cover on their driveways and rural roads, resulting from an 8-inch Jan. 16 storm that included about 2 inches of sleet, followed by days of only partial melting and hard re-freezes.

I left the region for an entire week and returned to find the snow cover on my yard looking basically the same as when I left.

The 2021-22 winter edged 2020-21 for more total snow by a 12-10 margin, rounded to the nearest inch, and had a colder lowest temperature of the season, 10 degrees compared to 15.

This winter’s rating took a hit, however, in having 29 days with highs reaching 60 or more, tied for third most on record going back to 1912, compared to only 15 days with a low 20 or below. While the middle part in January was quite wintry, the bookends in December and the latter half of February were mild. The result in my formula is that it lost 14 points for having that many more 60s highs than sub-20 lows.

Also, last winter had 13 days of measurable snow, though most of those had very minor amounts, compared to only six such days this winter.

In basketball terms, you can think of this winter as having had more bad losses, mild days, than it did quality wins, cold and snowy days. (Your personal perception may be the opposite, that mild days are wins and cold and snow are losses, but that’s not the point of the rating scale.)

How more high-profile and important scales for rating weather events fall short in various ways engenders much discussion in weather social media circles, and the arguments can rage as hotly and last far longer than do those for how various teams are seeded in a basketball bracket.

The Enhanced Fujita Scale used for tornadoes is often criticized because it is based solely on damage markers, which means the happenstance of what a tornado hits can be more important than the strength of its winds.

A tornado with 200 mph winds that only flips a portable outhouse and hits nothing else is an EF-0, when it could be an EF-5 if it swept the foundation clean on just one well-constructed home. There is no radar or instrument observation that can raise a tornado rating if there is no observed tornado damage to support that rating.

The Saffir-Simpson Scale for hurricanes is considered lacking by some because it doesn’t include storm surge as a factor.

The inherent problem is that coastal geography plays a major role in storm surges, so hurricanes of similar size and strength could cause widely varying storm surge levels on different coastlines. But there is no doubt about the important role storm surge plays in damage and death toll with landfalling hurricanes, and the scale does seem to be missing something overlooking storm surge.

Three factors I didn’t include in my RAWSI were days of snow cover, the size of the season’s largest snowstorm, and anything related to freezing rain.

Adding just the total days of snow cover, 13 compared to eight a year ago, plus the size of the season’s largest snowfall, 8 inches compared to 5 a year ago, would have been just enough to move this winter ahead of the last one by one point.

I didn’t include days of snow cover for the simple reason that I have hopes of extending this rating system eventually to the entire period of record going back to 1912, and there is a point several decades back where this data becomes spotty or unavailable.

I didn’t include the size of the largest snow mainly because two of the four factors already emphasize snowfall and having more than half of the scale based only on snow statistics seemed a bit much.

Overlooking ice storms in a local winter rating scale is similar to overlooking storm surge in a hurricane scale, but I could find no consistently recorded, readily available data point related to freezing rain to add to this formula.

And, frankly, for what I was trying to accomplish with the article in November, I didn’t want the trouble of tracking down and adding together six or seven factors.

So the 2021-22 winter will have to live with its 15th seed, which would put it in a first-round bracket pairing with the second-seeded 2013-14 winter, that winter’s fans fuming that having the biggest snowstorm of the young century should somehow be weighted more and get it seeded first ahead of the New England-style winter we had in 2009-10.

Weather Journal appears on Wednesdays.

Contact Kevin Myatt at kevin.myatt@roanoke.com. Follow him on Twitter @kevinmyattwx.