• Olympic 800m champion rewarded for remarkable year
• Darts prodigy Luke Littler, 17, second; Joe Root third

No one could stop Keely Hodgkinson on the track in 2024 – or, as it turned out, the battle for public opinion as the Olympic 800m champion lifted the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

“As a little girl, I dared to dream big,” said the 22-year-old from Atherton, near Wigan, after being rewarded for a remarkable year, in which she won Olympic and European gold, obliterated her own British record, and remained unbeaten over two laps.

Already struggling to deal with expectations, nobody knows when the Chelsea winger will set foot on a pitch again

People who come across Mykhailo Mudryk often sense a distance. Intentionally or not, mystery attaches itself to the shy young man who caused such excitement when he turned up at Stamford Bridge in January 2023. None of the winger’s managers at Chelsea have been able to crack the code and the sense is that Mudryk’s guard will go higher after the Football Association provisionally suspended him after a positive drug test.

This is a story without winners. A career that promised so much is in danger of falling apart, and one of the saddest aspects of Mudryk’s plight is that his absence is unlikely to derail Chelsea’s burgeoning title challenge. Enzo Maresca will be able to cope perfectly well without the 23‑year‑old. Chelsea’s head coach is not short of options in attack. Mudryk, who has never looked settled since moving to England, is a mere afterthought these days.

• England forward says he is ‘ready for next steps’
• Rashford out of squad and could leave in January

Marcus Rashford’s almost 20-year association with Manchester United looks set to come to an end after the striker acknowledged: “I think I’m ready for a new challenge and the next steps.” The England ­international was dropped from the squad for the Manchester derby ­victory over City on Sunday and the club are open to selling him.

The 27-year-old has struggled for form over the past two seasons and the new head coach, Ruben Amorim, and United’s hierarchy will be happy to move Rashford on in January. United are willing to listen to offers for the forward but his £365,000 per week wages could make it difficult to find a suitor that can afford him, so may need to accept below-market value to smooth his departure.

• Updates from the match at the Gabba in Brisbane
• Any thoughts? Email or get in touch on Bluesky
• New Zealand v England: third Test, day four – live

22nd over: India 66-4 (Rahul 42, Rohit 5) Cummins causing all kinds of problems again, this time beating Rohit with a leg-cutter much as he had troubled Rahul with earlier. Rohit responds with a punishing square drive to the boundary at deep point.

21st over: India 61-4 (Rahul 41, Rohit 1) Another chance! Rahul ends the over with a mis-timed drive to mid-on and there is a delayed call for a single. Rohit is slow off the mark as Hazlewood pounces on the ball and throws to the striker’s end as the India skipper dives across the crease. He looked home but that was another scare for India. One delivery earlier and Rahul plays the shot of the morning so far with a square drive through point to the boundary.

• Live updates from the fourth day’s play in Hamilton
• Sign up for The Spin | Get in touch with Rob
• Australia v India: third Test, day four – live

12th over: England 49-2 (Bethell 20, Root 16) O’Rourke is again hitting 90mph, which turns him from a very awkward bowler into a mildly terrifying one. Even Root is struggling to find the middle of the bat and almost falls when a gloved pull beats the diving Blundell and goes for four.

Meanwhile, this email is spot on. “There’s something about Will O’Rourke’s put-upon demeanour that reminds me of Angus Fraser,” writes Matt Emerson. “Even when he was on a hat-trick he looked like someone had stolen his lunch money. He’s a bit quicker than the great man, mind…”

Billionaire is taking a ruthless approach at a club which, under the Glazers, became a byword for complacency

In Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s push to revolutionise Manchester United from relic to ruthless winning machine he possesses the vital element missing from the Glazers’ listless ownership: a searing will to do so.

As the controller of football policy and the largest minority shareholder, Ratcliffe has the executive levers to engineer change. The six Glazer siblings, too, have these. Yet in the decade between Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in May 2013 and Ratcliffe’s advent last Christmas Eve, there was scant intent from the majority shareholders to ensure United were best in class.

• Boxer ready for world heavyweight title fight clash
• Fury more respectful now of Ukranian opponent

“When I look in the mirror I don’t see a quitter,” Tyson Fury says as, having suffered the first defeat of his professional career in a dramatic world heavyweight title fight against Oleksandr Usyk in May, he is about to step back into the fire of their rematch this Saturday night in Riyadh. “I see a man who would do anything to keep going. If I get knocked down nine times, I’ll get up 10. If I didn’t want to do that, I wouldn’t be a boxer, I’d be doing something else, like playing darts. But this is my job.”

Fury and Usyk dug into the reserves of their resilience and the Ukrainian won a split decision. Usyk was losing the bout narrowly when, in a remarkable ninth round, he hurt Fury and looked close to stopping his much bigger opponent. But Fury is a fighter to the core and being rocked repeatedly would never deter him from stepping back into the ring.

Cycling’s finest sprinter says he achieved all he could in the sport, and that he is lucky to retire on his own terms

“Oh mate, for the last couple of years I’ve been broken,” Mark Cavendish says with a throaty chuckle as he considers the state of his body after decades on the bike. Cavendish will turn 40 next May and his extraordinary career finally ended last month when he won his final race in Singapore to follow his record-breaking 35th Tour de France stage victory this summer.

Cavendish is the greatest sprint cyclist the sport has seen and all the blurring wins and moments of history mean there are no regrets even when he feels so battered. “I have to do so much maintenance of my body now,” he says, “and I feel it most when I go running. It gives me a perspective on how many hours I’ve spent crouched over the handlebars while I’m trying to run. That’s when I realise how I’ve been in the same physical position for the best part of 30 years and at the highest level for nearly 20 years.

• Updates from the match at the Gabba in Brisbane
• Any thoughts? Get in touch with an email
• New Zealand v England: third Test, day three – live

108th over: Australia 431-8 (Carey 60, Lyon 0) Akash Deep replaces Bumrah after just a couple of overs, and gets clattered! Carey launches a lofted cover drive way back into the stands! Goodness me.

107th over: Australia 424-8 (Carey 53, Lyon 0) Jadeja keeps going, and gets through a quiet over after a Carey single first ball.

• Updates from day three at Seddon Park (10pm GMT start)
• Scoreboard | Day two report | Day two reaction
• Get in touch: email Jim with your thoughts on the match

Bad news from Hamilton

“It is now raining again and the covers are coming back on…” writes Ali.