It's horses rather than movies and motorbikes for young Izzi Ryder - and so she joins my list of apt racing names
Some people are just born to participate in a particular sport.
What else was Anna Smashnova going to do other than play tennis, and to a reasonably high level. The same goes for Tennys Sandgren, who made it to the Australian Open quarter-finals in 2018 and 2020. The brilliantly named Chuck Long just had to be a quarterback (he played for the LA Rams and Detroit Lions), while Nathan Leeper competed at the 2000 Olympics for the US in, you guessed it, the high jump.
Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, is another example, along with Russian 400-metre hurdler Marina Stepanova. Given his first name, Spanish footballer Kepa Arrizabalaga was always going to play in goal.
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- Never mind the price of the beer - kids go racing for nothing and that's worth a lot
- Bank holidays are in sad decline - why not let unloved Brigadier Gerard march to the rescue
- Is there a cure for the Derby? A dose of Epsom salts might get it moving again
- British Flat raiders restore a little sporting pride. It may be far-fetched, but can our jumpers do the same?
- 40 years on: memories of an era when winning at Epsom made a horse too valuable to race on