playing in only her second major, puerto rico's maria torres shares the lead after the first round in evian. we're in las vegas where the fans are arriving for what's being billed as boxing's fight of the century. and the polish mountainbiker making history welcome to the programme. 12 months ago maria torres was with herfamily in puerto rico as hurricane maria battered the island, a year on she shares the first round lead at the final women's major of the season. torres carded an impressive 6 under par 65 at the evian championship in france and tops the leaderboard alongside spain's carlota ciganda. nick parrot reports: nick parrot reports. this is only the second major rookie

maria torres has played in and the first time she has visited evian in france and it's no wonder after her first round she said she loves the course. a run of two birdies and an eagle on the back nine helped the puerto rico and to the 65, and a share of the lead after the first day. quite remarkable to someone who turned pro with less than a year ago. alongside are at the top of the leaderboard is spain's carlota ciganda. she had a bogey — three round and sank six birdies to match maria torres‘s round of 65. this is only her second time at evian having tied 17th two years ago. they will have to watch out for american austin ernst. the part of the day was this birdie, two shots off the lead. in cycling, jelle wallays

masterminded an impressive breakaway to win stage 18 of the vuelta a espana. the belgian went clear in the first three kilometres of the race alongside sven eryk bystrom and jetse bol and held his nerve for a dramatic win. britain's simon yates maintained his overall classification lead of 25 seconds, with only two stages remaining before sunday's finish in madrid. this weekend, a year on from their controversial draw in gennady golovkin and canelo alvarez return to the ring for their highly anticpated rematch in what's being billed as the fight of the century. alvarez‘s drugs ban is one of the things thats fueled a war of words between both fighters — and tensions remain high ahead of the bout. our reporter ade adedoyin is in las vegas. well, just like the weather here, the atmosphere is really starting to

heat up ahead of what is a huge bout in boxing. thousands of mexicans are expected to descend on the city of the next 2a hours, this being the weekend of mexico's independence day celebrations and an opportunity born ofa celebrations and an opportunity born of a favourite of mexico, canelo alvarez, to win the title against kazakhstan‘s gennady golovkin. a lot of bad blood after the events of the last 12 months. controversial draw in the fight last year and canelo alvarez tested positive for a banned so alvarez tested positive for a banned so spent —— substance last year and criticism from gennady golovkin. suchis criticism from gennady golovkin. such is the bad feeling they refused to do what face—off. 0 the la jolla says for the good of boxing, there has to be a decisive result on saturday night. we need a knockout. boxing needs a knockout. whether it is canelo or ggg, we need a great fight, punches and bunches and

combinations, boxing needs it. if we get that on saturday night, boxing is back. away from all the controversy, gennady golovkin has the opportunity to make history on saturday night. he is on 20 at the moment, none of the most consecutive number of middleweight defences. bernard hopkins, alleging that the sport, is here, part of the promotion will team and rates gennady golovkin is on the 20 of all time as faras gennady golovkin is on the 20 of all time as far as middleweights are concerned and says even if he does manage to break the record on saturday, their achievements don't match. compared to any other fighter except hagler, and look at the titles in recognition of the titles ihad, it titles in recognition of the titles i had, it was always wba, the number one wba, the wbc, number one wc belt. it was the ivf belt, winning the bf. it was in the region, in the watered—down sanctioning bodies to give you a belt. saying you are not the real champion. you are the

champion. we don't do that in the history. history says, if you are the guy, you are the guy and if history says he is the guy comes saturday, i'm not going to lose sleep over it. it was a rushed day for both fighters as far as media obligations are concerned. the next time they see each other will be on friday at the way in, adjust the boatmen to have a psychological advantage at a time to keep their emotions in check with so much animosity between the pair. saturday night potentially the biggest night of both men's korea. carlos ramos, the umpire accused of sexism by serena williams during the us 0pen final, will take to the court again when the usa's davis cup semi final gets underway with croatia on friday. the us is the most successful team in davis cup history, but haven't made the final since 2007 when they won the trophy. croatia are the favourites for the tie with world number six marin cilic starting things off. last years winners france

will take on spain in lille. despite spain missing world number one rafa nadal because of injury, the french aren't taking their opponents lightly. he was one of south africa's top triathletes but one morning, during a training run, mhlengi gwala was dragged into bushes at gunpoint by three men who tried to saw of his legs. six months on, the 27 year old — who survived the ambush with his legs intact — says he's forgiven his attackers and has set himself a challenge which will need all the strength he's got. isaac fanin has been to meet him in durban: i think it takes time. they need the parts or they need everything. they killing me. they come to kill me. the chainsaw attack on mhlengi

gwala, it made global headlines. a seemingly random attack in his hometown, durban, where police are still to find any leads. why did think someone would do something so horrific to you? weirdly, none of his possessions, including its burden, was stolen during the horrific attack. six months on, mhlengi gwala is determined to move on with his life, helped by a public campaign that raised over $30,000 for his medical costs. 0ne

one day came to visit him and is said to me, listen, you know, to stand back on my feet and a need to start training and racing again. but i was like, it's too early. but he said, i've started training with my mind, in my sleep, iwill said, i've started training with my mind, in my sleep, i will sleep for a bit ifi mind, in my sleep, i will sleep for a bit if i go, mind, in my sleep, i will sleep for a bit ifigo, i mind, in my sleep, i will sleep for a bit if i go, i will go forever. the doctors said it would take in two years to recover but he started running afterjust two years to recover but he started running after just four months. today, he takes part in many races. before the attack, the 27—year—old was dreaming of the olympics. his revised goal, to complete an ironman, what sport's toughest challenges, consisting of vast runs, swims and bike rides. while he never may know the attacker

‘s motives, he says he is forgiven them so he can concentrate on doing what he does best. take a look at this for a stunt. poland's dawid godjiek landed this quadruple tail whip riding a mountain bike. definitely worth a look again. the take off ramp propels riders 10 metres into the air. it's the first ever time it's been acheived according to organisers in germany. but the trick wasn't all that easy to master, there were plenty of failed attempts beforehand. some of them looked pretty painful. godziek said his body was "destroyed" after all those falls but that it was "definitely worth it." you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. hello.

well, before we go to the weather for the uk, an update on hurricane florence battering the east coast of the united states. and the worst of the weather is technically still out to sea. the storm's eye isn't expected to cross land, that is, make landfall, until around about lunchtime on friday uk time. but it has already been battering north carolina, south carolina, areas towards the north as well as further inland, and it is a slow—moving storm, that means it is dumping a lot of rainfall in the same place for a considerable amount of time, and those destructive winds, the storm surge, likely to be some destructive flooding from this or the system. meanwhile, in the asia—pacific, we have a very powerful storm, even stronger, typhoon mankhut,

a super typhoon heading for northern parts of luzon in the philippines, and the effects of the storm could be catastrophic, so two very powerful storms both sides of the globe. meanwhile, here in the uk, obviously it is a lot quieter, thank goodness. showers in the north, much more dry in the south, and this is a satellite image from the last 12 hours, clouds into the northern part of the country, further south the clouds have broken up at bit, so we have clearer weather. and that's how we start friday morning. a lot of dry weather notjust in the south but some eastern areas, whereas in the north—west notice the rain in northern ireland, western scotland and

the north—west of england. as we go through the morning into the afternoon, there is the clock, ten, 11, 12, showery spells, in the south—east it should be dry, if not even sunny, 19 in london, fresh in aberdeen at around 15 degrees. now that takes us into the friday night and eventually saturday. high pressure to the south of the uk will bring warm and sunny weather in the near continent and not so bad in the south of the uk as well and in the midlands. sunshine on the way for saturday. you can see some of the bright weather extends all the way to scotland but a weather front only coming from the north—west, so eventually on saturday in the north—west there will be some rain and a decent breeze. 21 the top temperature on saturday. here is a look at sunday's weather forecast and a weather front is expected to move across the uk. that means the central swathe of the country could have some rain, but either side we have some brighter weather and the warm spot of course in the south and the south—east up to around 22 degrees. that's it from me. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is tanya beckett.

our top stories: hurricane florence is bearing down on the east coast of america with warnings it could bring catastrophic flooding. stay on guard. this is a powerful storm that can kill. today, the threat becomes a reality. and in the philippines there's more extreme weather. tens of thousands of people begin evacuating as super typhoon mangkhut heads towards the island of luzon. the two russian suspects accused of the nerve agent attack in the uk break their silence. they say they were in salisbury but only as tourists. and bye—bye beetle.