hello, i'm marc edwards, and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on this programme: horse racing in great britain on lockdown until next wednesday after an outbreak of equine flu. aleksander ceferin has been re—elected as uefa president after running unopposed. and with mikaela shiffrin not competing, we'll assess the contenders for the women's combined at the world ski championships in sweden. hello, and thanks for joining us on sport today. all horse racing in great britain has been suspended due to an outbreak of equine flu. more than 100 training stables, including those of leading trainers paul nicholls and nicky henderson, have been placed in lockdown as the british horseracing authority seeks to contain the outbreak. there were supposed to be four meetings on thursday, but they were called off after three horses, which had all been vaccinated against the disease, tested positive. there are now concerns for next month's world famous cheltenham festival. our sports correspondent andy swiss reports. it was supposed to be raced a hero

doncaster but not a horse, not a punter in sight. all fixtures off after it emerged three runners yesterday at care and ludlow had tested positive for highly contagious equine flu. all of them from the yard of dominic kane had been vaccinated, leaving a worried sport searching for answers. in all previous form if you like and where infectious diseases have broken out in horse racing either he or any other countries around the world we learn from it each time and the key thing to do is to inform people, stop the movement of horses because then you stop the cross contamination and you can isolate theissues contamination and you can isolate the issues much more quickly. today's cancellations are just the start. the authorities say there will be no racing until it least wednesday next week with one of britain's bigger sports forced into

shutdown. and next month, remember, is its showpiece, the cheltenham festival, worth millions to the industry. so containing this disease is also a race against time. the coughing makes it very infectious so it's going to spread rapidly between horses. so we are looking for that combination of science, high—temperature, coughing, runny noses. much like a human flu vaccine it is helpful but it is not 100% effective u nfortu nately. it is helpful but it is not 100% effective unfortunately. for now this most unpredictable of sports is facing its own uncertain future. on to football, and lazio are up to fourth in italy's serie a after beating empoli on thursday night. the only goal of the game was a penalty scored by felipe caicedo just before half—time. lazio move two points ahead of ac milan, who have a game in hand. in spain, it's all square after the first leg of the copa del rey semi—final between real betis and valencia. the visitors came fom 2—0 down to salvage a 2—2 draw, with kevin gameiro equalising in stoppage time. the second leg is on 28th february.

and lyon are through to the quarter—finals of the french cup. moussa dembele and maxwell cornet scored their goals in a 2—1 win at guigamp. lyon will be at home to caen in the last eight. aleksander ceferin has been re—elected as uefa president for another four years, although he did run unopposed. ceferin took over from michel platini after a corruption scandal led to the frenchman being banned from football. our sports news correspondent richard conway reports. a range of decisions made here by uefa today, among them aleksander ceferin being elected to a four—year term as president. but uefa also deciding on a number of other election matters. greg clark, the chairman of the football association, well, he is now on the fifa council, the uefa delegates are letting him to a four—year term as well. it is a powerful position from

which he can extend the influence of the english association, may be important if in future they decide they want to have a run at a world cup bid may before 2030. but after the vote i caught up with greg clark andi the vote i caught up with greg clark and i asked him about one of the other issues affecting the english game at the moment, that of racism. there is talk in the premier league about how they can improve the situation given a spate of recent incidents and the sports minister has also called in various stakeholders for talks. this is what greg clark had to say on that. we need to make sure that people who play the game, people who watch the game, people who referee the game are safe from abuse and violence and threats. and we are coming up with a cohesive approach between stakeholders and government on how we can improve it. as for matters on the pitch, well, var, video assistant referees, that is being introduced into the champions league next week. it's been brought in

early and aleksander ceferin, the uefa president, not happy with the attitude of some of the head coaches of some of europe's major teams. uefa put on a var briefing for them in germany last week and only five coaches turned up, among them paris saint—germain and juventus coaches, but aleksander ceferin saying it was disrespectful that others hadn't turned up. for me, it is not only lack of respect for roberto rosetti and his team and the us organisation, but the influence of the coaches or the managers how you call them in england is huge —— uefa. and if they complain about the referees, they should at least come and see what the experts say about the use of the var. and number of issues also under discussion here in rome today. chief among them was aleksander ceferin‘s speech to the

congress delegates, his opportunity to set out his vision for the next four years. he says he wants to keep europe united in going forward, growing the game of football across the continent. that's the challenge he must now confront. now, for most people, running one marathon is hard enough. imagine running seven in seven days on seven continents. fewer than 200 people have completed the world marathon challenge, and the women's record for the event has just been smashed by great britain's susannah gill. just to warn you, there's some flash photography towards the end of this report by nick parrott. it was an adventure that started at the bottom of the world and ended with susannah gill feeling on top of it. it required great physical and mental strength to reach the finish in miami. these were tears of relief after a ll in miami. these were tears of relief after all the pain. what a week. not only have i run seven marathons in seven days on seven continents but i

have just gone and won it and set a new world record in the process, so it has just been the most incredible experience. i never knew i could do this. the race is one of extremes. 52 competitors got under way in the most inhospitable conditions. a bone chilling —35 celsius in antarctica, where keeping warm let alone running would be a struggle. it was the only leg susannah gill didn't win, finishing just under four hours. leg susannah gill didn't win, finishing just under four hourslj finishing just under four hours.|j am never running on snow again. two days later on the third marathon in australia the runners were having to cope with 35 degrees heat. the travel was just as demanding. in the airfor 63 hours, covering the equivalent distance of twice around the world. and they burned 5000 calories a day. i found the first few days was fine but the last three oi’ few days was fine but the last three orfour races i really few days was fine but the last three or four races i really struggled just to try and find enough hours in the day to eat enough to give you enough energy to keep going. those

demands would tax any elite athlete but susannah fits in a dayjob and only started running ten years ago. ijust only started running ten years ago. i just wanted to only started running ten years ago. ijust wanted to run the london marathon because i know it is something a lot of people aspire to and it is a fantastic event and then iran it and it is a fantastic event and then i ran it once and it is a fantastic event and then iran it once and i wanted to do it again andi iran it once and i wanted to do it again and i have been around the world running lots of different places but i have never done anything like this before but it was a lwa ys anything like this before but it was always a bit of a dream just because i thought it was such a wonderful challenge. and i nowi i thought it was such a wonderful challenge. and i now i have done it andi challenge. and i now i have done it and i guess the question will be what ex—partner won't think about that for the moment. even if she doesn't do anything again she has done more than most ever will. tributes have been paid to the legendary baseball star frank robinson who's died at the age of 83. he'd been in hospice care at his home in bel air. during his career, robinson hit 586 home runs, and he's the only player to win the mvp award in both leagues, with cincinnati in the national league in 1961, and baltimore in the american league in 1966. that was also the year he won the first of his two world series‘ titles with the orioles.

frank robinson later became the first black manager in the leagues when he joined the cleveland indians in 1975. we know mo salah is clinical in front of goal, unerring accuracy one of the many tools in his armoury. just take a look at this video he posted on instagram. here he is doing keepie—uppies, butjust keep your eye on the can on top of the tyre. bam! who knows how many takes he had! if you are a liverpool fan, just one, but to anyone else it was 554. here we see it again, there one minute, gone the next. fantastic from him. you can get all the latest sports news at our website, that's bbc.com/sport. but from me marc edwards and the rest of the sport today

team, goodbye. hello there. the weather has taken a bit of a turn to something a lot more unsettled to end the week. something we haven't seen in quite awhile, pretty deep areas of low pressure bringing gales and spells of heavy rain. and friday is looking very unsettled with a deep area of low pressure to bring widespread gales and quite heavy rain. now, this is actually a deep low that's been named storm erik by met eireann because it will likely bring disruptive winds to the northern half of the country including parts of scotland and northern england as we head from friday night into saturday. but early this morning, the winds will be picking up from the south—west as this storm gets closer. it'll be pushing in some pretty heavy rains in northern and western areas, maybe some snow over the scottish hills. it's going to be a very mild start to friday, particularly across the south—west. temperatures there in

plymouth around 10 degrees. so it's going to be a very blustery morning. outbreaks of showery rain ahead of the main band of rain which will spread its way eastwards, bringing some pretty torrential in fact across some central and eastern areas into the afternoon. the rain remains heavy across much of scotland and northern ireland, those winds a real feature, a5—55mph across many areas. 60—70 across some northern and western coasts, particularly over hills as well. 0n the plus side, it'll be pretty mild because of those south—westerlies but 10—12 degrees might not feel so mild because of the wind and rain. now, storm erik is very slow—moving towards the north of the uk through friday and saturday, and on its southern flank we could see a swathe with strong winds across parts of northern ireland into central and southern scotland and northern england. so a very blustery start to the day, perhaps even disruptive to start on saturday morning. a very windy day for all but further south, we should see some sunshine around, although much

of the northern scotland will remain very wet with further snow on the hills. rainfall totals really mounting here with a chance of localised flooding in places. again, another mild day in the south. there will be some more rain arriving in the south—west later on. so through friday and into saturday, we are likely to see some disruption from these very strong winds, so keep tuned to your weather forecast and to your bbc local radio. now, this feature may bring a spell of wet, maybe windy weather across the very far south of england, saturday night into sunday, but it should slowly clear away into the near continent as sunday wears on, so an improving picture here, with winds turning to a north—westerly direction. so that will be a cooler direction, but at least brightening up. and we will see a band of showery rain moving south across northern areas with some cool air there, so some snow on the hills. so it will be turning cooler from sunday onwards. a very warm welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: instagram says it is removing

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