qualification opener. they lost 3—0 to kazachstan, a side ranked 117th in the world, a team who have only won two of their last 20 qualifers. craig templeton watched the action. scotland's qualifying campaign bond gone a long way from home and 3000 miles —— 4000 miles from edinburgh but still at and forced. early patterns of freight were done by kaza khsta n yellow. patterns of freight were done by kazakhstan yellow. and they found a whole and scottish defence. it was about to get worse and once more at the path to scotland's goal easy to find and it was too easy to find and it was 2—0 afterjust ten minutes. 0nly it was 2—0 afterjust ten minutes. only the agility did not become three before half time. but the interval brought no change and soon it was three, left lurking and you

can see what he thought of that. scotland's best chance fell to stuart armstrong but with so little to do, the goalkeeper was up to the task. scotland stand by a team ranked 77 places below them and questions will certainly be asked. it is never finished it is neverfinished until it is never finished until it is finished. we bounce back from a poor performance in israel gain and that is what we must do after this game. we have other place to combine and there are players with a bit more experience you have got to come back. northern ireland had a much more positive start to their qualifying campaign with a 2—0 win over estonia at windsor park. the hosts were on top for much of the game, but it took until the hour mark until they opened the scoring — niall mcginn with the final touch. steven davis added the second from the penalty spot after george saville was fouled

in the box. michael 0'neill‘s men play their second qualifier against belarus on sunday. it is difficult when you have indenting for them and some classes you think may go the other way. we are doing it as a team and you can improve and the final third, the final goal at times and at times the bodies we get in the box and we did not get enough contact on the ball for some people in the box and did not seem to get anything so those are all errors. a lot of our place in the final third was good but we need to be a little bit more polished in the final third. certainly not been an easy easy for declan rice. he transferred from republic of ireland to england after playing some families from his

grandparents country and today he had to apologise for a social media post that has emerged where he made an apparent reference to the ira. is currently with the england squad for their 2020 qualifiers after being called up by the england manager garrett southgate. the posting question came from 2015, when the milled field there was an island youth player and wrote at the time on instagram, and he has apologised on instagram, and he has apologised on the same platform today. this is what he had to say today. i am aware that a poorly expressed, and i made when i was a junior player has been circulated on social media. i recognise now that my intent to show support for my team—mates at the time could be negatively interpreted. while my naive weights we re interpreted. while my naive weights were not meant to be a political opinion, and do not represent who i

am,i opinion, and do not represent who i am, i sincerely apologise for any offence caused. the new national manager garrett southgate was asked about this and his press conference today at the head of the czech republic and he thinks it will not affect how the midfielder will be received by the england fans. affect how the midfielder will be received by the england fanslj think people understand, most people will have children at those sorts of ages and people are still maturing at that age and you are in conversations with friends that you can get giddy and you say things that maybe you do not even know enough about or you do not understand the context so i think oui’ understand the context so i think ourfans and our public understand the context so i think our fans and our public will recognise that fact, i am sure. southgate also confirmed today that marcus rashford is out of both those qualifiers within ankle qualifier

and he has returned to manchester united for treatment. southgate says he may call up and under 21 player in the squad for replacement but that would only be in time for monday's qualifier. chelsea women have boosted their hopes of reaching the semi—finals of the champions league for the second successive season, with a 2—0 win in the first leg of their quarterfinal tie against paris saint germain. both goals came in the second half, after a rather nervy first 45 minutes — hannah blundell with this wonderful strike for chelsea's first. england's fran kirby set up team mate erin cuthbert for the second — the second leg is in paris next wednesday. well, the metropolitan police have confirmed that one man was arrested for possession of class a drugs this evening and that weapons, including knives and knuckle—dusters, were found on a coach carrying psg fans to tonight's game. the remaining passengers were escorted from the area by police. authorities were first called

to reports of vandalism at the stadium at 8am this morning, then later to disorder at waterloo and wimbledon stations. let's run through some other stories now. bryony frost is going to miss next month's grand national meeting at aintree. she broke her collarbone in a fall at southwell. she became the first female jockey to win a grade onejumps race at the cheltenham festival last week. gymnast simone biles has confirmed that next year's tokyo olympics will be her last. the 22—year—old won four gold medals in rio and says the wear and tear from her gymnastics career has taken its toll on her body. she says feels as though it is falling apart". england's women's cricketers have completed a 3—0 whitewash over sri lanka in their one day series. the hosts could only manage 174 all out after winning the toss. england knocked off the runs with eight wickets and over 23 overs to spare. amyjones and tammy beaumont both

made half centuries. now the inclusion of transgender athletes is under consideration at the international olympic committee amid concerns over fair play. the debate has been loudest when it comes to trans women lining up in the female category. critics argue they have an unfair advantage, but denying them the right to compete in the gender they identify with, has been described as a violation of their human rights. with next year's games in tokyo expected to feature the first ever trans athlete at an 0lympics, sport authorities are rushing to find a compromise that suits everyone. 0ur sport news correspondent alex capstick has been hearing from all sides of the story. his report begins in the united states. in colorado's open country, an elite cyclist enjoys the freedom of the open road. this is jillian bearden, but her career has not always been an easy ride. she's transgender.

for more than 30 years she was known asjonathan. after transitioning, a rule change paved the way for her to race against women. i finally was in the field that i identified with. i felt very good in that field. it was an amazing day and i remember at the start line, you know, with 30 other women around me, and i had kind of tears coming out of my eyes. we want to compete and we want to do it fairly and we'll take whatever measures we need to. trans women can take part in the female category as long as their testosterone levels are below a prescribed limit, but it's controversial. recent comments from former sports stars have made headlines around the world. the tennis great martina navratilova called trans—female athletes cheats, for which she later apologised. the sensitive nature of the debate is why many current competitors are reluctant to speak out, but victoria hood, a british cyclist who also runs an all—women's team, feels it's too important for her to stay silent. they're born male,

so they have a male body. that body goes through puberty with that influx of testosterone which then shapes their body. just by lowering that testosterone for 12 months, that's not going to eliminate a performance advantage. i don't want it to be the case that people can't do sport. ijust...sport has to be fair. the issue has posed difficult questions for sports governing bodies, which make up the rules and regulations. new guidance is expected from the international olympic committee, which is striving to find a balance between its promise of inclusivity while ensuring fair play. we spoke to the man responsible for shaping the ioc‘s policy on trans—athletes. i think it's important that we get a resolution to this as agreed as it can be amongst the whole breadth of stakeholders, where there's these extremes of view, but most of us are somewhere in the middle where we want people to be able to compete but we also want it to be fair, and so i think we need to sort

it out as soon as we can. back in the foothills of the rockies, jillian bearden is focused on the road ahead. the debate over the inclusion of trans athletes is long and complex. a permanent solution that satisfies all sides seems a distant destination and there may well be many more mountains left to climb. alex capstick, bbc news, colorado. the head of great britain s special 0lympics programme is urging the government to back a bid to stage it here, believing it could be the "best ever" games. abu dhabi staged its closing ceremony last night, officially concluding the largest ever world event for athletes with intellectual disabilities. britain has never staged the special olympics world games. that's all from sportsday.