Sports News Roundup: Golf-Scheffler, Hovland, Conners grab PGA Championship lead; Soccer- 'I will cry 100%': Firmino braces for emotional Anfield farewell and more

Scheffler, who posted his first-ever bogey-free round at a major with a tidy 67 on Thursday, could not match that brilliance in round two but as always delivered a clinical performance carding a two-under 68 to return to the top. Soccer-'I will cry 100%': Firmino braces for emotional Anfield farewell Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino expects his final game at Anfield to be an emotional affair and the Brazilian said he is bracing for a flood of tears as he prepares to leave the Premier League club after eight trophy-laden years.

Following is a summary of current sports news briefs.

Golf-Scheffler, Hovland, Conners grab PGA Championship lead

World number two Scottie Scheffler, Norwegian Viktor Hovland and Canada's Corey Conners grabbed a share of the PGA Championship second round lead on Friday, while an unforgiving Oak Hill left some of golf's biggest names fighting to make the cut. Scheffler, who posted his first ever bogey-free round at a major with a tidy 67 on Thursday, could not match that brilliance in round two but as always delivered a clinical performance carding a two-under 68 to return to the top.

Soccer-'I will cry 100%': Firmino braces for emotional Anfield farewell

Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino expects his final game at Anfield to be an emotional affair and the Brazilian said he is bracing for a flood of tears as he prepares to leave the Premier League club after eight trophy-laden years. Firmino, who has scored 109 goals since his move from Hoffenheim in 2015, has won every major trophy with Liverpool including the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup.

Cycling-Rubio wins delayed, shortened Giro stage 13 as weather chaos continues

Einer Rubio thwarted Thibaut Pinot and Jefferson Cepeda to win the shortened 74.6km-stage 13 of the Giro d'Italia on Friday after a bizarre delayed start, with organisers forced to change the route due to adverse weather conditions. Colombian rider Rubio (Movistar) delivered a perfectly-timed sprint in the final kilometre to earn his first Grand Tour stage win in style, while Geraint Thomas retained the leader's maglia rosa jersey.

Jim Brown, legendary NFL running back, dead at 87

Jim Brown, one of the greatest running backs in the history of the National Football League who quit the game at the height of his career to act in Hollywood movies and add his voice to the civil rights movement, has died. He was 87. Brown died on Thursday night, his wife Monique Brown said on Instagram.

USC, NCAA face US agency's claims that college athletes are employees

A U.S. labor board official has accused the University of Southern California of blocking student athletes from unionizing by not treating them as employees, in the latest case to challenge the longstanding business model of college athletics. The National Labor Relations Board's Los Angeles office in a complaint announced late Thursday said USC and the National Collegiate Athletics Association misclassified basketball and football players as student-athletes to intentionally deprive them of their rights to engage in protected labor activities.

Soccer: Brazilian idol Pele rests in golden tomb in luxurious mausoleum in Sao Paulo

The memorial dedicated to Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele, is a luxurious mausoleum where the remains of the Brazilian idol rest in a solid gold coffin on the outskirts of Sao Paulo. The tomb where "O Rei" was buried after his death at 83 from advanced colon cancer is on the first floor of the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica vertical cemetery, considered the highest in the world, located less than a kilometre from the Vila Belmiro stadium of his beloved club Santos.

Golf: Hovland makes statement with game and orange pants at PGA Championship

Viktor Hovland's outfits have been known to sometimes overshadow his play, and that might have been the case again on Friday at the PGA Championship if the Norwegian, wearing bright orange pants, had not grabbed a share of the halfway lead. The pants seemed to come right out of the closet of Rickie Fowler, who has made orange his trademark color on the course, and in fact Hovland was confused for the American world number 49 as he made his way around Oak Hill.

Soccer-Premier League teams must aspire to Man City's standards says Lampard

Interim Chelsea manager Frank Lampard described Manchester City as currently the greatest team in the world and said the rest of the Premier League have to aspire to the high standards set by Pep Guardiola's title-chasing side. City are poised to wrap up their fifth league crown in six years and are also in contention to complete the treble this season, having reached the Champions League and FA Cup finals.

Tennis: Romania's Halep asks independent court hearing after additional doping charge

Former world number one Simona Halep has asked to be judged by an independent tribunal after been charged with a further and separate breach of the Tennis Anti-Doping Programme (TADP), by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on Friday. The 31-year-old former Wimbledon and French Open champion, has been provisionally suspended since October 2022 after testing positive for banned blood-booster roxadustat at the U.S. Open last year.

Tennis: Rybakina defeats Ostapenko in rain-delayed Italian Open semi-final

Seventh seed Elena Rybakina beat Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 6-2 6-4 in a rain-delayed semi-final at the Italian Open on Friday and will play Anhelina Kalinina in Saturday's final. Rybakina prevailed in a fairly straight-forward first set in a match delayed by more than an hour - and then interrupted - due to persistent rain.