Great Britain’s women’s flag football team suffered defeat at the World Championships as they missed out on qualifying for the 2028 Olympics.

The two-time defending European champions fought back to take the bronze-medal game to the final play, only for Mexico to clinch a 20-19 win in Dusseldorf, Germany.

That also meant Mexico – the world’s top-ranked team – secured a spot at Los Angeles 2028, when the non-contact version of American football will make its Olympic debut.

GB got off to a poor start as they were intercepted on their first two drives, with the second punished by a touchdown that put Mexico 13-0 up.

An Angelica Tait touchdown saw GB, who are ranked third in the world, get up and running before Mexico struck again to make it 20-6.

Grace Conway almost claimed an interception, which she could have run in for a touchdown, and GB ran out of time on offence as they aimed to cut the score before half-time.

But they closed to within a point through two touchdowns from Emily Kemp – the tournament’s leading scorer – then went for a two-point conversion to take the lead with two minutes left.

Although Kemp caught Jess Allen’s pass at the back of the endzone, her left foot came down just out of bounds, meaning Mexico could run down the clock to seal victory.

“We fell into a bit of a hole,” GB’s head coach Jack Reed told BBC Sport. “The drive at the end of the first half and the drop for the pick-six were unfortunate.

“I knew we’d fight, I knew we weren’t out of it, and we held them scoreless in the second half. But it’s a game of inches and Emily was out by an inch.”

The USA came from behind to beat GB 27-21 in the semi-finals and set up a meeting with Canada in the final.

The USA automatically qualify for LA28 as hosts and will be joined by Canada and Mexico, while GB must wait two years for another chance to qualify.

“I’m super proud of the team,” added Reed. “We showed the world that we can compete with anybody in the world. We played the number one ranked team today and number two yesterday (USA).

“We had an opportunity to win both games, they went down to the very end, so I think we earned the respect of the flag football world and surprised a lot of people.”

GB’s men beat Brazil 33-26 on Sunday to finish 13th overall, while the USA beat Italy 46-26 to secure their sixth straight world title.

Canada claimed a 34-26 overtime win over Mexico in the bronze-medal game to ensure they and Italy punched their ticket to LA28 this weekend.

CHICAGO — For the third time in four preseason games with Ben Johnson as head coach, the Bears scored at least 29 points.

Their 34-10 win over the Browns on Saturday at Soldier Field included 34 unanswered points after Cleveland took a 10-0 lead. The Bears offense started slow before scoring on six of its final nine possessions.

Johnson took pride in the team having only two penalties after emphasizing being disciplined on all three sides of the ball.

“I thought our guys were able to cut it loose,” he said. “We simplified the game plans from what we’ve been doing in practice and just let them go out there and play.”

In our annual look at “risers and fallers” from a Bears preseason game, there wasn’t much to put in the negative section.

Risers

Backup receivers: One of the stars of training camp, Kaden Davis, continued his scintillating summer with four catches for 88 yards from quarterback Tyson Bagent. Davis was with Johnson in Detroit earlier in his career and is competing to be the final wideout on the roster. He certainly provided some good tape for other teams watching. Maurice Alexander, who had some impressive moments last summer and then spent the season on the practice squad, had three catches for 42 yards and a score.

“Had a little crosser route, came off with a clean release, snapped it off and caught the ball and ran to daylight,” Alexander said.

Veteran Scotty Miller added three catches for 37 yards. It’s early, but those three are giving the Bears plenty of reason to keep six wideouts and then try to get the others to the practice squad.

“That’s just the expectation we got in the receiver room,” Alexander said. “We all out there rooting for each other, all out there going hard, just having each other’s back and leaning on one another. So that’s just the work we put in. That’s how we go to work every day and how we approach practice.”

Caleb Williams’ backups: Bagent had one interception and the starting offense had back-to-back three-and-outs, but he got rolling in the second quarter with his touchdown pass to Alexander and the explosives to Davis. Case Keenum went 9-for-10 passing for 151 yards with two scores, good for a perfect 158.3 passer rating. That included a fourth-down conversion to receiver Ray-Ray McCloud. It’s exactly what Johnson wants from his quarterbacks: the ability to execute the offense and provide more faith in what the team has surrounding Williams.

Salvon Ahmed: Another camp standout, Ahmed reversed field and scampered 49 yards for a touchdown on a screen pass. His two rushes went for 17 yards. Fellow running back Roschon Johnson had an impressive 19-yard run on third down on the Bears’ first touchdown drive, and he probably still has the upper hand as the No. 3 back with his special teams background, but Ahmed is having a strong summer. The fourth- and fifth-string backs also found the end zone — Brittain Brown on a 6-yard pass from Keenum and undrafted rookie Coleman Bennett on a 3-yard run.

Bears defensive end Jamree Kromah had two sacks Saturday, including this one of Browns quarterback Dillon Gabriel. (Patrick Gorski / Imagn Images)

Jamree Kromah: Kromah signed as an undrafted rookie in 2024, all the way back in the Matt Eberflus era. Aside from a brief stint on the Patriots’ practice squad, he’s been with the Bears in some capacity, and he had his best moment when he beat the Browns’ right tackle and got his hand on the football, stripping quarterback Deshaun Watson and then recovering it. The Bears scored their first touchdown four plays later.

Kromah said he lost 20 pounds in the offseason but got stronger with more lean mass. He had three tackles for loss total among his six tackles. He’s likely looking at a practice-squad spot for the third year in a row, but this was his best preseason performance as a Bear.

Run defense: The Bears held Browns running back Quinshon Judkins to 9 yards on four carries. They had a fourth-down, short-yardage stop in the second half with Kromah and linebacker Jon Rhattigan getting credit for the tackle. Through three quarters, they gave up only one run longer than 6 yards to a running back. Defensive tackle Neville Gallimore had two tackles for loss.

Fallers

Left tackle challengers: From our vantage point, neither left tackle Kiran Amegadjie nor Jedrick Wills asserted himself as someone who could supplant Braxton Jones and start Week 1. It looked like Wills got beat for a sack. Amegadjie gave up some space on a few snaps, once to a spin move and another to an inside move. The two left tackles looked solid out in space blocking, but the pass protection didn’t seem exemplary.

Amegadjie said he felt he had an up-and-down game.

“I think I was kind of getting my feet underneath me for a second,” he said. “It was tough to get into rhythm, sitting in the second quarter and coming back with a two-minute drill and then the third quarter. So it’s a good learning opportunity, obviously, just what I need to do to stay ready in those moments if there is another occasion like that.”

Amegadjie, a third-round pick in 2024, is as healthy as he’s been in a training camp as he tries to show the coaches the consistency they want from the position.

“I’ve started one game in three years and I’ve been injured multiple times, so there’s obviously that level of frustration. I’m not the player that I want to be yet,” Amegadjie said. “Obviously I’m working towards that. Everybody has a different path in the NFL. … I’m healthy now and I’m focused on staying on the field as long as I can.”

If Jones is the Week 1 starter — and Johnson expected Jones to be back at practice this week — Amegadjie and Wills are still competing to be the backup left tackle for the regular season.

Keep an eye on …

The cornerback situation: While the Bears can feel good about their starting outside corners, Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson, the preseason game reminded us of the injuries that have been a story this summer. Josh Blackwell was the corner in coverage for three of Cleveland’s long passes, but he’s well down the corner depth chart and will make the team because of his special teams prowess. Kyler Gordon was present and on the sideline but is still on the physically unable to perform list. Terell Smith and Jaylon Jones remain out.

Rookie Malik Muhammad, in his NFL debut, got flagged for holding but also had a strong tackle in the open field for a loss.

“That was a huge emphasis with me coming out this year in the draft, like working on tackling, working on attacking,” Muhammad said. “Just knowing that I’m going to play nickel and be in the box, you got to be physical and be able to tackle.”

This week’s joint practice and then game in Cincinnati should offer Muhammad a bunch of valuable reps before the Bears may need to call on him come September.

Beanie Bishop, one of the team’s newest corners, had two interceptions and a pass breakup.

Quick hits

• Tight end Nikola Kalinic left the game with a knee injury and did not return. He had a brace on the knee in the locker room. He’s had reps with the first-team special teams units in camp.

• Linebacker Nephi Sewell sustained a concussion. Safety Xavier Woods injured his groin. Linebacker Ruben Hyppolite had a shoulder injury.

• Cairo Santos missed his first field goal try of the afternoon, a 50-yarder, but he made the next two from 51 and 49 yards, respectively.

• Caleb Williams and the starters ran 60 plays before the game. The Bears will practice Sunday afternoon, which is expected to be mostly the first-team players who did not play in the game, before an off day Monday.

NEW YORK — The Washington Nationals are moving CJ Abrams to second base in the coming days. Top-100 shortstop prospect Seaver King is having a breakout season in Triple-A Rochester. So let’s get this out of the way: Those developments are notable, but are not explicitly related.

The Nationals are reluctant to rush King up to the majors, according to people familiar with the team’s thinking who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. King, in their eyes, can still benefit from more at-bats and defensive reps in Triple A. Additionally, Nationals officials are interested to see whether Abrams and Nasim Nuñez, the team’s new primary shortstop, can thrive in flipped roles up the middle.

King’s performance with Triple-A Rochester, though, invites curiosity about what comes next and could force the issue, given the 23-year-old’s breakout season, the team’s thinning postseason odds and the organization’s desire for clarity regarding their infield unit of the future.

King entered Saturday’s game hitting .296 with an .854 OPS across 45 games in Triple A. Nuñez offers more defensive upside and stability at the position in 2026, but is hitting .228 with a .578 OPS in 408 plate appearances in the majors this season. Finding the balance between preserving clubhouse culture and throwing future pieces into the fire remains complicated, even as the team dropped to 60-65 following Saturday’s 5-4 walk-off loss to the New York Mets.

The organization, in theory, could keep King in Rochester for the rest of the season. More reps in Triple A could help him continue to work on his plate discipline. Nuñez’s stellar play at shortstop could offer more value to the team in each of the next two seasons. Additionally, the optics of moving an All-Star off of his primary position — then having a rookie take his spot — could have awkward consequences, especially if the Nats then moved King off of the position for another shortstop in the coming years given the bountiful depth behind him in the minor leagues.

The argument for promoting King before the end of the season has some merit, too. It could allow one of the team’s top prospects to gain valuable at-bats and reps, and clarify for the front office whether King is ready to assume a significant role when the team looks more equipped to make a run in 2027. It could also allow King to get familiar with coaches and teammates who have a lot invested in his future. And there is an argument that he has flat-out earned it.

Several evaluators who spoke to The Athletic earlier this year said King could have a future at shortstop, but wondered whether he could make the necessary defensive strides quickly. Similar to Abrams, the young shortstop had shown a knack for exceptional, highlight-reel plays while struggling with consistency.

He has appeared to make those strides.

Throughout the 2025 campaign and early on in 2026, King had some trouble with routine plays. When the organization looked over film of his miscues in the field, they often saw two consistent traits: His arm slot was too high, and his footwork rarely took his momentum towards first base.

The team has taught him to throw from a lower slot and cleaned up his footwork so that his momentum takes him toward first base as he throws. And while errors are an imperfect measure of defensive quality, they can serve as an indicator of growth here: After committing 10 errors in 300 innings at Double-A Harrisburg, King has just three errors in 391 innings at Triple-A Rochester (and just one since his first week at the affiliate).

Then, of course, there are what the organization calls “separator plays,” or plays that most players are not expected to make.

“They’re the ‘wow’ plays — but for him, they’re easy because the reactions and athleticism are so good,” farm director Devin Pearson said. “He can make those plays, not really have to think and get the guy out. It’s the plays where he has the time that we’ve been working on, and he’s gotten better.”

The last step, then, is just how bullish the organization is on King’s offensive growth. The 23-year-old hit .244 with a .631 OPS across multiple levels in 2025 as he received inconsistent instruction and failed to consistently hit the ball hard and in the air. He also chased 38 percent of pitches outside of the zone last year. With help from within, advice from top prospect Kevin McGonigle in the Arizona Fall League and a return to his collegiate swing and approach, King thrived in his early-season stint with Double-A Harrisburg.

A hiccup after his promotion to Rochester complicated matters. King had a 38.9 percent chase rate before going on the injured list with a left oblique strain in early July. Since returning at the end of the month, he’s chased just 32.1 percent of pitches outside of the zone. But that’s a relatively small sample. And so, again, the organization might choose to exercise patience here.