Hello everyone and welcome along to The Athletic, where today we have a stellar major tournament final for you to enjoy.

It’s the showpiece occasion of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, with Cameroon taking on Malawi in Morocco.

We have all the build-up, team news, predictions and much more in the hours leading up to kick-off, so don’t go anywhere.

Having finished top of the table at the end of the group stage, there was uncertainty about how that would impact Rockets going straight into the final.

Sunrisers had played one more game just two days ago, but would have taken confidence from winning it, while Rockets had not played since Monday.

In the end, it was inconsequential – Rockets dominated in every department.

While Sunrisers have relied heavily on performances from the brilliant Litchfield and Sutherland, in contrast Rockets have produced more all-round quality and had unlikely stars in the likes of Phillips and Sam Bates with the ball.

Bates, an uncapped Australian spinner, finished as the tournament’s joint-leading wicket-taker with 13, at an average of 14.46, while Phillips has bucked the general trend by standing out as an English domestic player.

With four overseas players introduced this year, fewer emerging players have been given much responsibility during the tournament, but Sunrisers’ batters struggled with Phillips’ slinging, awkward action.

She was given the responsibility of bowling in the powerplay, when Litchfield misjudged a ramp shot and was caught by Adams at short fine leg, before Phillips later had India’s World Cup winner Deepti Sharma bowled for just 12.

Meanwhile, Dunkley has had an exceptional season with the bat, finishing third in the run-scoring charts with one fewer innings compared to Sutherland and Litchfield above her.

The Rockets made light work of the chase and while the game was an underwhelming occasion, it was a fitting and deserving end for the tournament’s most consistent and well-structured side.

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.