Morning.

If you've ever wondered who completed fastest marathon dressed as a gingerbread man...

A: Ben Armstrong in 3 hr 14 min 15 sec at the 2016 Chevron City to Surf Marathon, in Perth.

In today's edition of SJ:

⛳️ Presidents Cup, International team went close but no cigar.

⚽️ Melbourne City rout, Fowler doesn't shake, Liverpool stretch their lead to 10pts.

🏏 Australia win with a day to spare.

👊🏻'and the new' Aussie ufc champion.

⏰ Catch up

Arsenal 0-3 Man City - Ozil got mad and even took his gloves off to play bare-handed...but they got pumped

Everton 1-1 Man United - Greenwood scored late to spare United's blushes

Wolves 1-2 Tottenham - Vertonghen scored even later to spare Mourinho's blushes

Celtic 2-0 Hibs - Celtic to go back to the top of the table

🏉 Two drubbings in the Champions Cup - Exeter 35-10 Sale & Clarmeont 52-26 Bath

The Premier League’s fastest player of the season so far has been revealed, who is it? (clue: It's not a winger or striker)

⚽️ A-League

Melbourne City have wasted little time bouncing back from last week’s shock A-League loss to Perth by routing a hapless Newcastle 4-0.

He's disappointed, I'm disappointed: Tempers flare as A-League coaches accuse each other

Brisbane coach Robbie Fowler opted not to shake counterpart Mark Rudan's hand after Western United's 2-0 A-League win over his side, but the Roar boss says it was Rudan who was out of line. (watch his interview)

🏏 Cricket

NZ arrived in Perth ranked second in the world. They’ll leave with a 296-run humiliation

Mitchell Starc. Pink ball. Tim Paine winning the toss... New Zealand never stood a chance.

Australia wrapped up the first Test with a day to spare.

Australia has taken a 1-0 series lead by rolling the Black Caps convincingly at Perth Stadium within four days.

It was always going to be played at the home side’s advantage when Paine won the toss and opted to bat first on a greenish Perth deck. (foxsports)

Peter Siddle could earn a shock recall for Australia after Justin Langer revealed he was an option to replace injured quick Josh Hazlewood for the Boxing Day Test.

🏉 Rugby

European Champions Cup - Saracens won a scrappy match against Munster (15-6) to keep their hopes alive. Leinster backed up last week by putting 50 (huh!) on Northampton (50-21).

Cape Town 7s - Both competitions were won by New Zealand. The women beat Australia 17-7 and the Men beat SA 7-5.

Click the tweet to watch Carlin Isles fly...RIP the player with the quick hands to set him up!

👊🏻 UFC

Alexander Volkanovski dethrones Max Holloway to become UFC featherweight champion

Volkanovski (21-1) picked apart Holloway (21-5) with leg kicks and movement for five frenetic rounds, controlling the bout with style and persistence. (foxsports)

In other MMA news, popular Irish MMA star Conor McGregor will make his long-awaited return to UFC when he takes on America’s Donald Cerrone on January 19 (Australian time) in Las Vegas. (theroar)

⛳️ Presidents Cup

Tiger Woods' US team dominated Sunday's singles as they beat the International team 16-14 in Melbourne to win an eighth successive Presidents Cup.

Woods led by example as he beat Abraham Ancer 3&2 in the first match.

Patrick Reed, whose caddie was banned after "shoving" a spectator on Saturday, beat Taiwan's CT Pan 4&2.

The US won eight of the 12 points with Matt Kuchar sealing victory.

"We did it together," said Woods, who recorded a 27th win in the tournament, beating Phil Mickelson's record of 26. "We came here as a team. My team-mates and my boys all played well, the captains did an amazing job.

"It's been one of the more amazing challenges but all the guys believed in one another and relied on one another."

• Final scores

It is the US' 11th win in the 13th edition of the biennial tournament, with one draw.

"We were right there to the end, just a couple of matches didn't quite go our way," said International captain Ernie Els.

"We're getting closer. We've just got to keep it up."

🏀 Basketball

Over 13,000 people packed an arena to see LeBron at a high school game. His dad LeBron was watching too

🏉 NRL

What the NRL could learn from NFL & NHL

Ben Everill has outlined a number of things that the NRL could learn from American sports, including;

NHL-style Sin Bin - Players are put in a penalty box for 2 or 5 mins until their time is up or their team concedes.

One I can definitely get onboard with is - Tailgating... which is a fancy word for a party in the car park. Fans arrive well in advance of the game but don't enter the stadium, instead invading the precinct with portable barbecues, family games and even televisions.

Other ideas are player injury reports, fewer games, divisions and video reviews (NRL.com)

🏊🏼‍♀️ Swimming

Aussie swimmer Shayna Jack offers bizarre ‘kiss cocaine’ defence

Disgraced Australian swimmer Shayna Jack is relying on a “kiss cocaine case” to prove her innocence, claiming she unknowingly came in contact with a banned substance.

Jack was notified she would receive a four-year suspension unless she could prove her innocence, an experience she found “traumatic”.

The 21-year-old never denied that the drug was found in her system, but rather questioned how it got there.

“There was a case in the past called the kiss cocaine case … someone had taken cocaine and the partner who was an athlete kissed that person and they were contaminated,” Jack said.

“I was being told that anything I come in contact with, within that period, could have been a risk of the contamination.”

Ligandrol, also known as or LGD 4033, is a black market muscle-builder known to improve your appearance without the unwanted side effects experienced with steroid use.

📰 Football roundup

Erling Braut Haaland has reportedly told Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer he wants to sign for the Red Devils.

The Red Bull Salzburg teenage striker is valued at £80 million ($A155m). (He's 4.0 to make the move to United in January, Borussia Dortmund are favourites 2.75)

Eden Hazard has been filmed promising a Chelsea fan he will return to Stamford Bridge after his contract at Real Madrid ends.

Manchester City is ready to spend £90 million ($A174m) to re-sign former City gun Jadon Sancho. Sancho left City for Dortmund for just £8m ($A15.5m) in July 2017, with Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United all keen on his signature, City will look to do a deal immediately in January.

New Zealand 20-year-old sensation Sarpreet Singh made his competitive debut for German giants Bayern Munich. Here’s how he went from A-League to European heavyweights.(foxsports)

🏏 BBL

The Big Bash league starts tomorrow...and it's Bigger and Bashier than ever!

If you want to join in on Super Coach, be quick.

If you're new to the game, you can read all about it (here) SuperCoach BBL is Australia’s biggest cricket fantasy game — an internet phenomenon with almost 100,000 participants and $57,000 prize pool.

Basically you’re a real coach, with a salary cap to spend, a team to pick and games to win.

We're entering a team this morning, so keep an eye out towards the bottom of the league for a SportJournal side.

The first few fixtures are below...

1st Canlar Soyuncu - Leicester City 37.5KMH

Story (givemesport)

Back on Wednesday