Sporting briefs

French Cup: Draw for the semi-finals made yesterday: Grenoble vs Stade Rennes; Toulouse vs Guingamp. Ties will be played on April 21 and 22. The final will be played on May 9.

Kaunas: Lithuanian club Kaunas, owned by Hearts boss Vladimir Romanov, are to quit the top flight and step down a division after a row with the national federation. "We are pulling out of the A League because some things in the past year have shown it does not comply with sporting principles," Kaunas president Gintaras Ugianskis said without going into specific details.

Pirelli: Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli signed a three-year deal as title sponsors of the troubled Chinese Super League (CSL). The CSL has severe image problems and the capture of a big international brand is a major boost to the league.

Friedrich: Germany defender Arne Friedrich will be out for two weeks and will miss the upcoming two World Cup qualifiers after he picked up a thigh injury in Hertha Berlin's 2-0 defeat against Stuttgart. Germany coach Joachim Loew has already seen Torsten Frings and Miroslav Klose drop out of the squad with injuries.

Rome Marathon: Kenya's Benjamin Kiptoo Kolum set a course record when he surged to victory in the 15th Rome Marathon yesterday. He broke away from the pack after two thirds of the race and crossed the finish line in 2:07.17, beating the previous course record of 2:08.02. Paul Kiprop Kirui coasted in second with Kenyans filling every position in the top 10. Ethiopia's Firehiwot Dado also coped best with the cobbles on the Eternal City's famous streets to take the women's title in a relatively slow time of 2:27.09.

Basket, NBA: The Los Angeles Lakers overcame a 14-point half-time deficit to beat the Chicago Bulls 117-109 behind Kobe Bryant's 28 points on Saturday. Pau Gasol added 23 points and 10 rebounds for the Western Conference-leading Lakers (55-14), who have the league's second best record behind Eastern leaders Cleveland (56-13). John Salmons had 30 points and Derrick Rose scored 25 for the Bulls (32-38), who are trying to hold on to the eighth and final play-off spot in the Eastern Conference.

Badminton: England have withdrawn two players from this week's India Open badminton tournament due to security concerns. Organisers said that Carl Baxter and Rajiv Ouseph, seeded 11 and 12, had pulled out of the March 24-29 event in Hyderabad.

Cricket: England beat New Zealand by four wickets yesterday to win the women's ICC World Cup for the third time. England bowled out New Zealand for 166 in the 48th over before reaching their victory target with 23 balls to spare at North Sydney Oval. All-rounder Nicky Shaw, a last-minute replacement for Jenny Gunn, who aggravated a leg injury in the warm-up, was named player of the match after starring with bat and ball. England had previously won the women's World Cup in 1973 and 1993, both on home soil.

Swimming: Matthew Abood upstaged his training partner and world record holder Eamon Sullivan to win the 50 metres freestyle final on the last day at the Australian championships yesterday. Abood got his hands on the wall first to touch in 21.93 seconds to claim the mantle of Australia's fastest man in water with Sullivan a close second in 21.96, just eight weeks after he underwent hip surgery. Stephanie Rice won the 400 individual medley final to qualify for her sixth event in Rome.

Athletics: Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker will spearhead a 39-member Australian team for the World Championships in Berlin. Hurdler Jana Rawlinson and long-distance walker Nathan Deakes were also selected to defend the titles they won in Osaka two years ago.