Sports round-up

Rugby Union: If the All Blacks choke again at the World Cup, there is one team above all others that New Zealanders do not want rubbing their noses in it by lifting the trophy in their backyard – Australia. A survey ranked Australia the runaway leader when fans were asked “which country do you least want to win the World Cup?” New Zealand’s trans-Tasman neighbour polled 33.8 percent, almost doubling second-placed South Africa’s figure of 18.6.

Olympics: A group from Las Vegas has launched a rogue bid to host the 2020 Olympics, submitting paper-work to the International Olympic Committee without the backing of the US Olympic Committee. The Las Vegas group sent an application letter to the IOC on Friday, reported Games Bid. com. which obtained a copy of the letter. The USOC announced on Monday that it has notified all interested cities that it would not submit a bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Baseball: US home run king Barry Bonds will be sentenced on December 16 after being convicted in a US federal court of obstruction of justice. US District Judge Susan Illston set the date after rejecting a bid from the ex-San Francisco Giants slugger’s lawyers to have the conviction set aside. In April, a jury found that Bonds, 46, had misled a 2003 grand jury investigating a steroids ring by giving an evasive answer to a question about injectable drugs.

Swimming: A 70-year-old yesterday became the oldest person to swim across the English Channel, eventually making it to France after a marathon slog of almost 18 hours. Roger Allsopp took to the waters in Dover at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, aiming for Cap Gris-Nez on the northeast French coast, some 34kms away. The retired surgeon took a zig-zag route to reach the continent, swimming for 17 hours and 51 minutes before reaching the shore near Wissant in the early hours of yesterday.