Sports round-up

Basketball: Juan Carlos Navarro and reigning champions Spain ended Macedonia’s fairytale run at the 2011 European Championship to set up a final against France, making their maiden trip to the final. Navarro tormented the Macedonia defence for 19 of his 35 points in the third quarter of Spain’s 92-80 victory. Russia were handed their first loss of the tournament with France winning the second semi-final 79-71 to reach their first ever European final.

Swimming: Olympic 50m and 100m freestyle champion Britta Steffen says she has ditched weight-training from her programme ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games as she says extra muscles have slowed her down. The 27-year-old Berliner flopped at the World Swimming Championships in China, in July, when she failed to defend either the 50m or 100m world titles. “I was so muscular that after 50 metres, I didn’t have any strength left,” she said having won two golds at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Cricket: England defeated India by six wickets in a rain-affected match to complete a 3-0 one-day series victory over the world champions. India looked to have posted a formidable total after piling up 304-6 off their 50 overs, with Virat Kohli lashing a superb century and veteran Rahul Dravid contributing 69 in his farewell one-dayer. But rain left England with a revised Duckworth-Lewis victory target of 270 off 40 overs, which was later reduced to 241 to win after further interruption. England captain Alastair Cook (50) and Jonathan Trott (63) anchored the home side’s run chase, before Jonny Bairstow blasted a dazzling 41 off 29 balls with Ravi Bopara scoring 37 not out.

Cycling: An inquiry has been opened by a court in Grenoble into claims that the husband and coach of French cyclist Jeannie Longo purchased the banned blood booster EPO (erythropoietin). Former professional Joe Papp, an American who turned to supplying banned drugs to cyclists after being banned for doping himself, claims he supplied Patrice Ciprelli – Longo’s husband – with EPO in 2007.