Swimming: Olympics medal hopeful Chad le Clos continued to star at the South African national championships by bettering another 2012 London Games qualifying time. The 20-year-old was the quickest qualifier from the 200 metres individual medley semi-finals with a time of one minute 58.87 seconds – 1.30 seconds inside the mark. Durban-born Le Clos also dipped below the qualifying times for the 400m IM and 200m butterfly.

Wrestling: Former gold medallist Rulon Gardner ended his Olympic comeback bid yesterday as he failed to appear to weigh-in for the US Olympic team wrestling trials. Gardner, 40, said in a statement that he was within 2.3kgs of reaching the 120kg upper limit for his weight class. Gardner stunned Russian wrestling legend Alexander Karelin for the Greco-Roman 130kg gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He beat the odds again when he returned to the Olympic stage to win bronze in Athens four years later.

Marathon: Emmanuel Mutai will bid for back-to-back London Marathon titles today as Kenyan runners look to dominate in the men’s and women’s races of the gruelling event. Mutai, 27, heads a strong field which includes fellow Kenyans, Patrick Makau, the world record holder, and Abel Kirui. All three are determined to impress in London as they aim to secure one of the three spots available to marathon runners in Kenya’s Olympic team.

Rugby Union: Former England centre Shontayne Hape has been released from his London Irish contract to join French Top 14 club Mont-pellier next season. Hape, 31, becomes the latest big name player to leave the Exiles, following Delon Armitage and Nick Kennedy in moving to French club rugby.

Basket, NBA: San Antonio’s top trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined for 61 points as the Spurs spoiled Kobe Bryant’s return from injury with a 121-97 NBA victory over the Lakers. San Antonio posted their sixth straight victory and improved to 46-16. They maintained their narrow, half-game lead over Oklahoma City atop the Western Conference.

Snooker: Mark Williams (picture) risks a rap from snooker chiefs after condemning the Crucible and saying the World Championship should be moved from Sheffield to China. The two-time world champion lashed out on the eve of the tournament in a Twitter outburst, describing the Shef-field venue as “a s*** hole”. Meanwhile, Stephen Hendry rolled back the years to make the 10th maximum break in the history of the championships yesterday. Hendry’s third 147 at the Crucible came in the seventh frame of his first round match against Stuart Bingham and helped the seven-time former world champion take a comfortable 6-1 lead.

Boxing: Anthony Ogogo has become the seventh GB boxer to qualify for the London Games after a con-vincing victory in the final qualifying tournament. The 23-year-old, who only recently returned from a shoulder injury, beat Vitali Banda-renko, of Belarus, 14-7 in their middle-weight semi-final.

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