Sports round-up

Motor Racing: Former Sauber technical director James Key has been appointed by Formula One rivals Toro Rosso to replace departed Giorgio Ascanelli in the role, the Italian team said yesterday. Toro Rosso announced Ascanelli’s resignation on Wednesday and said Key had started work at the Faenza factory last Monday ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix. The 40-year-old Briton left Swiss-based Sauber, whose Ferrari-powered car has been on the front row and podium this year, before the start of the season.

Rugby Union: All Blacks fly-half Dan Carter has been forced to pull out of tomorrow’s Test against Argentina after suffering a calf strain. The ace playmaker was withdrawn from the side just hours after the team was announced yesterday. Coach Steve Hansen said Carter had been carrying a tight left calf in training during the week but had hoped to play.

Golf: World no.1 Rory McIlroy, who has won two of his last three starts, will showcase his red-hot game at this week’s BMW Championship, the third of four FedEx Cup play-off events, in Indiana. Beyond the two wins, the 23-year-old Northern Irishman also has another top-five finish in his last four events, which has elevated him to the world number one spot and the top position in the PGA Tour’s playoff points race.

Paralympics: Swimmer Matthew Cowdrey became Australia’s most decorated Paralympian this week, smashing his own world record as he claimed an historic 11th gold medal. The 24-year-old, an amputee since childhood, finished the S9 50m freestyle in a new world best of 25.13sec – leaving Tamas Toth, of Hungary, to pick up the silver and Spain’s Jose Antonio Mari Alcaraz to take the bronze. Cowdrey has already won two golds in the S9 100m backstroke and the 4x100m freestyle relay 34 points, as well as two silvers in the S9 100m butterfly and SB8 100m breaststroke.

Badminton: Four South Korean players sent home from the London Olympics for throwing matches have had their six-month domestic bans lifted by the Korean Olympic Committee. Jung Kyung-eun, Kim Ha-na, Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung remain suspended from the national team for one year but they were now free to compete in domestic tournaments. The four women’s doubles players, along with a Chinese and Indonesian pair, were kicked out of the Games last month for trying to lose matches and gain favourable draws in the knockout stages.

Cycling: Italy’s Daniele Bennati won stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana yesterday while Spain’s Alberto Contador held on to the overall lead with three stages of the race remaining. Britain’s Ben Swift finished a close second behind RadioShack-Nissan rider Benn-ati in the bunch sprint that decided the flat, 204.5-km stage. Bennati dedicated his win to Belgian Wouter Weylandt, the previous winner of a Vuelta stage in Valladolid, who died in a crash during the 2011 Giro d’Italia.