Winter Sport: Snowboarder Jenny Jones has issued a public plea for help after her laptop including all of her photographs of her Olympic success was stolen from her car. The 34-year-old, who became the first Briton to win an Olympic medal in a snow event after taking bronze in slopestyle at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, said she was “devastated” to have lost her photographs, and urged people to keep their “ear to the ground”. The laptop was stolen from the sportswoman’s car when it was broken into in Hammersmith, according to her plea.
Rugby Union: Flanker Juan Smith is set for a dramatic return to the South African team some 18 months after injury forced his premature retirement from the game. Smith is set to be called up for the Rugby Championship matches over the next three months against Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. For Smith, it represents a remarkable recovery after he retired from the game in early 2013 after suffering a recurrence of an Achilles’ tendon injury.
Cycling: Alberto Contador has ruled himself out of the Vuelta having said he has suffered a setback in his recovery from the injury that ended his Tour de France bid. The two-time Tour winner broke his shin in a crash on stage 10 of this year’s race, but had hoped to make his home Grand Tour after avoiding surgery on the injury. However, yesterday the Tinkoff-Saxo rider wrote on Twitter: “Bad day,the wound healing gets complicated... I’ve no date to take the bike. Goodbye to the Vuelta.”
Cricket: New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson has been banned from bowling his occasional off-spin in international cricket because of an illegal action. Williamson was reported by the match officials during the second test against West Indies in Port of Spain in June and independent analysis confirmed that his elbow extension exceeded the 15 degrees permitted by the rules.
Motor Racing: Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff plans to attend this weekend’s Hungarian GP despite breaking multiple bones in a cycling accident while out riding with team engineers in Vienna. A team spokesman said the Austrian had broken his wrist, elbow, shoulder and collarbone in the fall on a cyclepath and had been treated in hospital. He was expected to be at the circuit on Friday for first practice. Paddy Lowe, who jointly runs the sport’s dominant team with Wolff, was cycling in the group and also fell but escaped with no more than a few grazes.