Badminton: Badminton world number one Lee Chong Wei is confident his name will be cleared following his provisional suspension by the sport’s governing body (BWF) for an anti-doping violation. Speaking to reporters in Bangkok yesterday, Lee said he was not at fault and would wait for a BWF panel decision next month. “I am very confident that this case is not my fault,” Lee told reporters. “I must stay strong. Everybody has been messaging me to stay strong. I’m waiting to hear good results next month.” Lee, who won silver medals at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, faces a two-year ban should he fail with his appeal.

Olympics: A group of San Francisco Bay Area business, sports and civic leaders will bid to host the 2024 Olympics and is putting together a proposal for the United States Olympic Committee, officials said. Should the USOC decide to bid for the Games and the Paralympics, the cities challenging San Francisco are Boston, Los Angeles and Washington. San Francisco Giants president and chief executive Larry Baer is leading the bid committee, along with venture capitalist Steve Strandberg and 1960 Olympian Anne Warner Cribbs. The IOC will select the host of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2017.

Basketball: Former winners Barcelona, Olympiakos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow advanced to Euroleague second group stage with four games to spare after contrasting wins. Barcelona cruised to a 99-77 win at Bayern Munich and CSKA blew away Alba Berlin 95-66. Olympiakos edged Valencia 77-76 thanks to the last-minute exploits of playmaker Vassilis Spanoulis. All three can now fine-tune their form for the Top 16, featuring two sections of eight teams.

Rugby Union: Japan and Argentina have officially been given approval to enter teams in an expanded Super Rugby tournament from 2016. Their places were confirmed at an executive board meeting in London on Thursday, paving the way for the two new franchises to start signing players.

Formula One: Lotus driver Romain Grosjean could consider himself lucky that only the points will be doubled in the Abu Dhabi GP after collecting a 20-place penalty yesterday. He was handed the sanction for exceeding his allocation of power unit components. With only 20 cars taking part in the season-ending race, Grosjean is sure to start at the back of the field at Yas Marina.

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