Equestrian: Rio Olympics hopeful Pippa Funnell has withdrawn from this week’s Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials after suffering a cross-country fall two days ago. Funnell, 47, was taken to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital following the fall from Sandman 7 in an advanced class at Withington Manor Horse Trials, near Cheltenham. The three-time Badminton Trials champion was due to return home yesterday. A statement from organisers posted on the official Badminton website said Funnell had undergone tests in hospital that “have all been clear”.
Cycling: The Giro d’Italia will take place without a British rider for a second successive year. Two Irishmen, Philip Deignan and Nicolas Roche, are slated to start the year’s opening Grand Tour, which begins in Apeldoorn, Holland, with a 9.8-kilometres time-trial on Friday. Alex Dowsett had been expected to start for Movistar, but the Commonwealth Games time-trial champion has undergone surgery to remove a plate and screws on his collarbone. Team Sky have eight Britons on their 29-rider roster, but none are in the squad for the Giro, which finishes in Turin on May 29.
Basketball: The National Basketball Association (NBA) said its Basketball without Borders camp will be held in Australia for the first time later this year. The basketball development camp, run jointly with FIBA, basketball’s world governing body, will be held June 23-26 at Dandenong Basketball Stadium in Melbourne. During the camp, prospects from the Asia-Pacific region born in 1999 will receive instruction from NBA and FIBA players and coaches while also taking part in community outreach projects. The Basketball without Borders programme, first held in 2001, has sent 37 players on to the NBA, including 21 that featured on opening-night rosters for the 2015-16 NBA season.
Olympics: Cho Yang-ho has resigned as head of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics organising committee (POCOG) in order to focus on his troubled Hanjin Shipping business, the body said yesterday. Cho, the chairman of South Korean conglomerate Hanjin Group, had been at the helm of the organising committee since August 2014 and was widely credited with bringing sponsors on board and giving stalled preparations for the Games a shot in the arm. However, with Hanjin Shipping, South Korea’s largest shipper by assets, facing severe financial difficulties, Cho needed to focus his efforts on restructuring and stabilising the company, POCOG said in a statement.