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Swimming: Australia’s Cate Campbell (picture, left) underlined her status as favourite for 100 metres freestyle gold at the Rio Olympics when she matched her world leading time of 52.38 seconds at the Japan Open. The 24-year-old London relay gold medallist has been in strong form this year and eclipsed her injury-hampered younger sister Bronte, the reigning world champion in the blue riband sprint. Her time at Tokyo’s Tatsumi International Swimming Center late Saturday matched the 52.38 she swam at the Australian Olympic trials in Adelaide in April, which was the fifth fastest of all time.

Olympics: The world’s oldest Olympic champion, Sandor Tarics, has died at the age of 102 in San Francisco, the Hungarian Olympic Committee said on its website. Tarics was a member of the Hungarian waterpolo team which won in the Berlin Olympics staged by the Nazi government in 1936, pushing Germany into second place. He left Hungary to settle in the US in 1949 and earned fame in his new home country as a designer of earthquake-proof building technologies. At the age of over 100, Tarics still drove his car with California licence plate ‘Gold36’.

Golf: Rory McIlroy shot a closing 69 to win the Irish Open for the first time after a thrilling final-round duel with Russell Knox at the K Club on the outskirts of Dublin yesterday. The world number three from Northern Ireland finished three shots ahead of Scotland’s Knox and Welshman Bradley Dredge. McIlroy struck a superb three-wood into the 16th green to set up an eagle opportunity and although he missed the long putt, he made birdie and Knox’s bogey left McIlroy a shot ahead. The 27-year-old four-times major champion played another majestic shot on to the 18th green and this time he converted the eagle chance to secure the title in style. England’s Matthew Southgate finished fourth on eight under par and German Martin Kaymer shot a brilliant round of 65 to finish in a tie for fifth on six under.

Giro d'Italia: Steven Kruijswijk will keep hold of the pink jersey at the start of the Giro d’Italia’s final week, although he was denied a stage 15 victory by Alexander Foliforov. The Dutchman began the 10.8km time trial in the pink jersey having claimed second place on stage 14 and another runners-up finish yesterday ensured he extended his lead to two minutes 12 seconds over Esteban Chaves (Orica-Green Edge). Astana rider Vincenzo Nibali, the 2013 winner, was directly behind Kruijswijk at the start of the day, but mechanical failure with his bike saw him slip almost three minutes behind in the general classification standings.

Badmington: Denmark became the first European country to lift the Thomas Cup yesterday, winning the final 3-2 against Indonesia, the most successful nation in the history of the biennial men’s badminton team championship. Indonesia clinched both doubles matches but Viktor Axelsen, Jan Jorgensen and Hans-Kristian Vittinghus won their singles contests to power Denmark to an emotional triumph against the 13-times champions. Vittinghus sealed the landmark victory with a smash down-the-line, triggering wild celebrations in the Denmark camp at the Kunshan Sports Centre in China’s Jiangsu province.