Boxing: World heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury is suing Britain’s anti-doping and boxing authorities over allegations he used a performance-enhancing drug. Fury, 27, was charged with a doping offence by UK Anti-Doping on June 24 after a urine sample taken in February 2015 – nine months before he beat Wladimir Klitschko to win his world titles – showed traces of the banned substance nandrolone. However, Fury’s legal team says the result of tests on the samples in March and May 2015 were contradictory. The boxer’s cousin, Hughie Fury, also a boxer, has also been charged.
Rugby League: The United States has formally submitted a bid to host the 2021 World Cup. The Rugby Football League anticipated competition from America and South Africa when it launched its own application just over a month ago and a Sydney-based sports marketing and event management company confirmed yesterday it had submitted an official bid to take the 16th World Cup to the United States. If successful, it would be the first time the tournament will be staged outside Australasia and Europe since it was first held in 1954.
Tennis: Australian tennis sisters Arina and Anastasia Rodionova were handed a late Olympic call-up for the women’s doubles. “Today we were notified that there was a withdrawal from the women’s doubles and as first reserves Anastasia and Arina Rodionova have now received a place,” said Australian team chief Kitty Chiller at the Rio Games. “The girls will be our ninth set of siblings in the Australian Olympic team.” Anastasia, 34, will be competing at her second Games while Arina, 26, will be making her Olympic Games debut.
Motor Racing: No ransom was paid and no shots were fired to free the kidnapped mother-in-law of Formula One empresario Bernie Ecclestone, the governor of Sao Paulo state said, a day after the 67-year old was freed in a police raid. Aparecida Schunk was rescued on Sunday evening nine days after being seized at her home. Three men have been arrested, police said. The leader of the kidnap gang, who local newspapers said wanted 120 million reais ($36.5 million) in ransom, was a pilot who had worked for Ecclestone’s family.
Swimming: Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky will both feature in the United States 4x100 metres freestyle relay teams at the Rio Olympics, USA Today reported yesterday. Neither of the American team’s best-known swimmers, with 18-times gold medallist Phelps seeking to add to his collection of 22 medals, qualified for the individual event at the national trials. Five-times Olympian Phelps is set to compete in three individual events – the 100 and 200 metres butterfly and 200 individual medley. The relay line-ups, a closely-guarded secret, do not have to be submitted until the night before the race.