Superbike: Aprilia rider Max Biaggi took advantage of successive crashes from World Superbike Championship rival Marco Melandri at the Nurburgring last weekend to take the lead in the title hunt. Melandri, riding for BMW, failed to finish both races after crashing out and saw Biaggi take the chequered flag in the opening race to leapfrog him in the standings. Biaggi took his fifth win of the season to move 9.5 points clear of Melandri, although the 41-year-old also failed to score points in the second race after crashing out.

Australian rules: An Australian Rules footballer has died while on holiday in Las Vegas after falling from a hotel, his Port Adelaide club said. John McCarthy was in a group of players in the United States for an end-of-season holiday but the 22-year-old midfielder was not believed to be with any of his team-mates at the time of his death. McCarthy played eight games for Collingwood in 2011 but made the move to Port Adelaide in 2012, playing 21 of the 22 games this season.

Swimming: Bob Bowman, the coach who guided Michael Phelps through an Olympic career that yielded 18 swimming gold medals, has taken a job as an Olympics consultant. Bowman has joined TSE Consulting in its sports performance division. Phelps retired after winning his last six medals at the London Games, taking his tally to 22 total medals. His 18 golds include the eight he won in eight events at the Beijing Games. Bowman said he planned to take a year off from coaching.

Golf: Rory McIlroy fired a five-under par 67 on Sunday to win the BMW Championship, holding off an elite field to win a second straight title in the US PGA Tour’s play-off series. McIlroy, who won the Deutsche Bank Championship last week, finished with a 20-under par 268, two shots in front of Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood. McIlroy became the first since Tiger Woods in 2009 to win in successive weeks on the US tour and he joined Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win at least six PGA Tour events before his 24th birthday.