Wrestling: Russian President Vladimir Putin backed a return to the Olympics for wrestling, saying it was one of the fundamental sports of the Games. Wrestling was controversially taken off the 2020 Olympics programme in February by the IOC but was thrown a lifeline on Wednesday, making a shortlist along with squash and baseball/softball for one spot at the 2020 Games. “I know that the final decision will be made later. But now we have decided on the three sports, there is also wrestling, a favourite in 209 countries around the world,” Putin said in a meeting with IOC president Jacques Rogge.
Olympic Games 2016: Hockey and rugby will play their Rio 2016 Olympics competitions at the more remote Deodoro area of the city after organisers boosted the number of sports there to liven up what they say has now become a second Olympic park. With hockey, initially set to be at the main Olympic park by the sea, forced to move to the Deodoro cluster, organisers said they were also placing Olympic debutants rugby sevens there, as well as some basketball preliminaries.
Athletics: Kenya’s Olympic champions David Rudisha and Ezekiel Kemboi have been included in the east African nation’s provi-sional squad for the World Cham-pionships in August. Rudisha, who won the 800 metres Olympic gold medal in a world record time at last year’s London Games, will be defending his global two-lap title in Moscow. Former world champion Alfred Yego Kirwa and Olympic bronze medallist Timothy Kitum will join Rudisha in the 800m.
Cricket: Legspinner Fawad Ahmed’s path to the Australia Ashes squad could be cleared soon after the government introduced legislation that enables them to fast-track citizenship in special cases. Pakistan-born Ahmed arrived in Australia in 2010 before claiming asylum as a refugee on the grounds that he had been subject to death threats from Islamic extremists. Former test batsman Damien Martyn rates Ahmed as the best “Australian” spinner since Shane Warne and he was described as a “player of significant interest” by head selector John Inverarity in April.