Swim Sport: Russia’s Svetlana Romashina secured her fourth gold of the World Championships and her 15th major title when she teamed up with Svetlana Kolesnichenko to win the synchronised swimming free duet. Opting for an ear-bursting Metallica number, the Russian pair amassed 97.680 points for their routine, easily beating Chinese twins Jiang Tingting and Jiang Wenwen into second on 95.350 and repeating their success from Sunday’s technical duet.

Rowing: Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale has been added to New Zealand’s rowing team for the World Championships after completing a time trial following almost a year out of the sport. The 34-year-old Drysdale took a break from rowing after he won gold at Eton Dorney in 2012, and only returned to the single scull last month and was then beaten in Holland and at the Henley Regatta in England. Selectors kept the single sculls spot open and Drysdale needed to complete the time trial yesterday to earn the place in New Zealand’s team for the Aug. 25-Sept. 1 World Championships in Chungju, South Korea.

Rugby Union: Flyhalf Quade Cooper came in from the cold yesterday when Ewen McKenzie named his first squad as Wallabies coach after replacing Robbie Deans in the wake of the series defeat to the British and Irish Lions. A quarter of McKenzie’s 40-man squad for the Rugby Championship are uncapped, with ACT Brumbies flyhalf Matt Toomua and New South Wales Waratahs number 10 Bernard Foley among them. James Horwill will captain the Wallabies, who open the Rugby Championship, which also includes South Africa and Ar-gentina, on August 17 against New Zea-land in Sydney.

Swimming: Swimming fans will be able to watch the top male and female athletes competing on the same relay team at major cham-pionships after FINA agreed to introduce a mixed version of the event. “The feeling of everybody, swimmers and coaches and technical committee, is that this is a very interesting event with a lot of tactics involved,” FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu said after the move was ratified at a congress in Barcelona.

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