Doping: Commonwealth javelin champion Jarrod Bannister has been banned for 20 months for missing anti-doping tests and will not be able to defend his title in Glasgow next year. The Australian record holder, part of his country’s team at the London Olympics, said on his Facebook page that he would not be able to compete again until Feb. 2015. Bannister fell foul of rules that require athletes to let doping officials know of their whereabouts and punish anyone who misses three tests in an 18-month period.

Athletics: French sprint hurdler Alice Decaux is the latest athlete to fail a drugs test and has been provisionally banned after testing positive for a banned stimulant, French officials said yesterday. Decaux had been due to compete in the World Champion-ships, which begin in Moscow today, but did not travel with the French team following her hearing on Thursday.

Tennis: Top seed Serena Williams avenged her older sister’s defeat by Kirsten Flipkens with a 6-0 6-3 pounding of the Belgian to move into the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup. Flipkens put down Venus Williams in three sets in the first round as Serena watched from the stands, but the 13th seed struggled for rhythm in the face of the 31-year-old’s serve and fierce returning.

Cricket: England captain Alastair Cook’s decision to bat first was undone by poor shot selection as England narrowly avoided being bowled out on the opening day of the fourth Investec Test against Australia at Chester-le-Street, yesterday. On a slow surface England were unable to match the watchful exhibition Cook initially provided to be 238 for nine at stumps. Cook was the only batsman to reach a half-century as he determinedly ground out 51 from 164 balls.