Motor Racing: Former Formula One and NASCAR driver Nelson Piquet junior has signed up to race for a Chinese team in the new Formula E electric series starting in Beijing next month. The 29-year-old Brazilian, whose father and namesake was a triple F1 champion, joins a list of ex-Formula One drivers on the starting grid including Germany’s Nick Heidfeld and Italian Jarno Trulli.
Snooker: Ali Carter is planning to return to snooker in October at a low-profile tournament in Bulgaria. The 35-year-old cueman has been undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed with lung cancer in May. Carter intends to be back in action at the European Tour Players Tour Championship event in Sofia, which runs from October 3-5. Carter wrote on Twitter: “I have entered my first tournament today, the PTC in Bulgaria!!” He is battling cancer for a second time, after being cured of testicular cancer last year.
Golf: Adam Scott has confirmed he will return to Sydney for the Australian Open in November with the intent of making amends for his final-hole disappointment last year. Scott’s return is a major coup for organisers after world number one Rory McIlroy committed to returning to defend his title at The Australian Golf Club from November 27-30. McIlroy snatched the Stonehaven Cup from Scott at the final hole last year, depriving Scott of a rare “triple crown” of Australian titles after he won the Australian Masters and Australian PGA Championship in an end-of-year swing through his home country.
Cycling: The 2015 Track World Championships will take place in France’s new national velodrome in Paris in February, the UCI has announced. The 5,000 capacity arena in Saint Quentin en Yvelines in south west Paris will stage the event from February 18 to 22. The UCI also announced the rounds of the UCI Track World Cup 2014-2015 would take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, on November 8-9, London on December 5-7 and Cali, Colombia, on January 17-18.
Swimming: Katie Ledecky enhanced her status as swimming’s new teen queen with two victories in less than an hour on the opening day of the Pan Pacific championships yesterday. The 17-year-old American took the 200 metres freestyle after world champion Missy Franklin failed to qualify for the final. She then left her rivals in her wake to win the 800m freestyle, coming within a whisker of breaking the world record she set less than two months ago.
Motor Racing: Tony Stewart will skip this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Tennessee, the third event he has missed since being involved in a fatal on-track accident. Stewart was competing in a sprint car race on Aug. 9 in New York when he clipped the car of 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward. When the caution flag came out, Ward jumped out of his car and, while in the middle of the track, pointed angrily at Stewart when he came around on the next lap. Stewart’s car struck Ward, causing fatal injuries in the non-NASCAR race.