Swimming: Olympic gold medallist Park Tae-hwan, serving an 18-month ban for doping, will return to action in a public pool in Seoul next Monday after parents of local school children allowed him to join a class. Park was banned by FINA in March after testing positive for testosterone before September’s Asian Games. Park’s ban means he isn’t allowed to train at facilities operated by the government but he was granted permission yesterday to use the Olympic Pool in Seoul.
Tennis: Venus Williams has been handed a $3,000 fine for skipping a press conference following her first-round defeat at the French Open, the ITF has announced. Williams, who was seeded 15th at Roland Garros, lost 7-6 6-1 to fellow American Sloane Stephens on Monday and has now failed to reach the quarter-finals in Paris since 2006.
Basket, NBA: LeBron James booked his place in the NBA Finals for the fifth straight year when Cleveland Cavaliers crushed Atlanta Hawks 118-88 on Tuesday to complete a 4-0 sweep of the Eastern Conference Final. James scored a game-high 23 points as the Cavs ad-vanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2007, where they will play either Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets. For James, who returned to the Cavaliers after four seasons with Miami Heat, it will be the fifth year in a row, and sixth overall, that he has played in the NBA Finals.
Rugby Union: Wales centre Jonathan Davies will miss this year’s rugby World Cup after rupturing a cruciate knee ligament, the Welsh Rugby Union announced. The 27-year-old, who has played 48 times for Wales, suffered the injury for his club side Clermont Auvergne against Montpellier. A statement on the WRU website said he was likely to be out for between six and seven months. The World Cup, being played in England and Wales, starts in September. Wales are in Pool A with Australia, England, Fiji and Uruguay.
Giro d’Italia: Italy’s Sacha Modolo won the 17th stage of the Giro d’Italia by prevailing in a bunch sprint at the end of a 134-kilometre ride between Tirano and Lugano, Switzerland, yesterday. The Lampre rider claimed his second stage win of this year’s edition of the Giro after being perfectly set up by his team-mates. Spain’s Alberto Contador retained his overall leader’s pink jersey after finishing safe in the bunch. The Tinkoff-Saxo rider leads Astana duo Mikel Landa, of Spain, and Italian Fabio Aru by four minutes and two seconds and four minutes and 52 seconds respectively.