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Swimming: Michael Phelps (picture) was edged in the 200 metres butterfly at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Minneapolis. Phelps, the 18-times Oly-mpic champion who hopes to add to his record haul in Rio de Janeiro next year, led at the final turn before being mowed down by training partner Chase Kalisz in the final 50 metres. Kalisz touched in one minute 58.07 seconds, with Phelps second in 1:58.38, a slowish time but nothing that concerned him given his heavy current training load.
Rugby Union: Japanese rugby bosses received another blow to their reputation after Friday’s Top League season opener was played out in front of a half-empty stadium in Tokyo with supporters told the game was sold out and turned away. The defending champion Panasonic Wild Knights beat Suntory Sungoliath 38-5 at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Rugby Ground in front of 10,792 spectators. The Japan Rugby Football Union had said it had sold around 20,000 tickets for the fixture. “We’ve let supporters down by declining their entrance with premature judgment. I’m sorry for the players on the pitch too,” JRFU executive director Hiroshi Konishi said in a statement yesterday.
Cricket: Kane Williamson burnished his growing reputation but the spectre of the follow-on still loomed large over New Zealand who reached 140 for two at stumps on the second day of the second test at the WACA on Saturday. Williamson was unbeaten on 70, the 25-year-old’s third successive 50-plus score in the series, after Australia had earlier declared their first innings at 559-9. Ross Taylor (26) was batting at the other end with New Zealand 419 runs behind and still needing another 220 to avoid the ignominy of the follow-on.
Tour de France: Denmark will apply to host the opening stage of the 2018 Tour de France, the country’s Business and Growth ministry said. The Grand Depart, as the opening stage is known, is regularly held outside of France. The 2015 race started in the Dutch city of Utrecht, while the Tour got underway in Northern England in 2014. Denmark’s Business and Growth Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said: “The Tour de France is one of the world’s biggest sporting events, with around 3.5 billion TV viewers. Denmark is one of the world’s leading cycling nations, and we must show that. The hosting of the Grand Depart is a unique opportunity.”
Motor Racing: Four members of a gang whose ram-raid robberies in southern England included the theft of Formula One trophies won by former champions Red Bull were sentenced to jail terms. Surrey Police said the four men were sentenced at Guildford Crown Court to terms of between two and seven years for conspiracy to commit burglary and steal. The gang hit the headlines when they smashed a car through the front doors of the Red Bull Racing factory in Milton Keynes in December last year, seizing more than 60 trophies from a display cabinet in the atrium.
Rugby Union: All five of this weekend’s Champions Cup and Challenge Cup rugby union matches taking place in France have been postponed following the Paris terror attacks which left at least 128 people dead, European Professional Club Rugby has announced. There had been three matches scheduled for yesterday, which were the Champions Cup fixtures between Oyonnax-Ulster and Racing 92-Glasgow Warriors, and the Castres-Pau match in the Challenge Cup. Today’s Champions Cup matches between Bordeaux-Clermont Auvergne, and Toulon-Bath, have also been postponed to be rescheduled for a later date.