Athletics: Double Olympic champion Mo Farah (picture) continued his build-up to the Rio Games by breaking David Moorcroft’s 34-year-old British record in the 3,000 metres at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham yesterday. Farah, the 5,000 and 10,000m gold medallist at the 2012 London Olympics, won in seven minutes 32.62 seconds after striding out at the front in a determined effort to beat Moorcroft’s 1982 time of 7:32.79. “Did I get it?,” the 33-year-old asked a BBC interviewer. “That’s incredible... I thought I’d just missed it. It was a bit tight on the last lap, I had to dig in,” added Farah.
Cycling: Britain’s Chris Froome conceded 13 seconds to rival Alberto Contador as the Spaniard won the prologue stage of the Criterium du Dauphine at Mont Chery, yesterday. Froome, looking to win a third Criterium in four years after success in 2013 and 2015, completed the four-kilometre uphill time trial in 11 minutes 49 seconds. That saw Team Sky’s Froome, who like Contador will be chasing a third yellow jersey when the Tour de France begins in Normandy next month, finish third behind Tinkoff’s Contador and BMC Racing’s Richie Porte. Today’s flat 186-kilometre stage runs from Cluses to Saint Vulbas.
Motorcycling: Two motorcycle riders have died in separate accidents on the opening day of the annual Isle of Man TT races, organisers said. ACU Events said in a statement that locally-based Australian Dwight Beare, 27, was killed in Saturday’s sidecar race while his passenger Benjamin Binns was in a stable condition with a fractured ankle. English solo rider Paul Shoesmith, 50, died in evening practice in an accident on the Sulby Straight, with the session then abandoned.
Golf: Former champion Matt Kuchar surrendered the outright lead with a bogey on the tricky par-four 18th to conclude the third round of the weather-hit Memorial tournament in Ohio yesterday, setting up the prospect of a shoot-out. Kuchar had stormed a stroke clear of a tightly bunched leaderboard with a run of four birdies in five holes from the 11th but stumbled at the last after finding a bunker off the tee and the right rough with his second to card a two-under-par 70. That left American Kuchar at 14-under 202, level at the top with compatriots William McGirt (64) and long-hitting Gary Woodland (69) after another intriguing day of fluctuating fortunes at Muirfield Village.
Cricket: Pakistan paceman Mohammad Amir, who spent time in jail and served a five-year ban for spot-fixing, was named yesterday in a 17-man squad for the test series in England starting next month. Providing he is granted a visa to travel to Britain, the series will mark Amir’s first test appearance since he was cleared to return to the sport last September. Amir was rated among the world’s most exciting fast bowlers before a 2010 spot-fixing scandal that resulted in bans and jail sentences for him, former test captain Salman Butt and fast bowler Mohammad Asif.