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Motorcycling: Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Iannone (picture, right) was ruled out of the weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix yesterday after suffering a fractured vertebra in a fall in practice. The works team said the Italian had been declared unfit to race after being taken to hospital near the Misano circuit in eastern Italy. Iannone took his maiden MotoGP win in Austria last month for Ducati’s first victory in the top category since 2010. The rider, who lies sixth in the standings, is joining Suzuki next season.
Motor Racing: Williams have recruited former Ferrari tyre performance head Antonio Spagnolo to help analyse their Formula One rivals’ strengths. Spagnolo, who joined the Italian team in 2005 and left in February, also worked with 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen and double world champion Fernando Alonso as an engineer. He will link up again with Williams’s head of performance engineering Rob Smedley, who worked at Ferrari for a decade until 2014. The Mercedes-powered team are fourth in the championship, with Ferrari, who have under-performed this season, third.
Davis Cup: Peru will host a Davis Cup match between their team and Venezuela after the International Tennis Federation decided that concerns over security in Venezuela, the original site for the event, required a change of venue. The Sept. 16-18 match will be held in Lima instead of Barcelona, Venezuela, the federation said in an emailed response to a Reuters inquiry. Government officials have said security problems have been exaggerated by the media. Venezuela has one of the world’s highest violent crime rates and has been rocked by political protests as opposition groups seek a recall referendum on the rule of President Nicolas Maduro.
Tennis: Former world number one players Kim Clijsters and Andy Roddick headlined the list of nominees up for induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Class of 2017 will be announced early next year, the Newport, Rhode Island-based Hall of Fame said this week. Belgium’s Clijsters bolstered by a powerful baseline game and remarkable defensive skills on court, captured 41 singles titles during her career, including four grand slam titles. Roddick, known for his incredibly fast and powerful serve, held the world number one ranking for 13 weeks and won his only grand slam title at the 2003 US Open.
American Football: Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall became the latest athlete to kneel during the US national anthem in a protest against social injustice before his team’s game against the Carolina Panthers on Thursday. Marshall, following in the path of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, knelt on the sideline before the anthem began, and remained in that position while his team-mates stood to his left. “The message is I’m against social injustice,” Marshall said after the game. “I’m not against the military or police or America at all. I’m against social injustice.”