2020 Games: Fukushima prefecture’s Azuma Baseball Stadium will host at least one baseball and softball match during the 2020 Summer Olympics. The prefecture was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 that triggered the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Baseball is returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2008 at the Tokyo Games and organisers are keen to play a part in helping the region – parts of which are still uninhabitable – get back on its feet.

Golf: The Asian Tour will return to China for the first time since 2008 with up to four new events planned in 2017 in a partnership with the China Golf Association. The partnership will be a threat to the future of the breakaway OneAsia circuit, which was established in 2009 with a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the CGA, the Korean Golf Association and Korean PGA. The Asian Tour previously co-sanctioned and staged tournaments with the CGA from 1995 until 2008 before the OneAsia circuit began.

Rugby Union: Two Top 14 matches set for this weekend are being postponed due to a dispute over a proposed merger of rugby clubs Racing 92 and Stade Francais, the LNR rugby union league said after crisis talks yesterday.  Stade Francais players announced an open-ended strike last Tuesday after the shock announcement a day earlier that the two clubs’ bosses were proposing a merger.

Basketball: Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade will miss the remainder of the season with a fractured right elbow. Wade underwent an MRI exam after sustaining the injury in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s 98-91 loss to Memphis Grizzlies. The results of the MRI showed a sprain in addition to a small fracture in the elbow.