Latest - New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko will play alongside South Koreans Inbee Park and Hyo Joo Kim in the first two rounds of this week's Evian Championship in France, the fourth of the year's five majors.
Lydia Ko Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Ko, who has dropped to 21 in the world rankings, claimed the first of her two majors in France in 2015.
The 22 year old has had just four top ten finishes on the LPGA Tour this year.
Park is a former world number one and a seven time major champion although she has never won the Evian Championship.
Kim won the Evian Championship as a 19 year old in 2014.
Big first up win for Tall Ferns
The New Zealand women's basketball team has made an encouraging start to their defence of the William Jones Cup in Taipei beating the Philippines 106-72 in the opening game of the six-team tournament.
Micaela Cocks Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The Tall Ferns were lead by experienced guard Micaela Cocks who scored a game high 21 points.
The other four starters were also in double figures - Charlisse Leger-Walker shot 6 from 8 from the field plus 4 from 4 from the foul line for 18 points, Stella Beck scored 15, Penina Davidson 14 and Kalani Purcell was at her industrious best adding 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals to 14 points.
The Philippines were smashed on the boards 37-19.
New Zealand will face a tougher challenge tonight when they take on Korea, ranked 18th in the world.
First up win for Phoenix
Wellington Phoenix have beaten Wairarapa United 7-0 in their opening pre-season match in Masterton.
New coach Ufuk Talay gave many of his new signings a start.
The Phoenix led 5-0 at half time with Talay making a number of changes in the second half.
Trentin wins 17th stage on Tour
Italian cyclist Matteo Trentin has won the 17th stage of the Tour de France, a hilly 200km ride from Pont du Gard.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The European champion jumped away from a reduced group of breakaway riders at the foot of the last climb and further powered away in the descent to claim his third stage win on the Tour.
It was his Mitchelton-Scott team's fourth stage win this year after Simon Yates's brace and Daryl Impey's victory.
On another searing hot day in southern France, the top contenders stayed quiet and crossed the line within the peloton, just over 20 minutes off the pace behind Trentin as France's Julian Alaphilippe retained the overall leader's yellow jersey.
He leads defending champion Geraint Thomas by 1:35 in the general classification, while New Zealand's George Bennett is 22nd, 30 minutes back.
Thursday's 18th stage is a 208-km mountain trek between Embrun and Valloire featuring three climbs above 2,000 metres.
-Reuters
Teenager breaks world swimming record
Hungarian teenager Kristof Milak shattered Michael Phelps' 10-year-old world record in the 200 metres butterfly while Adam Peaty sewed up a third straight breaststroke double with victory in the 50 metres at the world swimming championships in South Korea.
Budapest-born Milak won gold in a time of 1:50.73, lopping 0.78 seconds off Phelps' 1:51.51 set in Rome in 2009.
At 19, Milak is the youngest winner of the 200 butterfly since Phelps triumphed as an 18-year-old in 2003, the second of the American great's five world titles in the event.
Peaty shattered a record of his own on Sunday, becoming the first swimmer to go under 57 seconds in the 100 breaststroke semi-finals and while he could not repeat the feat in the 50 he was still streets ahead of his rivals.
The Briton posted 26.06, the third fastest 50 of all time and 0.6 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, Brazilian Felipe Lima.
Chinese swimmer Sun Yang has been a lightning rod for controversy at the championships but his bid for glory in the 800 freestyle fizzled out as he trailed home in sixth.
Sun is swimming under a cloud in Gwangju with a doping case against him set to be heard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in September.
-Reuters
Lorenzo to miss two more races
Jorge Lorenzo will miss the Czech and Austrian MotoGP races as the Spanish rider continues his recovery from fractured vertebrae.
Jorge Lorenzo. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Lorenzo, a three times MotoGP world champion and Honda team mate of championship leader and compatriot Marc Marquez, crashed during practice at Assen in the Netherlands last month.
Honda said Lorenzo planned to return for the British Grand Prix on Aug. 25, with experienced German rider Stefan Bradl standing in as he did at this month's German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
Bradl was already due to ride in the Czech round as a wildcard entry.
-Reuters
Tokyo medals unveiled
The medals for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been unveiled with exactly one year to go until next year's Games.
The unveiling of the medals, designed by Junichi Kawanishi, was the main attraction of an extravagant ceremony in the Japanese capital to commemorate the landmark.
The event was attended by International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The medals, which are 85 millimetre in diameter, feature Greek goddess of victory Nike in their design along with the Olympic symbol and are made from recycled metals, collected from 6.21 million electronic devices donated across Japan.
-Reuters
