Latest - At the halfway point of the World Rugby Sevens Series the All Blacks Sevens are still leading the series despite a third place finish in Los Angeles today.
New Zealand sevens co-captain Tim Mikkelson. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The New Zealand side beat Australia 21-19 in the bronze medal match.
South Africa won the gold medal with an extra time 29-24 victory over Fiji.
The next leg of the series is in Vancouver starting on Saturday.
City win League Cup again
Manchester City continued their imperious stranglehold over the English League Cup with a 2-1 victory over Aston Villa in the final at Wembley to win the trophy for a third straight season.
Manchester City's Sergio Aguero Photo: PHOTOSPORT
City, who have now won the competition in five of the last seven seasons, dominated much of the match and should have been home and dry when they opened a 2-0 lead after 30 minutes with goals from Sergio Aguero and Rodri.
Yet a bizarre slip from City defender John Stones allowed Villa's Anwar El Ghazi to cross for Mbwana Samatta to head home just before halftime, fuelling their hopes of a comeback. The second half failed to live up to the first, however, with few clear chances until City keeper Claudio Bravo pulled off an excellent save to keep out Bjorn Engels' header minutes from fulltime.
Meanwhile Everton and Manchester United drew 1-1 at Goodison Park in the English Premier League in an enthralling game which ended in VAR drama.
A dreadful error from United keeper David De Gea gifted Everton a third-minute opener -- the Spaniard dawdled on the ball after a pass-back from Harry Maguire and his attempted clearance was charged down by Dominic Calvert-Lewin and flew off the Everton striker into the net.
It was January signing Bruno Feranandes, the Portuguese midfielder who has brought some much-needed creativity to the United side, who put the visitors level with a superb low shot from outside the box in the 31st minute.
There was VAR drama in stoppage time when Everton thought they had a winner. Calvert-Lewin's low shot deflected off Harry Maguire and span past Sigurdsson who was lying on the floor in what the video referee ruled was an offside position.
United stay fifth and they're joined on 42 points by Wolves who beat Tottenham 3-2.
-Reuters
MotoGP cancelled
This weekend's opening race of the MotoGP season in Qatar has been cancelled as a result of travel restrictions imposed on passengers from Italy because of coronavirus.
Six of the riders in MotoGP's premier class are Italians and several teams are based in the country.
The Moto2 and Moto3 categories will still race as their teams and riders were already in Qatar for pre-season testing last week.
Globally, around 86,000 people have been infected with coronavirus - the vast majority in China's Hubei province, where the outbreak originated in December. Italy is the worst-hit country in Europe, with its death toll standing at 34 from around 1,700 confirmed cases.
-BBC
Kennedy does it again
Australian Brad Kennedy has become a two-time New Zealand Open champion after winning the 101st edition of the tournament at Millbrook Resort.
Brad Kennedy Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Kennedy capitalised on perfect scoring conditions and an ability to go low on Sunday to post a bogey-free round of 8-under and take a two-shot victory over Victorian Lucas Herbert.
With twin results of tied for third over the past two weeks and the heartbreak of a final round fall at the Queensland PGA Championship still haunting his conscience, Kennedy was determined to set the standard early when he began the final round from two shots back.
"It's just hard to put into words the emotion I've gone through the last two weeks," Kennedy said.
"It felt like I'd lost two events and then to come back and play how I did this week, I think it's going to take a little bit of time to really understand why the things happened for the reasons why they did and you just never know in this game.
"I think I was chasing today which put me in a really good mindset to continue to attack and I felt like a couple of times in the last few weeks I'd started to play out of what I can do and what I trust where today I really just focussed on doing what I needed to do."
This becomes Kennedy's 13th professional victory, his fifth on the Tour of Australasia and his maiden Asian Tour win. He also becomes the first player to win the New Zealand Open twice since Greg Turner in 1997, and the first Australian to win twice since Bob Shearer in 1981.
The New Zealand duo of Harry Bateman and Michael Hendry finished tied for fifth.
Another silver for cyclists
The New Zealand duo of Aaron Gate and Campbell Stewart have won silver in the men's madison on the final day of racing at the Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin.
Campbell Stewart and Aaron Gate Photo: PHOTOSPORT
The New Zealanders held the lead early before being overtaken by Denmark, Germany finished third.
The New Zealand team finished eighth on the medal table with one gold and two silvers.
Corbin Strong won the men's points race, while the men's team pursuit won the other silver.
The Netherlands topped the table with nine medals including six golds.
Two more T20 semi-finalists found
South Africa and England registered comfortable victories against Pakistan and West Indies respectively in their Group B matches to seal their spots in the semi-finals of the Women's Twenty20 World Cup.
Group A leaders India were the first to reach the last four and the final place will go to the winner of today's clash between hosts Australia and their trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand.
After South Africa registered a 17-run win against Pakistan, England thumped West Indies by 46 runs to claim their third win and climb to the top of Group B on net run rate. South Africa, however, have a game in hand against the Caribbean side.
-Reuters
Tokyo marathon run infront of no fans
The Tokyo Marathon took place against a backdrop of empty streets and with just a couple of hundred runners due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Organisers had reduced the entries to just elite runners and wheelchair athletes with the mass race, which usually attracts around 38,000 runners, cancelled.
The numbers of volunteers were also reduced and spectators were advised to "avoid gathering along the course" and were instead encouraged to "support through TV and radio."
Event staff and competitors were given surgical masks and hand sanitizer.
Ethiopian Birhanu Legese won the men's race for the second year in a row in two hours four minutes and 15 seconds, while Israel's Lonah Korlima Chemtai Salpeter won the women's race in a course record time of 2:17.45.
Tokyo is due to host the Olympics from 24 July to 9 August.
-BBC
A win for Black Sticks women
A win for the Black Sticks women over Argentina in their Pro League game in Christchurch, while the men were beaten.
The women rebounded with a 5-3 win over the South American Champions.
A four-goal masterclass led the home side by the competitions leading goalscorer Olivia Merry who took her tournament total to 10 goals.
The men were beaten 3-2.
The Black Sticks women are second in the standings with four wins from eight games, while the Black Sticks men are sixth with two wins from eight games.
Taufatofua in line for third Olympics for Tonga
Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua has qualified for his third Olympic Games after winning an Oceania taekwondo qualifier.
Tonga's flagbearer Pita Taufatofua leads his delegation during the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games. Photo: AFP
The 36-year-old did so despite a fractured rib and torn muscle from his kayak training, as well as a twisted ankle suffered in training.
Taufatofua, who is remembered for entering the Rio 2016 and PyeongChang 2018 Opening Ceremonies bare-chested and covered in coconut oil, had been hoping to qulaify for Tokyo in both his original sport of taekwondo as well as kayak sprint, but was unable to meet the kayak standard at a qualifying event last month.
Taufatofua competed in taekwondo in Rio and cross-country skiing in PyeongChang.
Another national title for Lawson
Gary Lawson has further etched his name into Bowls New Zealand's history books, winning an unprecedented 14th national title.
Lawson has skipped Jamie Hill, Caleb Hope and Sheldon Bagrie-Howley to a come-from-behind 18-16 extra end victory over his Blackjacks team-mate Mike Kernaghan in the men's final at the National Fours in Mt Maunganui.
"The 14th is just as good as the first, they all mean the same. They're hard to win, you never know when you're going to win your last," Lawson said.
It is the first national title for young Southlanders Bagrie-Howley and Hope.
Lawson came back from 16-11 down with three ends to play to force a deciding extra end, picking up three shots on the 17th.
Earlier, Lawson beat Mike Carroll's Stokes Valley quartet 23-11 in the semi-finals, while Kernaghan got the better of world champion Shannon McIlroy 17-11 to advance to his second straight fours final. Cruelly he finished runner-up for the second year running.
Sandra Keith (skip), Clare Hendra, Selina Smith and Tayla Bruce have won the women's fours title, beating Wendy Green 21-12 in the final.
It's the first national title for Hendra and the second this year for Smith, who won the pairs with Katelyn Inch in January.
Rafa wins in Mexico
Rafael Nadal captured his third Mexican Open tennis title, continuing his good form with a 6-3 6-2 triumph in the final over Taylor Fritz.
Nadal survived 10 aces from Fritz and broke his service three times to outperform the 22-year-old American.
"I couldn't be happier. I played a great event from the beginning to the end," Nadal told reporters.
"Acapulco was the first big title that I won in my career, so to be able to stay here after 15 years is amazing. I can't thank enough the people who make me feel at home every single time."
The Spanish world No. 2, who first won the title in 2005 and took it again in 2013, stormed through the draw without dropping a set and improved to 20-2 in the event overall.
Fritz had reached the final by rallying from a set and 2-4 behind against John Isner but he could mount no such comeback against Nadal.
Fritz, playing his first final at an ATP 500 event, became the only American besides Sam Querrey in 2017 to reach the Acapulco final.
-Reuters
Cooper and McIlroy win Karapoti
Two former world champions from two different sports and two different generations claimed victory in the 35th anniversary of the Karapoti Classic mountain bike event near Wellington.
25 year old Anton Cooper won the men's event and 38 year old Kate McIlroy won the womens.
Cooper of Canterbury won from Cameron Jones of Nelson and Sam Shaw of Rotorua.
McIlroy, a former runner, triathlete and road cyclist, won the women's race from Sammie Maxwell of Taupo and Karen Hill of Australia.