Pieters takes the lead
GOLF Thomas Pieters, inset, hit a seven-under-par 65 to take a one-stroke lead after the third round of the Czech Masters at the Albatross Gold Resort in Prague. The Belgian ended the day on 17 under to stay a shot ahead of Sweden’s Pelle Edberg. Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen is third on 13 under.
Taiwan’s Yani Tseng took the lead in the weather-interrupted second round of the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic after hitting a brilliant eight-under par 64 on the Senator Course in Prattville, Alabama. The highlight of the former world number one’s round was a eagle-bride finish with Tseng covering her final six holes in five under par to finish on 10 under for the tournament.
Sprinklers stop play at Olympic stadium
RUGBY The first rugby match to be played at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford had an unexpected interruption when the ground’s sprinkler system came on during the friendly match between Barbarians and Samoa. The game was a test event for the venue which will be hosting four pool matches in the Rugby World Cup involving France, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa. After the game resumed, Barbarians beat Samoa 27-24.
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Pujara returns with a century
CRICKET Cheteshwar Pujara marked his return to the Indian team with a battling century on the second day of the third Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo. After almost the whole of the first day’s play was lost to rain, Pujara made 135 not out in India’s total of 292 for 8 at stumps, the visitors having recovering from being 180 for 7 earlier in the day.
It was the stand-in opener’s first century for his country since December 2013 and he got solid support from Amit Mishra (59) with the pair putting on 104, the highest eighth-wicket stand for India against Sri Lanka.
On a seaming pitch, Dhammika Prasad took four wickets to put Sri Lanka in the ascendancy but Pujara and Mishra’s record stand has left the Test finally poised. The series stands at 1-1 after Sri Lanka won the first Test by 63 runs and Inda came on top in the second Test by 278 runs.
Marquez smashes lap record
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MOTO GP World champion Marc Marquez broke his own lap record to take pole position for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday. The Spanish Honda rider set a time of two minutes 00.234 seconds on his final qualifyinig lap to get his sixth pole of the season ahead of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha.
Marquez’s Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa made it an all-Spanish front row for today’s race. Valentino Rossi qualified in fourth and is level on points with his Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo at the top of the championship but behind on race wins. Marquez is 52 points behind Lorenzo and Rossi with seven races reminaing this season.
O'Donnell game under investigation
SNOOKER World Snooker investigating “unusual” betting patterns in a match between England’s Martin O’Donnell and Thailand’s Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon at the Paul Hunter Classic in Germany. O’Donnell won Friday’s fourth-round match 4-2 in Furth. World Snooker (WPBSA) will liaise with the Gambling Commission to determine if further action is necessary.
O’Donnell will play Duane Jones in the fifth round of the tournament, which is part of World Snooker’s Euro/Asia Tour. Thirapongpaiboon was cleared of wrongdoing after the WPBSA investigated suspicious betting in two Shanghai Masters qualifying matches in 2013.
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Welsh track plan gets boost
MOTORSPORT Plans for a £325m motor racing track in Blaenau Gwent have moved a step forward. The Welsh government said it was “minded to grant” an application to allow the firm behind the plans to take over common land for the Circuit of Wales in Ebbw Vale. It said outstanding issues with the rights of commoners must be resolved before a formal decision was made. The Heads of the Valleys Development Company (HOTVDC) welcomed the move. The development comes after a public inquiry in March examined the firm’s request to take more than 250 hectares (600 acres) of common land.
The development planned for Rassau aims to create 6,000 jobs and is set to host the MotoGP from 2017.
Stuyven wins stage
CYCLING Belgium’s Jasper Stuyven, inset, of the Trek Factory Racing team won the eighth stage of the Vuelta a Espana in Murcia yesterday, but a crash with around 50 kilometres of the stage remaining ended the race for Ireland’s Daniel Martin, who was lying third overall at the start of the day.
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Martin, the 29-year-old Birmingham-born Irishman, had ridden a perfect opening week of the race but his hopes of challenging for overall honours were wrecked by the crash and he was taken to hospital for treatment. He was not the only high-profile rider to come to grief. American Tejay van Garderen also withdrew from the race after falling in the same crash. The BMC Racing rider pulled out of July’s Tour de France with illness while he was lying third overall. Yesterday he was taken to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone.
And there was further drama inside the final ten kilometres of a scappy stage when Slovakian Peter Sagan crashed heavily while looking active at the front of the race. When he got back on his bike, with his shorts ripped open and a large patch of road rash on the back of his thigh, Sagan gestured angrily at an official race vehicle. His Tinkoff-Saxo team later alleged that Sagan had been knocked off by a race motorbike.
The stage was open and attacking but it all came down to a sprint finish, that was won by Stuyen ahead of Pello Bilbao of the Caja Rural team. Colombia’s Esteban Chaves finished safely in the bunch to preserve his 10-second lead over Tom Dumoulin in the overall standings.
Ireland’s Nicolas Roche of Team Sky moved up to third place as a result of his compatriot Martin’s withdrawal. Britain’s Chris Froome finished safely in the pack and is 11th overall.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Lizzie Armitstead won the Grand Prix Plouay in Brittany to clinch the World Cup series title for the second successive season.