For more than 40 gruelling minutes, Hasan Tuna grabbed and tugged at his opponent’s sweaty, oil-slicked body. Suddenly, he was on his back, looking up at the sun in a field of uncut grass: last year’s Turkish olive oil wrestling champion was pinned.

An amateur New Zealand rugby player has been jailed for five months for hitting the referee who had penalised his side during a match.

Springbok coach Rudolf Straeuli on Thursday named De Wet Barry as his inside centre for Saturday’s Vodacom Tri-nations opener against Australia in Cape Town.

The international friendly between Bafana Bafana B squad and Mozambique in Maputo on Saturday has been cancelled.

South African rugby coaches have a tendency to copy what they see happening in the Super 12, or in international rugby, and are not very innovative when it comes to tactics and game planning.

Mashrafe Mortaza and skipper Khaled Mahmud took three wickets apiece on Thursday as Bangladesh restricted the Northern Territory XI to 189 at stumps on the opening day of the cricket tour match here.

Hilary Lunke is finding life as the US Women’s Open champion a bit hectic. Since winning a dramatic three-way playoff with a 4,5-metre birdie putt on the 18th hole on Monday, Lunke has been mobbed by media, fans and friends. For a previously unheralded 24-year-old player who entered the US Open as a qualifier, it’s been a life-altering experience.

Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak won the toss and elected to bat in the triangular series one-day international match at the Rose Bowl here on Thursday.

Britain and France are still looking for dates for their foreign ministers to travel together to tour hotspots in central Africa’s Great Lakes region, a Foreign Office spokesperson said on Thursday.