The International Olympic Committee has hailed a United Nations resolution recognising the autonomy of sport as an important tool that will help foster political neutrality as well as lead to less boycotts and discrimination.
Usain Bolt returned to the scene of his triple Olympic glory and duly delivered for 60,000 camera-flashing fans as he overcame a slow start to win the 100 metres and give the London Anniversary Games the Friday finale it demanded.
Akhil Kumar (54kg) fought hard but fell short of luck, losing on count-back to Olympic silver medallist Yankiel Leon Alarcon in the semifinals to settle for a bronze medal -- along with Jitender Kumar (51kg) and A L Lakra (57kg) -- at the AIBA Boxing World Cup in Moscow on Saturday.
World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt will be the main attraction during July's Paris Diamond League meeting, organisers said on Monday.
World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt powered away late in the race to win the 100 metres in 9.8 seconds at the season-closing Diamond League meeting in Brussels on Friday.
A ban imposed on Russia's Paralympic team to compete in Rio is cynical and immoral, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, while saying that Moscow acknowledged its mistakes and would improve the national anti-doping system.
Briton Mo Farah added the world distance double to the one he achieved at the London Olympics when he bravely held off the Ethiopian and Kenyan challenge in belligerent style to win the 5,000 metres on Friday.
Germany's Robert Harting won his third successive world discus title in impressive style on Tuesday when his 69.11 metre throw, the fourth-longest of the season, was too good for perennial runner-up Piotr Malachowski of Poland who took another silver.
Yelena Isinbayeva, the greatest woman pole vaulter of all time, thrilled a partisan home crowd roaring her every jump when she landed the third and probably last world title of her illustrious career on Tuesday.
As double Olympic champion Mo Farah knows he is there to be shot at. But such is his self-belief that it will take someone and something special to scupper the Briton's bid to repeat the feat at the world championships in Moscow.
Former double world sprint champion Tyson Gay delivered a further body blow to his troubled sport on Sunday when he pulled out of next month's Moscow world championships after failing an out-of-competition dope test.
Usain Bolt returns to centre stage on Saturday and it seems only a catastrophic injury can prevent the Jamaican world record holder from securing a third successive world 200m title and completing another brilliant sprint double.
Barred from international competition, Russia is training its athletes at a series of special domestic tournaments and banking on hopes a doping ban will be lifted in time for this year's Rio Olympics.
Usain Bolt was made to look human by a combination of a Russian rainstorm and a fired-up Justin Gatlin on Sunday but the Jamaican superstar was still good enough to regain his world 100m title in a surging 9.77 seconds.
He was part of the national team in more than one Olympics, including the gold medal winning team of 1956. He was the coach when India won the last of their eight Olympic gold medals in Moscow in 1980.
Six-times Olympic champion Usain Bolt will race over 200 metres at the Paris Golden League meeting on July 6 as part of his buildup for the Moscow world athletics championships in the following month.
Russian Maria Sharapova will focus on trying to win Wimbledon next year rather than attempting to regain the World No 1 ranking.
Russia's new athletics head said his priority was to ensure Russian sportsmen and women compete at the 2016 Olympics as the sport tries to tackle rampant doping. "This is not an easy time for Russia, it is not an easy time for athletics," said Dmitry Shlyakhtin, who was elected as the new president of the Russian Athletics Federation (VFLA) on Saturday. "Going to the Olympic Games is task number one."
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Olympic 800 metres champion and world record-holder David Rudisha will miss the remainder of the season and is unlikely to race again until at least March next year, the Kenyan athlete's coach has said.
India's Vikas Gowda settled for seventh place in the men's discus throw at the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow on Tuesday. The Asian champion and National record holder hurled the discus to 64.03 metres in his fourth attempt.
India's Vikas Gowda advanced to the men's discus throw final in the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships after finishing seventh overall in the qualification round, in Moscow. The National record holder and reigning Asian champion placed fourth in qualification round A with a best throw of 63.64m which he came up in his first attempt on the third day of the competition at the Luzhniki stadium.
Six-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt won the men's 100m at the World Athletics Championships, breezing home in 9.78 seconds in Moscow on Sunday night. Justin Gatlin of the United States was second in 9.85 seconds while and Nesta Carter of Jamaica was third in 9.95.
The face of the Moscow world championships, Yelena Isinbayeva, has condemned Swede Emma Green-Tregaro's gesture of support for the Russian gay community as disrespectful and said she supported the law banning the promotion of homosexuality.
Maharaj Kishan Kaushik is back as coach of India's men's hockey team, ten years after the guiding it to the gold medal at the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. His selection was finalised at a meeting of the ad hoc committee, set up by the Indian Olympic Association in Delhi, on Tuesday and formally announced on Wednesday. He will be in charge of the team till the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games in China.
Beijing will be intently watching Washington's response for any hint of weakness. Xi Jinping, who feels China has a limited window of strategic opportunity, will be emboldened to take additional initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and specifically against India and Taiwan, warns Jayadeva Ranade, the former senior RA&W officer and China expert.
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele sprinted to victory in the 5,000 meters on Saturday to become the first man to complete the Olympic long-distance double since 1980.
World number one Angelique Kerber crashed out of the Hong Kong Open in the quarter-finals on Thursday, the German slumping to a shock 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Australia's Daria Gavrilova at Victoria Park.
Bid chief Sebastian Coe said the city would stage a "Games for the next generation'.
'What will happen? Yes, nothing will happen. Athletics will develop, the guys will train. Well, they will miss maybe one tournament'
A large contingent of officials and media were present at the airport to receive the team, which finished fifth in the just-concluded Hockey World League Semi-finals in Antwerp.
Earlier in the day, Russia was banned from defending its Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles but its players will still be allowed to compete at the Grand Slams and in regular tour events.
Members of the all-women protest group Pussy Riot released a new music video on Thursday criticising Russia's staging of the Winter Olympics and its human rights record, in a rare show of dissent during the Games.
"That's why this year I've made a special effort to go and play in Beijing, just to see for myself what the atmosphere is going to be like next year," Dementieva told reporters after beating former world number one Serena in the Moscow final on Sunday.
Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were crowned male and female World Athletes of the Year for 2013 by the sport's governing IAAF at a ceremony in Monaco on Saturday.
There will be no discrimination against gay people during the Winter Olympics in Sochi next month, a Russian lawmaker said on Monday.
P V Sindhu is hoping to become India's first-ever woman Olympic gold medallist across all sporting disciplines when she takes on World champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the final of women's singles badminton event at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, on Friday.
Always the crown jewel in the Olympic athletics programme, the Rio 100 metres final is shaping up to be extraordinary for many reasons.
