The FIH has responded by introducing a number of changes to the way hockey will be played and broadcast at the Rio Games. Those include a move to 15-minute quarters and scheduling more time for television replays and analysis to showcase players' virtuoso skills with a ball moving at more than 160 kilometres an hour, Fairweather said. For the first time in Olympic competition, the Rio hockey tournament will also feature quarter-finals, making it the last team sport to adopt the format at the Games.
Sloppy defending cost India dearly as Sam Ward scored a brace for England to hand the home team a heart-breaking 2-3 defeat in a hard-fought Pool B match of the Hockey World League (HWL) Final, in Bhubaneswar, on Saturday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar finished a lowly 26th and 32nd respectively in the men's 10 metres Air Rifle event of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
Dolgopolov, who advanced to the 2nd round of the US Open on Wednesday, said he could not remember ever being approached to fix a match.
Gopichand, who shaped Sindhu and Olympic bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal among others, believes it will take some time for the next big star to emerge.
IMAGES from the matches played on Day 2 of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on Tuesday.
England are still playing catch-up with the modern way of batting in the 50-over format but are showing encouraging signs in closing the gap with the major cricketing nations, the team's batting coach Mark Ramprakash said on Thursday.
Sloppy defending cost India dearly as they conceded a late goal and went down 1-2 to higher-ranked New Zealand in their second league match on Day 2 of the 24th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh.
A team mate of Japanese badminton Olympic medal hope Kento Momota on Friday confessed to taking the world number two-ranked player to an illegal casino and tearfully begged officials to allow the star to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Panama and Tunisia have been the fall-guys in the two top-scoring matches of World Cup 2018, but both teams will hope to show they have learnt some lessons from their efforts in Russia before they head home after their Group G match on Thursday.
PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth notched up contrasting wins to progress to the Round of 16, but World No. 11 H S Prannoy suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Brazilian Ygor Coelho to bow out of the World Championship.
Four-time champions Pakistan produced a lion-hearted performance before going down 0-1 to Olympic bronze medallist Germany in their opening Pool D match of the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
'Unique' Afghan leg spinner Rashid Khan will have a major impact on this year's Indian Premier League for the Hyderabad franchise, coach Tom Moody has predicted.
Rugby powerhouse New Zealand were knocked out of the inaugural Olympic sevens tournament in the quarter-finals on Wednesday after a 12-7 loss to top seeds Fiji.
India have won the Asia Cup six times, Sri Lanka five, and Pakistan have won it just twice. As the 14th edition of Asia's own trophy gets underway on Saturday, Rajneesh Gupta presents the numbers on the 13 editions so far.
The expanded European soccer Championship format with 24 teams in the finals instead of 16 contributed to fairytale runs by so-called minnows at Euro 2016 but also helped Portugal lift their first major trophy. The new formula introduces an extra knockout stage, the round of 16, with the top two teams in each of the six groups going through as well as the four best third-placed sides. Portugal did just that, finishing third in their group and going on to win the tournament with a 1-0 victory in extra time over hosts France in Sunday's final.
Saina Nehwal guided the Indian women's team to a dominating 5-0 win over Germany to stay on course for a knockout berth in Uber Cup, but the men's team suffered a narrow 2-3 defeat against Hong Kong, staring at an early exit in Thomas Cup badminton tournament in Kunshan, China.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
"The ebbs and flows of the game made it such a good one for the spectators. It was just unfortunate we came out on the other side of it."
Somdev Devvarman suffered yet another early defeat but Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni continued their impressive run by storming into the singles quarter-finals of the ATP Pune Challenger tournament.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Conor McGregor said on Tuesday he was retiring from the sport, five months after losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a controversial title fight
After what at one stage earlier this month looked like a vast game of musical chairs, reigning champions India ended up topping the world rankings when the five-month countdown to the 2015 World Cup started on Sunday.
India, along with the mighty Australia, will start as title contenders in the ICC Champions Trophy.
Captain Eoin Morgan said that the recent talk had resonated well with the players.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Somdev Devvarman stoutly defended his decision to skip the Asian Games, saying "it did not make any sense" playing in Incheon for three weeks at a time when he is striving to return to the top-100.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
H S Prannoy outwitted World No 2 and title favourite Kidambi Srikanth in a thrilling final to win the men's singles title at the 82nd Senior National Championship, in Nagpur on Wednesday.
Coach Harendra defends junior players' selection for World Cup
India ended its campaign at the Fed Cup with a fourth place finish after losing the classification tie 1-2 to Korea as the team badly missed injured Karman Kaur Thandi, who did not play on Saturday, in Astana, Kazakhstan.
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist R M V Gurusaidutt is desperate to avenge India's Thomas Cup loss to Korea when they open their campaign against the hosts in badminton team event in the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon, Korea.
Poland's first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny will miss Thursdays Euro 2016 clash with Germany but could return for their final Group C game against Ukraine, coach Adam Nawalka said.
Unlike the women's US Open final there was no centre court retirement announcement on Sunday with Roger Federer putting aside the disappointment of losing to Novak Djokovic in the men's final to tell fans he will be back.
Cricket West Indies (CWI) showed it was willing to welcome back top players on Thursday when it cleared Darren Bravo to play in all forms of cricket after the batsman apologised to the board and its president, Dave Cameron, for a Twitter outburst.
Their commitment to country questioned after the pull-out from the Asian Games, India's top tennis players on Wednesday tried to put their decision in perspective by saying that they have an obligation to earn their "bread and butter".
The opening day of the Hero Hockey World League Final witnessed a major upset as lower-ranked Argentina put up a spirited display to outclass London Olympic silver medallist Netherlands 5-2, while world number two Australia eked out a narrow 3-2 win over Belgium in Pool B at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Friday.
