Digest

RUGBY

Africa hopeful of three Olympic sevens teams

Rugby Africa says the continent has high hopes to field three teams at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, with Uganda and Zimbabwe set to compete at the World Repechage Cup in June.

Andrew Owuor, vice-president of Rugby Africa, says with Kenya and South Africa already having secured their tickets to the Olympics, Uganda has a good chance of joining them in Japan in August.

World Rugby said Uganda, which competes in the Sevens Challenger Series, will join Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong of China, Jamaica, Mexico, Tonga and Zimbabwe in the Olympic repechage in June 2020 to try and secure a Tokyo spot.

The Sevens Challenger Series is an international rugby sevens competition which will be launched in February 2020 by World Rugby.

The men's series will feature 13 core teams from the six World Rugby regions who will compete over two rounds alongside three invitational teams.

The top eight core teams after the two rounds will then compete in the final playoff tournament for a spot in the premier World Rugby Sevens Series, replacing the bottom-place core team in the World Series for the following season.

BASKETBALL

Hobbling Hachimura ruled out for Wizards

Washington Wizards rookie forward Rui Hachimura will be sidelined for at least five games after hurting his groin.

The Wizards said on Tuesday that Hachimura will be re-evaluated when Washington returns from a four-game road trip that runs from Friday through Dec 26.

He was injured in the first half of Washington's 133-119 victory at the Detroit Pistons on Monday.

Hachimura, the first player from Japan to be a first-round pick in the NBA draft, is averaging 13.9 points and 5.8 rebounds while starting in all 25 games for the Wizards.

Washington's first game without Hachimura will be on Wednesday at home to the Chicago Bulls.

SOCCER

Serie A sorry for racism campaign's ape art

The chief of Italy's Serie A league has apologized for the ape artwork used in its widely criticized anti-racism campaign.

The imagery by artist Simone Fugazzotto featured three apes with different-colored eyes and detailing.

"We realized it was inappropriate," the league's chief executive Luigi De Siervo said in a statement on Tuesday.

Italian clubs Roma and AC Milan have criticized the choice of imagery that the league initially said "aims to spread the values of integration, multiculturalism and brotherhood".

Fugazzotto, who uses apes in much of his work, defended his creation, saying "we are all monkeys".

EQUESTRIANISM

Canada loses Olympic show-jumping spot

Canada's show-jumping team has lost its spot at the Tokyo Olympics due to a doping violation involving one of the riders, the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) said on Tuesday.

Nicole Walker was part of a fourmember team that finished fourth at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, to secure Canada's Tokyo 2020 berth.

"My priority right now is to continue to fight for the Canadian Equestrian Team. The team deserves to go to the Olympics," said Walker, who is appealing the decision.

The FEI had provisionally suspended Walker from the sport after a sample taken from her on the day of the team final at the Pan American Games in August tested positive for Benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine.

After a confirmatory analysis of the 'B' sample, Walker had a hearing two weeks ago with the Panam Sports Disciplinary Commission which disqualified her results in both the individual and team competitions, according to the FEI.

SAILING

Spain to replace China in grand-prix series

Spain will replace China for the second season of the SailGP global league.

China was one of SailGP's six league-funded teams for its inaugural season and finished third overall.

"Though the China SailGP Team had a successful first season, we were unfortunately not granted the permissions necessary to continue operating the team within our existing structure," SailGP CEO and co-founder Russell Coutts said in a statement.

"With numerous active discussions around future teams, we were fortunate to be in the position to make an immediate substitution, allowing us to deliver on our promise of seven teams for season 2 as our global championship continues to grow."

Coutts said SailGP remains interested in continuing to support both a Chinese team and the development of a sailing academy in China as planned if a future agreement can be reached.

Spain will join defending champion Australia, newcomer Denmark, France, Britain, Japan and the United States for the 2020 season.

The F50 foiling catamaran used by China will transfer to Spain.