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It is probably too soon to expect Charlotte Edwards to appreciate the irony of her situation. The England cricket captain, who has given the past 20 years of her life to improving her national team, was told this week that she would play no further part in it. After a career spent campaigning for women cricketers to be treated like any other professional sportsmen she has rudely discovered what that…

Mathieu Raymond says he went to university not so much to learn business administration but to run track. During his studies he worked in a sports store and realized just how elusive the perfectly comfortable – or perfect looking – running shoe can be. That gave him the idea to start a custom-fit shoe company. Raymond said a professor challenged him to go ahead with his project, telling him, “Mathieu, you should talk about…

Murray will return to number two in the world rankings on Monday, even if he loses the Rome final British number one Andy Murray reached his first Italian Open final with a straight-set victory over unseeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille. Murray, seeded second, won 6-2 6-1 in a rain-interrupted semi-final at Rome’s Foro Italico to make Sunday’s final. He now meets Novak Djokovic – who beat him in last week’s Madrid…

11:00 AM ET print DOVER, Del. — One of the biggest criticisms of NASCAR has been its inability for swift change, the inability to, for lack of a better term, shift gears at a moment’s notice. The sanctioning body appears to be working on that and yet at times it doesn’t appear to make changes quickly enough. That was evident Friday at Dover International Speedway in so many ways. Cars…

Buy Photo Orchard Lake St. Mary’s baserunner Griffin Sheposh steals second against Mt. Pleasant’s Obie Ricumstrict in the baseball Div. 2 MHSAA state championship on Saturday, June 13, 2015 at McLane Baseball Stadium in East Lansing.(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo The last time Mt. Pleasant won the state’s top baseball championship in 1996, none of the current players had been born. But that doesn’t mean it’s been…

BAYONNE — To the delight of parents and children alike, Mr. Met visited a special-needs baseball program this morning. The official mascot of the New York Mets came to 11th Street Park to support the Buddy Baseball League, which was started last year for mentally and physically challenged city residents ages 4 to 21. Earlier this year, SportsNet New York, the TV home of the New York Mets, awarded the league a…

Looking for daily fantasy baseball picks, strategy and advice? This is the DFS MLB Playbook for Saturday, featuring all the MLB DFS info you need to know from Sporting News partners FantasyAlarm.com. At the time of this writing, the two games that may have rain in play are Marlins-Nationals and Twins-Indians. The rain should hold off until later in the day in Washington, so in reality, the main game that’s in trouble there is…

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Despite a surge of doping cases over the last four years, and an increasingly dysfunctional and now suspended drug-testing agency, Kenya’s athletes were cleared to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics by the IAAF. The International Olympic Committee, which has the final call on whether Kenya’s famed distance runners will run in Rio in August, also is unlikely to stop the country sending a team….

Saracens are the first English champions of Europe since Wasps nearly a decade ago Saracens became champions of Europe for the first time as they ground out victory in the rain against Racing 92 in the Champions Cup final in Lyon. Parisians Racing had Dan Carter at 10, but he was unable to take kicks at goal and went off injured after 42 minutes. Saracens’ Owen Farrell landed four first-half…

CLEVELAND (AP) — Like so many kids growing up in Ohio, Andy Billman learned to love Cleveland’s sports teams. And to have his heart broken. But true to the passion of a proud city whose long-suffering fans haven’t celebrated a major professional championship since 1964, the director of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary chronicling Cleveland’s half-century of sports misery has undying hope a title will come. One day. “It’s…

Murray will return to number two in the world rankings on Monday, even if he loses the Rome final British number one Andy Murray reached his first Italian Open final with a straight-set victory over unseeded Frenchman Lucas Pouille. Murray, seeded second, won 6-2 6-1 in a rain-interrupted semi-final at Rome’s Foro Italico. The Scot will next face either Novak Djokovic, who beat him in last week’s Madrid Open final,…

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The XXXI Olympiad begins in less than three months and the host country is facing a devastating recession, a Zika epidemic and more political turbulence now that the president has been suspended and replaced by a right-wing government. Brazil has a lot to resolve before it puts on the competition it promised the world back in 2009, when the booming country beat out President Obama-backed Chicago to host the games…

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Despite a surge of doping cases over the last four years, and an increasingly dysfunctional and now suspended drug-testing agency, Kenya’s athletes were cleared to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics by the IAAF. The International Olympic Committee, which has the final call on whether Kenya’s famed distance runners will run in Rio in August, also is unlikely to stop the country sending a team….

CLEVELAND (AP) — Like so many kids growing up in Ohio, Andy Billman learned to love Cleveland’s sports teams. And to have his heart broken. But true to the passion of a proud city whose long-suffering fans haven’t celebrated a major professional championship since 1964, the director of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary chronicling Cleveland’s half-century of sports misery has undying hope a title will come. One day. “It’s…

Rafael Benitez is believed to have a break clause in the three-year contract he signed with Newcastle Rafael Benitez says he could continue as Newcastle manager after holding “positive” discussions with the relegated Premier League club. The Magpies’ second relegation to the Championship in seven years was confirmed on Wednesday. Benitez, 56, succeeded the sacked Steve McClaren in March, winning two of his nine league games in charge. “If I’m…

Our daily fantasy baseball picks continue with starting pitcher rankings and advice for Saturday’s MLB slate. Before we get into today’s rankings, we should point out that as of Friday night, the Nationals official website says Stephen Strasburg, not Tanner Roark, is pitching the first game of Saturday’s Marlins-Nats doubleheader. Both FanDuel and DraftKings have Roark listed among the early starters, so hopefully the Nats’ site is wrong and DFS players…