Only 10,000m for Farah at Tokyo 2020

LONDON • Olympic champion Mo Farah has said he will not defend his 5,000m title in Tokyo next year and will focus on the 10,000m race instead.

Farah, 37, won gold in both athletics events at the 2012 London Games as well as the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro, and is bidding to become the first athlete to win the 10,000m three times at the Olympics.

Earlier this month, he returned to the track after three years away to break the world record for the one-hour run by running a distance of 21,330m at the Brussels Diamond League meeting, eclipsing Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie's mark, set 13 years ago, by 45m.

REUTERS

Murray given wild card for French Open

PARIS • Former tennis world No. 1 Andy Murray, who has been battling to return to fitness following radical hip surgery, was handed a wild card on Monday for the French Open which begins on Sept 27.

The 33-year-old reached the Roland Garros final in 2016, but is now ranked 110th in the world as he attempts to rebuild his career.

Former women's world No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard, a semi-finalist in Paris six years ago, was also given an invitation after reaching the final of the WTA event in Istanbul last weekend, as did Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, who made it to the quarter-finals of the US Open.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Just one Asia-based LPGA event remains

SEOUL • The LPGA Tour has cancelled its golf event in South Korea, the US$2 million (S$2.7 million) BMW Ladies Championship, due to travel restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Yonhap news agency said yesterday.

The event, which was first held last year and won by local favourite Jang Ha-na, had been set to take place from Oct 22-25 in Busan.

Tournaments in Singapore, China, Taiwan and Thailand have already been axed, leaving Japan's Toto Classic the last one pending in Asia.

REUTERS