Canada, originally opposed to the proposal by the International Rowing Federation (FISA) over the future shape of Olympic boat classes, has switched to a position of support ahead of this weekend’s crucial vote at an Extraordinary Congress in Tokyo.

Usain Bolt’s All-Stars team will go into Saturday’s sell-out final of the Coles Nitro Athletics Melbourne as leaders - after protests saw the host nation, originally winners on the second night of this innovative event, incur a penalty for their disqualification in the mixed 4x100 metre relay.

Television viewers will be able to watch their favourite performers across a variety of sports next summer after the 2018 European Championships Board’s agreement over coverage of the inaugural multi-sport event in Glasgow and Berlin.

Britain’s Olympic gold and silver medallist in the lightweight double sculls, Mark Hunter, believes his sport is being "strangled" by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as it pushes for changes in boat classes at the Games.

Usain Bolt led his All-Stars team to victory on the first of three nights of competition in Melbourne’s Lakeside Stadium as part of the new Coles Nitro Athletics Series.

Usain Bolt believes the Coles Nitro Athletics event in Melbourne, which he has been "waiting all his life" for, can match the success of limited-overs cricket.

Usain Bolt, who will race for the first time in Australia this week at the Nitro Athletics event in Melbourne, has backed the future of the innovative format by taking a financial stake in it.

Japan, which will host the first Olympic appearance of its national sport of karate at the Tokyo 2020 Games, has underlined its medal ambitions in selecting an enlarged team for the first Karate1 Premier League event of the season in Paris.

Britain’s marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe is reported to have been named in a task force to identify which, if any, European athletics records should be erased on the basis that the athlete concerned had been doping.

Handball referees will be directly involved for the first time in a new system of video replay technology - overseen by the same company that works with FIFA - that is being pioneered at the 25th Men's World Handball Championship which begins this week in France.

Malcolm Arnold, who has coached a succession of Olympic and world champions since 1972, will bring to an end 42 consecutive years of employment for British Athletics or its forbears at the end of this month in the wake of the national federation's decision to withdraw funding from the High Performance Centre at the University of Bath.

Six Moroccan athletes are included in a list of 19 new doping cases released by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) that also includes former Great Britain sprinter Tim Abeyie.

European Athletics officials are looking at potential ways of including the sport in the 2019 European Games in Minsk and plan to meet with their counterparts from the event to discuss the possibilities.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League will adopt a championship-style format next season with athletes having to take first place at one of the two seasonal finals in Zurich or Brussels – carrying increased total prize money of $3.2million (£2.5million/€3miilion) – to become overall winner in their event.