The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has crowned its award winners for the 2014-2017 quadrennium during the International Federation's Congress in Botswana.

duo Shohei Otani and Ayami Sato took the honours for 2015 and 2014 respectively.Nathan Nukunuku of New

Zealand claimed the Softball Player of the Year for 2017.He has represented Softball New Zealand in

Canada's Sean Cleary and Yukiko Ueno of Japan were victorious in 2015 and 2014.Mark Sorenson, who led New

Zealand to victory in Whitehorse, claimed the Softball Coach of the Year, while Andy Stankiewicz of

Zealand Softball Association shared the sport's National Federation of the Year prize for 2017.The host

Australia clinched the men's and women's Oceania Cup titles with victories over New Zealand on the final

a much closer affair as Australia emerged with a 2-0 victory to claim the Oceania Cup.Australia and New

Zealand were two of the three nations competing at the continental event, with Papua New Guinea completing

for their success as first-half goals from Jane Claxton and Kristina Bates proved enough to edge past New

Malaysia surged to the top of Pool B at the men's Asia Hockey Cup as they claimed an impressive 2-1 victory over defending champions South Korea in Dhaka.

Australia and New Zealand are set to contest the men's and women's finals at the Oceania Cup in Sydney

©Hockey New ZealandIn the other match in the Pool, China defeated Oman by the same scoreline to keep

place.New Zealand were in rampant form as they set up a meeting with arch-rivals Australia in the final

Zealand have already qualified.Papua New Guinea were the only team who could book their ticket to Bhubaneswar

through the Oceania route but their crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand ended their faint hopes.The

A Paralympic Winter sports development workshop has been held in South Korea as part of preparations for Pyeongchang 2018.

These women are so excited to come and learn a new sport and get more involved in a winter Paralympic

cross-country coaching course from Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Georgia, Iran, Italy, New

Zealand and Serbia."

No members of the All Blacks are expected to feature in New Zealand's team for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth

New Zealand's coach Clark Laidlaw made the assertion that players from the 15s format of rugby would

seeking to transfer to the shorter format.This included Sonny Bill Williams, who was a member of the New

Zealand teams which triumphed at the last two editions of the Rugby World Cup.New Zealand suffered a

Zealand."

Laidlaw made the comments as the New Zealand team confirmed their newly centralised sevens programme,

Hosts Australia claimed victories in both the men’s and women’s Oceania Cup tournaments to ensure themselves of a place in the final at the Sydney Olympic Park.

Their women’s team were making their first appearance of the tournament, with New Zealand having thrashed

Papua New Guinea yesterday.Australia proved equally untroubled by Papua New Guinea, cruising to a comfortable

23-0 win in front of their home crowd.The result guarantees Australia will meet New Zealand in the gold

Zealand having already qualified, the place was awarded to Ireland following their seventh place at

Guinea by defeating New Zealand.Jeremy Hayward scored twice as Australia secured a 5-1 victory.New Zealand

India have been eliminated from the FIFA Under-17 World Cup on home soil following a 4-0 defeat to Ghana in their final Group A match today.

captain Eric Ayiah and strikes from Richard Danso and Emmanuel Toku at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New

from the edge of the area.Mali secured their spot in the round of 16 after an assured 3-1 victory over New

Zealand in New Delhi.Today result sees them finish second behind Paraguay, while New Zealand miss

corner of the net.Substitute Charles Spragg headed home an Elijah Just cross to halve the deficit for New

Zealand on 72 minutes.However, any hopes that the Oceania side had of a comeback ended ten minutes later

Ireland will make their test cricket debut on home soil against Pakistan in May 2018.

countries agreed to face each other during the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting in Auckland, New

Zealand, today.Ireland and Afghanistan were given test status in June when they became the 11th and

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Diane Modahl has said she is "tired of the cynicism" surrounding athletics and insists that is the reason why she became brand ambassador for the sport’s European governing body’s "I Run Clean" platform.

English athlete, who topped the women’s 800 metres podium at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland in New

Zealand, was speaking here at an "I Run Clean" workshop on day one of the European Athletics Convention

India and Pakistan enjoyed comfortable victories as the men's Asia Cup began in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka.

ImagesAustralia began the Oceania Cup with a convincing win in their men’s tournament against Papua New

the first men’s match of the competition in front of their home fans at the Sydney Olympic Park.Papua New

Guinea also suffered a heavy 33-0 loss to New Zealand in the women’s tournament.Three teams - hosts

Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea - have entered the men's and women's tournaments.Action is

due to continue tomorrow when Australia meet New Zealand in the men’s event and the hosts will take

International Federation (RLIF) has announced that its chief executive David Collier will not be seeking a new

Board for 10 years until 2014.This year's Rugby League World Cup is due to take place in Australia, New

Zealand and Papua New Guinea between October 26 and December 2.The 2021 edition of the event has been

England held off a late fightback from Mexico to secure their place in the last 16 of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in India.

17 minutes from time before France saw out their second win of the tournament.Honduras put five past New

last 16.The event in India is due to continue tomorrow with another four matches.Mali take on New

Zealand and Turkey play Paraguay in Group B before Ghana entertain hosts India and the United States

The Netherlands' Tom van Steenis and Ruben Penninga claimed a straight sets win to move into the main draw of the men's competition at the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) Beach World Tour Qinzhou Open.

Quentin Metral and Simon Hagenbuch of Switzerland rallied from one set down to beat New Zealand’s Sonny

to the main draw of the women's event ©FIVBIn the women's tournament, Alice Bain and Julia Tilley of New

Zealand secured their first main draw appearance at a FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour three-star event

Canadian duo Amanda Harnett and Sophie Bukovec 21-12, 21-11.The event in Qinzhou is the second in the new

Zak Hardaker will miss this year's Rugby League World Cup after testing positive for cocaine. 

 This year's Rugby League World Cup is due to take place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New

US Open title defence come to an end at the second round stage as the French star was beaten by New

quarter-final spot, but the match was thrown back into the balance when King clinched the fourth game.The New

Zealand star eventually battled to a narrow victory in the final game, clinching a dramatic 11-5, 4-

will be rewarded with a quarter-final tie against Egypt’s Omar Mosaad, a 12-10, 11-8, 11-8 victor over New