Sports Shorts: Biles does the 'triple double'

Olympic champion Simone Biles on Sunday, capped her record-tying sixth national all-around title with a never-before-seen "triple-double" floor exercise landing -- a finale featuring two flips and three twists at the US gymnastics championships.

Biles became the first woman in nearly 70 years to capture six US senior women’s all-around gymnastics titles -- matching Clara Schroth Lomady, who won her sixth in 1952.

Biles marked the occasion by becoming the first woman to attempt and land a triple-twisting, double back maneuver during her floor routine.

Bile was, however, not quite content even with that unprecedented move.

“It was a lot better. It wasn’t as good as in some of the trainings,” Biles told reporters.

“I’m just happy that I landed it because I feel like after night one my confidence got shot down. So I was really worried about it going into today, that’s all I could worry about. So I was really happy.”

Four-times Olympic gold medalist Biles, who will head to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as the prohibitive favorite, finished with a total score of 118.500 to beat Sunisa Lee (113.550) and Grace McCallum (111.850).

“I feel like each (title) gets better and better,” she said.

“Because it’s like the fifth and, then, the sixth, so it just keeps getting more exciting.”

Semenya says she never felt supported by other women

Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya, who has been locked in a battle over her testosterone levels with athletics authorities, said that she has not felt supported by other women in sport.

The South African athlete will not be able to defend her 800-metres title at the world championships in September after the Swiss Federal Tribunal reversed a ruling that temporarily lifted testosterone regulations imposed on her.

“Since I have been in sport I have never really felt very supported, I’ve never felt recognised mostly by women,” said Semenya during a women’s conference in Johannesburg where she was the headline speaker.

Semenya is appealing the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) ruling that supported regulations introduced by the sport’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

These say that XY chromosome athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) can race in distances from 400m to a mile only if they take medication to reach a reduced testosterone level.

Despite the IAAF receiving support from some current and former athletes, the decision to reduce testosterone levels in women’s athletics has also attracted criticism from human rights organisations. The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution in support of Semenya in March.

IWF provisionally suspends five Russian lifters

Five Russian weightlifters have been provisionally suspended for potential doping violations based on data retrieved from a Moscow laboratory, the sport's governing body has said.

The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) said it suspended the athletes "in view of the severity of the asserted anti-doping rule violations and compelling nature of the evidence" it received from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The five suspended athletes are 2012 Olympics bronze medallist Ruslan Albegov, 2013 women's world champion Tima Turieva, David Bedzhanyan, Oleg Chen and Egor Klimonov.

"The IWF regrets these additional cases of doping in our sport from some years ago," IWF President Tamas Ajan said in a statement.

"We note without any satisfaction that weightlifting was far from the only sport to have been affected by the extensive and historical Russian doping revealed by whistleblowers, the media and WADA.

"We can be satisfied, however, that the IWF has shown once again our determination to protect clean sport and promote clean athletes. We have not shown any hesitation in taking the right decisions."